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Kids are home from school and you’re trying to adjust to the new normal in the Coronavirus age (don’t miss our handy-dandy guide about how to keep kids busy and yourself safe and sane). We have revised our ever-so-popular list of Top 50 things to do for a snow day and adapted it to being home all day with your cherubs. Be sure to share your favorites as well!
Be sure to also check-out 125+ ideas for online learning and fun for kids of all ages.
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How to Keep Kids Entertained During COVID-19
These 12 famous museums–from London to Seoul–offer virtual tours you can take on your couch.
Set up a backyard Zip Line with this affordable and safe kit.
Calm yourselves with mindfulness meditation. Check-out the Moodpath app to track moods, Headspace and Calm for meditation.
Start a garden. Square Foot Gardening with Kids helps kids learn gardening basics and also water conservation, science and math and healthy eating.
Practice multiplication and script with your kids. We also recommend the Denver-based Elephant Learning app where they guarantee you’ll learn 1 year of math in 3 months..and have fun doing it.
Build a fort with blankets or cardboard boxes.
Delete all of the expletive-laden “music” from your teenager’s Spotify playlist on the family computer, while she’s not looking.
Sure, everyone is getting a dog but why not get chickens (check with your HOA first). A Kid’s Guide to Keeping Chickens is a great place to start.
Make time for active play. Bring out the blocks, balls, jump ropes and buckets and let the creativity go.
Wash the floors by hand. Or use a toothbrush.
Slacklines suck (from someone who can’t do them). Except for Joymor’s easy-peasy kid slackline that gives them a way to balance.
Do that mending and ironing you’ve been putting off since 2004.
Groom the dog. Then suck all the fur off your couch.
Make freeze-ahead dinners. The ones you wish you had right now.
Make giant bubbles. There are plenty of great recipes on Pinterest or check out this WOWMAZING Giant Bubble Bubble Wand Kit.
Make mazes or puzzles for each other to solve.
Shred your pile of old documents. Better yet, multitask. Use them to light up the fireplace.
Change the batteries in the smoke detectors, since you forgot during Fall Back.
Find all the lids to the Tupperware.
Make homemade mini pizzas.
Download an app and learn how to edit videos.
Two words: Pogo Stick. What could go wrong? P.S. They make them a lot safer than when we were kids.
Call your elderly neighbors and see what you can do to help. Make happy notes and leave them on their door.
Play Monopoly with the rules that make the game go slower.
Go through your junk drawer. Do not be afraid.
Create a treasure hunt for them (leaving clues around the house or yard).
Speaking of yard, why not put them to work with this darling Garden Tool Set Kit that includes a rake, spade, hoe and leaf rake?
Maintain a sense of hope and positive thinking; consider keeping a journal where you write down things you are grateful for or that are going well.
Clean your silverware and jewelry. Alternatively, pine for silverware and jewelry worth cleaning.
Sort mementos into keep and toss piles. Spend time poring over the keepers—after all, that’s why you’re keeping them.
Try to eat healthy, well-balanced meals, exercise regularly, get plenty of sleep and avoid alcohol and drugs.
We love Denver-based Steve Spangler. Check-out his 10-minute Science Experiments (50 of them) that are guaranteed to not blow up your house.
Make a master calendar for gift-giving dates. Shop ahead online. Or for yourself. Pretend there are sales.
Make a list of all the things you love about your significant other for a card or scrapbook. Make stuff up if you have to.
Put on your fanciest dress-up clothes, evening dress and jewelry and pretend you’re in an old movie.
Scan old photos and make a photo book. Then force the kids to look at pictures of their parents when they were little.
Do your taxes! April 15 only feels far off.
Update your resume. Hey, it’s better than doing it at work and leaving it in the copying machine.
Go through clothes (for you and your children) in drawers and closets. Try on and toss.
Upload your CDs, finally. Now, this may be difficult: Toss the CDs and the CD player.
Pitch a tent inside and have a family campout.
Make bird feeders.
Take out all the beach chairs, umbrellas and boogie boards and make a beach day in your living room.
Google yourself.
Create a schedule for your day – but don’t put too much pressure on yourself to stick to it.
Make fun decorations for Easter and decorate the house with them.
Collect all the pennies from the corners of the house, coat pockets, sofa cushions, jeans in the laundry. Maybe you’ll have enough for a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Then again, maybe not.
Write a letter. You know the kind, with pen and paper.
Make snowflakes out of paper. Tape them to your windows to block out the white piles outside.
Encourage young minds to be curious about the natural world and be interested in Science by getting a kids microscope. You can easily get samples to observe from your backyard or kitchen.
Teach haiku—five, seven, five—and make a book of illustrated snow haiku.
Create airfare alerts for deals to your dream destinations.
Play this fun game with your kids: Let’s Clean the Bathroom!
Do shadow puppets in the dark. If you want the real thing, Melissa & Doug Safari Buddies Hand Puppets are darling.
Play family-friendly spin the bottle with your chore list. Hope it doesn’t point to you when it’s time to clean toilets.
Mani-pedi, scrub or mask, deep condition. You choose the body parts.
Learn to juggle.
Bubble bath. Turn down the lights, light a candle and pretend you’re in a spa. Doesn’t do it for you? It’s not completely impossible that a real one is open.
Experiment all day on devising the ultimate chocolate chip cookie. Tasting mandatory. My favorite is Martha Stewart’s Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Begin your memoirs.
Make a comic book.
Take pictures of all your belongings to inventory for insurance. Now do a written inventory.
Sleep. Glorious sleep.
Have a reading or movie marathon.
Take turns saying tongue twisters.
Send messages to your friends and relatives with your favorite memories with them.
Build paper airplanes and have a flying contest.
-Adapted from Leann Italie’s original article