Keeping kids busy at home can be challenging, especially if you want to ensure that they’re continuing to learn as well. Here are some simple activities that you can do at home with your little ones.
Hands on Alphabet Ideas
If you’d like to practice the alphabet with your little ones, you can easily use items around your house like buttons, markers, crayons, or small animals. Toy cars or legos are a great option as well! If you’re not sure where to start, start with the letters in your little one’s name You can simply write bubble letters on a piece of scrap paper. I used alphabet sheets from this dabber pack, if you just want to print and go.
From there, you can use sticky notes or just scraps of paper to have your little one match letters (or here we were doing letter sounds) on the posters.
Since we were working on letter sounds, we used objects from around the house to remind us what sound each letter makes. S-spider, R- red (Elmo), and O-otoscope (say ah!)
And, we’re not done! You can also stick sticky notes around the house and have your little one find them and sort them on the posters. After that, we also rolled on a dry erase die (you could write them on slips of paper and put in a cup) and mark each time she got that letter. Last, we looked for each letter in books!
These activities were done over many days, were fun and simple!
Bake, Chop, and Help with Meals
One thing that kids always love is helping in the kitchen. Home learning is a great opportunity to let them do it! It’s fun, it teaches important life skills, and it can actually be helpful (as long as you can accept that it might be a little messy). Here we make a simple chocolate cake together (free recipe here). This simple cake uses very few ingredients and no eggs, so it’s perfect for times you’re stuck home.
Did you know you can easily make nut butter out of almost any kind of nut? We had a bunch of walnuts in the pantry, so we made this simple recipe, and it’s been a hit. (We added maple syrup for sweetness.)
In addition, we’ve made banana bread, muffins, and cookies. My little ones are also great at adding ingredients into the bowl, mixing, setting and clearing the table. Anything you are willing to let them help with will keep them busy, and teach them important life skills.
Read and Read and Read Some More
If you have any childrens books in your house, read with your children. If you’re only able to do one home learning activity, reading is it! Give them a stack of books to read on their own. Even if they’re just looking at pictures, they’re still practicing important literacy skills. If they have a hard time looking at books on their own, start with just 5 minutes at a time, and work your way up.
Even if you only have a few books, you can read them over and over. If you read them enough times, they might actually memorize the words which will make it even more fun when they read by themselves!
If you don’t have access to a lot of childrens books, or you just want more, Vooks.com is an fantastic option. Vooks has a huge selection of animated story books that your children can listen to. It’s very easy to navigate and they offer the first month for free! (Or, these digital decodables are a great option as well.)
Water Play: Recycled Boat Project
Any form of water play is typically a hit with my preschool and kindergartener. Simply fill up a bin with water, give them cups, spoons, and small animals and people, and it will keep them busy for a good hour! This activity is a little more structured, but was a hit and led to a good hour of play afterwards. First, we watched this video on buoyancy. Then, I took items from out recycling bin, and had the kids each make their own boat. I helped the 3 year old, but my 5 year old basically did it on her own. Then, I filled a bin with water (you could even do it in the bathtub!) and we tested them out. After we saw they they floated, they wanted to see if they would hold lego people, so we tested that as well. Then, I gave them more lego people, cups, spoons, and a few other little toys, and they played for a good hour while I made dinner.
Recycled Instrument
Here’s another fun project with recycled items. We made a drum set! You could make lots of different instruments like a guitar or maracas as well. Creating the drum set took some planning and assembling, and then they enjoyed making music for a while as well.
Make a Tent
Another option to spark some pretend play (and hopefully a break for you) is to make a tent! You can do this with a sheet or blanket over chairs or a table. If you have flashlights, that can add o the fun. Here, my daughter decided to make her own fake campfire with toilet paper rolls, construction paper, and a lantern.
Get Creative
Sometimes the best activity is not very structured. One of my kids’ favorite activities is to make whatever they want from our random art supplies. Give your kids tape, glue, popsicle sticks, googly eyes- whatever you have on hand and let them go nuts! You’ll be surprised with how creative they can be.
Mo Willems Lunch Doodles
Mo Willems, author of the Elephant and Piggie and Pigeon books, is currently doing a “Lunch Doodle” video every day of the week (M-F). He shares some about his process and invites kids to doodle with him! They’re about 30 minutes long, and my kids really enjoy them.
Sam Cam Dance Studio on Youtube has free kids dance class videos. They’re very fun and engaging, and there are multiple styles of dance. There’s even a Frozen themed dance video here. They keep both of my girls attention the whole time.
Ideas that Rock
I painted 20 rocks- 10 pink and 10 purple- for my daughter’s favorite color. Then I numbered them 1-10. I had each of them take turns hiding the others’ rocks in the backyard, and then having them find them. Then, they switched! Be sure to tell them to hide them places that the other one can reach, and to hid them with the paint facing up. Once they were done, we brought them inside and lined them up in order. Then, I gave them lego people and had them show each number. You could do this with buttons, more rocks, beads, mini erasers- whatever you have on hand!
The next day, we used our rocks again for a fun game outside to get their energy out. I placed each of their pile of rocks at the bottom of a hill in our yard. Then, I took some plan rocks and lined them up at the top of the hill. I told them they were medieval queens. They’re castle wall was destroyed, and only the bottom layer remained. They had to go get the magic, indestructible rocks from the bottom of the hill and bring them up to rebuild their wall. The catch? The magic rocks were SO heavy they they could only bring one up at a time. (Because my goal was to tired them out and have them make 10 trips up and down the hill.) It was a great way to get them outside and moving!
Get Outside
Nature is such a wonderful classroom. Another great way to keep kids busy and learning is to send them outside! If you’re able to, send them in the backyard to explore. I often send my girls out with a magnifying glass, or encourage them to dig in the dirt and look for bugs. If you don’t have a yard, you can go for walks or bike rides together as a family.
Color Hunt
This could work in your own backyard or even in your house, but a simple activity for a walk (or in our case a bike ride) is a color hunt! I simply colored circles of the colors of the rainbow on one side of a notebook. And we rode around, they checked off every time they saw something of that color. (Pro tip: give them a crayon to check off instead of a pencil. If it breaks, they can still write.)
Cutting Practice
Scissor skills are very important for fine motor strength, and they’re a great way to keep kiddos busy. We love this cutting book from Melissa and Doug, but you can also just give little ones scrap paper and tell them to go nuts!
Science Experiments
There are tons of great science experiments on Pinterest and Youtube, but here’s a very simple one that my kids enjoyed! First, we watched this Youtube video from Crash Course Kids. Next, we tried the experiment, which they try in the video. It required very few materials. Bonus, when we were done, we had a balloon to bop around for a while.
Hands On Math Fun for At Home Learning
Sorting items by color is a great early skill that kids can do on their own! Simple give them some small objects (or have them find them around the house) and have them group them by color. We used my sorting mats, but you can just draw boxes on paper, or give them small bins or baskets.
Practicing showing numbers is another great skill for early learners. A simple way to practice this at home is to attach a label to the top of a halved pipe cleaner. Write different numbers on them (we did 1-5) and then have your child slide beads on to show that number. After she finished, I also had her match the pipe cleaner to the lego stack with the same number.
Those pipe cleaners are also a great tool for working on counting on with addition! Write an addition sentence (for example 10+4) and have them start on the first number and then count on while sliding on 4 beads. I like to have my daughter write the addition sentence as well.
Again, legos are a great tool. We used them to show that 3+1 and 1+3 both equal 4! She could move around the legos to show that the addition sentences equaled the same thing. Of course, you could use any small object if you don’t have legos.
Learn about a New Topic
Lastly, if you’re learning at home, it’s a great time to ask your children what they want to learn about! If they’re interested in planets, animals, airplanes- whatever! The internet is full of articles and videos on just about any topic, so the the time to learn about things that interest your children.
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