So you’re stuck at home with your kids for at LEAST the next two (3, 4, 5) weeks, right? Some of you may be in quarantine, and some of you might just be stuck at home with nowhere to go. Either way, we’re all just doing what we can to “flatten the curve”. It’s our job to be a little uncomfortable to help lower the contagion rate of this terrible Coronavirus.
So while we do our due diligence to stay healthy and to stop this viral infection, we have to go back to the “olden days”. The days when parents played with their kids all day. I know, sounds insane. But here are some great things to do with your kids while you’re stuck at home!
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Virtual Subscriptions (many are free right now):
Walder Science is offering daily STEM activities to do with your kids at home. They all have worksheets, a science concept and a science experiment that you can do with your children.
Days 3/23 and 3/24 in the Daily STEM are especially great science experiments for young kids. I can’t wait to do it with my next week.
Goldfish Swim School is one of our favorite extracurricular activities, and I am excited to share that they are offering multiple printables to do at home with kiddos! They also have extensive ideas of things to do during bathtime to keep your kiddos acclimated to the pool during this break from lessons! Genius!
KiwiCo is a monthly crate subscription that comes with all the necessary supplies for an educational and engaging project for all different ages!
30% off with code Share30
Othergoose is a subscription for homeschooling lesson plans for ages 2-7. They’re offering their services for FREE for the next 3 weeks (beginning 3/12/2020).
Jam With Jamie is now offering Virtual Jam Sessions!
Sara Younger from Playland Parties is going to be hosting virtual activities for kids in different age groups via Zoom. Click this link to get the Zoom Logins. Ages 6+ at 9:30 AM EST, Preschool Party at 1:00 PM EST (we’ll be here!), Workout Dance Party for 10+ at 7:30 PM EST.
Sing Along Learning with Morah Ornit is a new group to me, but she will be doing FB lives with activities and learning for little kids.
Scholastic is offering FREE resources for all different ages.
Cosmic Kids Yoga is an awesome Youtube channel for kids to get them moving and introduce them to yoga in a super fun and engaging way. My kids LOVE it.
The Cincinatti Zoo is offering virtual “Home Safaris”, featuring different animals at the zoo, everyday at 3 PM EST!
GoNoodle will get you moving in a fun and educational way!
Chinuch.org is your go-to for all things Jewish learning, especially with Passover coming, I’ll be using this!
Jewish Homeschool Blog has SO MANY awesome Jewish printables for parsha, Pesach, aleph beis and more!
Children’s Museum of Manhattan is offering virtual activities 5 days a week, with a different theme each day! Welcome to “CMOM at Home”.
Educational / STEM activities and toys:
Magnatiles are always a winner at our house. They’re large enough so I can give them to a baby to hold and chew on, but as my kids get older, they seem to find more and more things to build with them. This time of extreme closeness with our families might call for some Magnatiles “extras” — like these domes or these 3D cubes.
A white board tabletop easel or a magnadoodle are great ways to continue writing education while school is out of session. My kids love these, and the magnadoodles double as travel toys too!
Spark Innovations creates educational games for therapists, teachers and parents. We love their original Sequencing Cards, but they just came out with a Community Helper Matching Game — just in time for quarantine!
We love our LeapPad Fridge Phonics game. It’s a fantastic tool for kids learning the alphabet for the first time.
A book of Awesome Science Experiments to do with your kids.
Power to Choose Book series. They are excellent. We especially love the new What Would Darla Do?
Pearler Beadsseem to be a big hit with kids and parents alike!
Games for Toddlers and Little Kids:
And more…
Get Out the Energy Toys:
It’s so important to get everyone’s energy out! If you have a jungle gym, you are so lucky. If you don’t there are still plenty of indoor/outdoor toys that you can use to make things a little more fun for everyone.
Imagination:
Born Toys Costumes are fantastic dress-up costumes with real life accessories. We especially love the Cleaning Set. You can also get the Explorer Set and go on a scavenger hunt in your home. Or get to gardening!
If you don’t have a play kitchen — now’s the time!
This play tent is on sale!
Get your talkative toddler a digital voice recorder. You will never regret this decision.
Arts & Crafts:
You can never have too many art supplies. Here are some of our favorites for little kids.
5 Easy Slime Recipes for Kids
Pom-Pom Bunnies
Wax Resist Eggs
DIY Projects: Recycled Crayon Suncatchers
I’ll continue to update this, especially as we get closer to Passover, with Pesach educational things to do with kids as well!
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I hope this was super helpful, and gave you some good ideas of activities to do with your kids now or on a rainy day! Stay healthy everyone! If you have any other ideas, please share in the comments so we can learn from each other. Let’s kick this Coronavirus. xo
Such great stuff here!!!
I hope it’s helpful!! Good luck!