How To Keep Kids Busy While Social Distancing

Right now we are staying at home. Not just to protect ourselves from Covid-19, but to protect others are well. Keeping a 5 year old busy all day every day has been tough, so I wanted to share some ideas of things you could do with your kids to keep everyone sane and happy during social distancing. The ideal activities to keep your kids busy at home is going to highly depend on their age and preference. Some love to do artwork and crafting, while others just aren’t interested. (Let’s be real, some moms just don’t love it so therefore it’s not happening, ha!)

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On top of already trying to figure out fun and interesting new games and learning techniques, social distancing makes this a little more tricky. You can’t get out to get the supplies you need, and you can’t use the park or other play areas as an option. 

There are some options below to help you keep the kids busy without needing a truckload of supplies or venturing out when you can’t: 

Crafting Ideas 

 Here are a few of the crafts that may keep the kids busy through this difficult time: 

• Make Paper Airplanes- You could have a paper airplane competition, have look at different designs online, decorate them how they want and then see how well they fly through the air. 
• Make A Bookmark- If you’re children like reading or you want to encourage them to read more you could sit down and create a personalized bookmark or two.  
• Build A Family Tree- Whether you do it on paper or choose a plain wall in the house, creating a family tree gives your children the opportunity to learn about their history. You could print out pictures of all the family members and stick them on the branches and tell stories about the different members of your family. 
• Do Some Rock Painting – Most families will have some stones or rocks in the yard, so why not paint a few and place them in a rock bed or around your yard or porch. 
• Create A Floor Road Map – If your kids like to play with cars then you could create a road map on the floor using masking tape, you could even use other toys as landmarks and build mini-towns with toy characters. 

Exercise Ideas 

If you’re worried about keeping your kids active through this time, you are going to want some way to keep them moving and away from the screens. Some fun ideas include: 

• Create A Choreography Challenge – Why don’t you work together to build a dance routine and see who can come up with this best one. You could all vote on which you liked most. 
• The Floor Is Lava Game – This game is extremely popular with kids. Even big kids love to get involved. Layout some cushions and blankets and see if you can make you’re way around the room without touching the floor. Emma Kate LOVES doing this!
• Circuit Training Made Fun- Draw a few pictures of different activities and place them around the room, around the house or yard. The children then need to go around the different pictures and do the activity. See how many pictures they can complete.

Other Ideas 

Some other ideas to do with the kids include: 

• Organize The Toys – This might not seem fun but your children will actually enjoy sorting through their toys, it will give them the opportunity to dig out old toys that they’ve not played with for a while. We did this yesterday!
• Do Some Quizzes- Quizzes are a great way to keep your’s and your children’s mind ticking while you are stuck at home. Try some topics such as Disney kids trivia questions, general knowledge or school-related questions. You could even have prizes!
• Sort Through Some Pictures- This is a great way to spend some time together to look back on special occasions and holidays together. You could even make a photo book or album from some of them for your children to keep.

These are just a few ideas to help you through this uncertain time while social distancing. Do you have any other ideas or activities that you have planned that you could share in the comments below?