Want some fun and free things to do with your kids, that we loved doing when our kids were younger? And yes, they are all simple ideas that don’t really cost anything other than your time! Most of the ideas below are stay-at-home kid games, so you don’t even have to leave your house to have fun!
Maybe you are asking yourself “what can I do for fun with my kids”? You’re looking for ways to spend time playing with your kids, but you’re not coming up with many ideas. Or possibly you’re left with questions of “how” or “what” to play with them?
Your kids will love the time you spend with them, and they will love playing as well! Be a FUN parent; take time to play and laugh with your kids.
The years go by so quickly, so choose to make the most of them, and have fun ON PURPOSE.
Choose a little toy to hide, and show it to the kids. (we used a Fisher-Price little person) Have them all go into the other room, while you hide it in the family room. When you’re done, call them in to find it.
The first one who sees it calls out, “Huckle-buckle-beanstalk!”. The one who
found it then gets to hide it.
Roll matched socks up in a ball, choose teams, and fire away.
I have them all go upstairs, and while they aren’t able to watch, I hide a list of items throughout the downstairs rooms.
I call the kids down when I’m done, give them the list, and they go hunting to find the items.
They don’t say anything when they find an item but check it off on their list. That way it doesn’t spoil the fun for those who are still looking.
Hide clues around the house that will take them to a treasure. My kids always loved this, and often the older ones would do it for the younger ones after I had planned one for them.
All of the ideas on this list can be adjusted to meet different ages, but the following ones may be the MOST applicable to all ages.
Line up 5 bowls with the biggest one closest to the starting line, and the smallest one farthest away. They get five points for getting it in the smallest bowl, 4 for the next one, etc.
Have them stand at the line, and give them 3 bean bags to try to toss in the bowls. (You can keep score for several rounds, or if the kids are younger, don’t even keep score – just have fun!)
Give your child 20 pennies, and they put a penny in the cup for each question they ask. They try to figure out who the person is by the questions: is the person still alive? male or female? etc.
The goal is to guess the person with 20 or fewer questions.
Stand up empty 2-liter pop bottles (or 20 oz), mark a line to stand behind, and “bowl” a kid-size ball at them.
Play music (or for us, I’d play the piano) while the kids march around a certain path over and over. (Around the island to office, to the living room, to the hall, back to around island – this was a big circle they could go round and round)
When the music stops, everyone has to freeze. Whoever is in the designated “out” spot, is then eliminated from the game.
Play till only one child is left. Start again with a different spot being OUT.
Get several different size plastic bowls & lids from the kitchen. Put them all in a bag, and have the kids take turns seeing who can get the lids & bowls matched up & put on the fastest. (we used empty prescription bottles, empty cottage cheese or sour cream containers, and different sizes of storage containers)
Fun and free bonus idea: Teach character lessons that include games & role-playing to make it fun! To help you with that, here is a week of free character lessons that your kids will love!
19 Responses
Your style is very unique in comparison to other folks I have
read stuff from. I appreciate you for posting when you’ve got the opportunity, Guess I’ll just bookmark this blog.
adreamoftrains website hosting
Thanks Sarah!
We spice up all our indoor activities by having an audiobook play in the background. We have them on when the kids are playing, cooking, relaxing… whatever. There’s lots of great sites to get them, but we use this site a lot because all the stories are free and original. Here’s the link if anyone is interested. http://www.twirlygirlshop.com/moral-stories-for-kids
Fun, fun! Just what a granny needs. 🙂
Hey, there!! Thanks for sharing your post over at Mama Moments Mondays! Your post made the Top 3 most visited, so be on the lookout as I share your post on FB and help yourself to a featured button. 🙂
Lots of great ideas! They’re all so simple to set up and don’t require much preparation either.
Thanks for linking these up at Motivation Monday! Hope to see you next week.
Oh, I forgot about flashlight tag. I remember doing that with the kids when we were visiting my parents for a few days. They had a big country house, and lots of land. Looking back, it was kind of creepy to go too far from the house – you never knew what critters might be lurking. But we all loved it!
Sometimes it can be such a simple silly thing, but the kids love it. Just to do something different with Mom and the siblings that’s fun can help on those “cooped up too long” days/weeks!
Glad you liked them. This is the time of year when I think most kids (and MOMS!) start getting cabin fever, and have to do something to keep things under control. 🙂
Love these ideas! Thanks. 🙂 I was just trying to think of things after a snow storm.
Such wonderful ideas!! It’s been raining so much here that I am running out of ideas to keep us all sane until we can go outside again.
Thanks for the great ideas!
This is a great list! We also used to do bowling, scavenger hunts and sock fights. As well as flashlight tag.
Once we took some yarn and made a giant cobwebby like maze for them to go over and under and through. They loved it! We also had fun blindfolding them and seeing who could pick up the most cotton balls with a spoon. It was funny watching them scoop up nothing, lol!
Thank you for linking up to Making Your Home Sing Monday!
Monica, thank you! I will try to remember to get to your link up party & join in. 🙂
Thanks Kaye!
Hi, I popped over from Faith-filled Friday and enjoyed this post. Will be sharing it at Facebook to give other grandparents some fun activities for them and their grandkids. Thank you.
These are GREAT Ideas. Following from the HOP hope you can follow back 😉 https://www.facebook.com/HappyAndBlessedHome Monica
http://happyandblessedhome.com
PS I do a Friday Linky party if you want to link up! These ideas would be perfect for my friends – mostly MOPS moms.
http://happyandblessedhome.com/category/family-fun/
I found your post from the finding joy link up. I love the suggestions – I think my boys will especially like the sock fight. We have a one year old, too, and she would love participating! Thank you for the great ideas. I will join you on facebook and twitter.
Hi again,
I was thinking I’d like to feature this post at next week’s party. If you’d like me to, please add a button or text link linking back to my page. Thanks so much! 🙂
Blessings,
Mrs. Sarah Coller
Oh, these are GREAT ideas! Thank you…pinning! Thanks for linking up 🙂