Activities to Keep You & Your Family Occupied During Social Distancing

No distance between these two!! I’m so thankful they have each other during this time of social distancing.

Staying home is tough, especially with kids, and while it’s going to be a long couple of weeks, I want to make sure we’re doing our part to help flatten the curve. So… in we will stay. To be honest, I don’t mind being cooped up because at this stage in my pregnancy, I’m fine keeping my big belly and myself at home (in my husband’s clothing). I also can’t complain about the fact that it’s forcing me to slow down and truly enjoy the last couple of weeks we have as a family of four.

I’ve been turning to a lot of the social influencers I follow for new ideas on how to keep all of us occupied, and I stumbled upon a mom who had the brilliant idea of writing down various activities on little sheets of paper and having her child pick one activity a day. I love the thought of starting each day in excitement and letting the kids each pick something fun to do. This way, they feel like they have input and a little bit of control while being stuck inside. Sunday night, we came up with a bunch of activities as a family, wrote them all down, and yesterday, we chose our first two!! It went well and really helped break up our day.

Here are some of the activities we came up with, as well as some others I’ve received from friends and family if you’re looking for things to do at home. And I’ve linked some of my kid–friendly blog posts/recipes below too:

• Paint with watercolors (or any other type of paint you can get your hands on): We did this yesterday and used a big scroll of paper we had lying around the house
• Print free activity sheets online. There are so many to choose from!
• Make a fun recipe (buttermilk donuts with sprinkles, farm animal bagels, star-shaped hand pies, stove-top mac and cheese, giraffe bananas, rainbow yogurt bowls, Lucky Charms marshmallow treats, fish-shaped pizzas, or chick-in-egg pancakes)
• Attend a virtual music class with Miss Liz Music – we’ve attended her music classes in person and she is so great! She’s kindly posting virtual classes to her Facebook page
• My sister-in-law shared a link to the Cincinatti Zoo & Botanical Garden’s Facebook page where they’ll be posting live videos of different animals. Really cool!
• Bring out your big craft box from storage and look up specific crafts on Pinterest to make with what you have at home (some ideas I’ve posted recently on my blog include, DIY bunny ears, love bug finger puppets, beaded key chains and water color rainbows)
• A dress-up dance party. Grab some of your old clothes/jewelry and put them on the kids, or use dress-up clothes and throw a dance party in your living room
• Draw pictures and mail them to friends to brighten their day
• With everyone at home, find a fun breakfast recipe to make during the week. Our choice while we’re stuck inside is biscuits and gravy!
• Build towers/a kingdom with all of the blocks you have in your house
• Grab all of your cookie cutters, kitchen utensils and play with play dough. If you’re looking for a good recipe to make at home, we love Freut Cake’s recipe
• Bake cookies because we all need a little sweet in our lives right now!
• Watch a movie under a tent or in a teepee
• Have a bubble party in the bath. Use a ton of bubbles and have your kids grab some water-friendly toys they don’t normally play with in the bath
• Make your own pizza night
• Bust out the board games and if you’re able, do a board game exchange with friends (drop them without contact if you can, obviously)
• Put together a charcuterie board with all of the fun things you have in your fridge/pantry. The kids will love putting this together with you and will enjoy snacking on food together
• Go outside, but keep your distance from others!! Play with chalk, bubbles, take walks, ride bikes – all of the above. It’s been a cold couple of days here, but we’re hoping it will be warm tomorrow.

While all of these activities are fun to do with your kids, I also want to say, it’s okay to relax with your children too. Utilize those streaming services (hello Disney+!), let them play on their own or participate in quiet time. You’ll need a break too, and whether you decide to watch movies, partake in arts and crafts, or spend time outdoors, you’re doing an amazing job and you need to give yourself grace during this time!! We are going to be spending a ton of time with our kids these next couple of weeks and it’s impossible to keep them engaged 24/7. So please, remember that!

So many mamas are sharing activities out there, so scour the internet if you’re still in need of ways to keep your family occupied while inside! If you’re looking for some accounts that have great activities for littles, visit @themamanotes , @dayswithgrey and @amylouhawthorne’s Instagrams. These mamas have been my go-to for fun, creative activities for a long time now!!

Stay healthy, friends!! I’d love more ideas if you have them. Feel free to comment below with what you plan on doing with your children.