1. Scavenger Hunt - Make a list of things around the house that they need to find: a hardcover book whose title starts with "The," a piece of fruit, a stuffed animal with stripes, a pair of earrings with blue in them, a striped sock, a t-shirt with words on it, a musical instrument, a scented candle. Go on a walk and give them a list of outdoor things to look for: a robin with something in its beak, someone walking a dog, a wreath on someone's door, an American flag, a blue car, a motorcycle, someone working in their garden, a purple flower. Tell them to go through the house and write down one thing they see that starts with every letter of the alphabet. Be creative!
2. Bake Something - Whether it's just slicing up a tube of pre-made cookie dough and throwing it in the oven or making your grandmother's super-secret, never-written-down recipe for apple tarte tatin, teach your kids how to bake something they love to eat.
3. Cook Something - Make a pot of soup, scramble some eggs, toast a grilled cheese sandwich. Choose a simple recipe and teach your kids how to cook, and especially how to taste and adjust flavors as they go along. If they already know the basics, teach them something more complicated, or even let them follow a recipe on their own. Help them plan and make an entire meal!
4. Laundry - It may seem like a chore to you, but it can be fun for kids to learn to do laundry. Nothing feels quite like burying your face in a load of freshly clean clothes, warm and fragrant from the dryer. Be sure they complete the process by organizing their drawers and closets, folding or hanging their clothes, and putting everything away neatly.
5. Board Games - Checkers, chess, Monopoly, Chutes and Ladders, Ticket to Ride, you know you have some kind of board game tucked away somewhere in the back of a closet or behind the couch. Pull one out, relearn it and teach your kids. Let them beat you now and then.
6. Organize Something - Take advantage of the free labor and get your kids to help you sort old family photos and stick them in an album (or scan them into an electronic album!), have them go through their clothes and bag up anything that no longer fits or that they don't wear, ask them to clean out their toybox and set aside anything with missing or broken pieces or that they've outgrown. Go through the attic and organize and re-label boxes.
7. Learn a Song - Let them teach you their favorite song, then find a karaoke track online and film you all singing it together. Teach them one of your favorites from your youth and do the same.
8. Make a Video - Help them to make a music video to a song they like, or film them acting out a story with their dolls, or telling each other silly jokes, or doing a magic trick, or simply explaining how to do something interesting that they know how to do. If they're too shy to be on camera, download a stop-motion movie app (here are some options, many free) and have them make a movie with action figures or stuffed animals.
9. Put on a Family Talent Show - Challenge everyone to come up with an act for a talent show, and put it on to entertain each other!
10. Explore a Cool Website - NASA's Space Place, Yellowstone Park National Tour, How Stuff Works, National Geographic Kids, Pottermore. Search for sites on whatever your kids think is cool.
11. Color - Pull out some crayons or markers, go online and print out some cool coloring pages, and get creative. Just Color has categories like Mandalas, Art, History & Stories, and Travels. You can find free downloads on various sites that are as simple or complicated as you like.
12. Listen to a Podcast - Search around for topics your kids enjoy. Try But Why?, This American Life, The Past and the Curious, The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel, or Tumble.
13. Listen to an Audiobook - Audible is streaming stories for kids for free as long as schools are closed. Lots of celebrities have posted videos of themselves reading kids' books (check out this site and this one). Listen to one of the kids' favorites or explore and find a new favorite. After they listen to the pros, have them practice reading out loud expressively.
14. Write a Story - ThinkWritten has a list of 300 storytelling prompts for kids. Have them read their stories aloud when they're done. If your kids like to draw, encourage them to add illustrations. If they aren't as artistically inclined, have them find appropriate illustrations online. They can type their stories into a document and add the pictures then print up the document and staple it together to form an actual book. Be sure to include a cover crediting them as the author!
15. Have a Video Chat with Friends and Family - If you haven't already, let your kids have a video chat with their friends or some family members (especially young ones). If they've done some of the creative projects above, let them show grandma or their cousins or their classmates their color pages or read them their stories or sing them their song. Zoom is a good service that has both free and paid levels (the free version is generally enough for this kind of thing - you get 40 minutes per session if there are 3 or more participants). It's very user-friendly.
Hopefully these ideas can get you started, but there is lots more out there, so think creatively and encourage your kids to come up with their own ideas!
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