Go on a Family Bike Ride or Walk
It’s easy to neglect exercise when staying home but make it a full family activity and suddenly it doesn’t seem like exercise. If parks are closed in your area, you can walk or bike around the neighborhood or through town. Just keep maintaining that six-foot distance from strangers you encounter along your path and avoid places with a lot of surfaces to touch like playgrounds. The more ventilated an area, the lower the risk of transmission.
Play a Game of Backyard Kickball
A popular pastime of the 90s, kickball is a game for all ages and truly brings out the competitive spirit of some family members. Split the family into two teams and make a rough field in your yard. The bases don’t have to be anything fancy; a paper plate will do just fine.
Decorate Cookies
Cookie decorating doesn’t have to be just a winter activity. Make it fall themed by making the cookies into pumpkin or leaf shapes.
Plan A Scavenger Hunt
Depending on how elaborate you want to be a scavenger hunt can be an all-day activity. If you’re a planner, hide things around the house and yard and plan clues for your kiddos to find them. Want a lower maintenance activity? Make a list of commonly found items: 5 pennies, 10 rocks, a picture of a bird, bark from a tree, etc. You can really make this shine with a theme for fall.
Bring the Movies Home
It may not be safe to go to the movies right now, but you can bring it to life at home. Set-up a snack bar with popcorn and candy, set-up comfy seating, and dim the lights. It’ll feel like your own private movie theater before you know it. Make it a movie marathon with a theme or vote on a movie that everyone wants to see.
Host A Board Game Tournament
Pick a few family favorite board games and make it a week-long tournament. The winner gets to choose the next activity for the family. Make it fair by picking board games of varying difficulty levels and that everyone enjoys. You can increase the excitement by keeping score on a poster board in a main part of the house.
Camp Out or Camp In
Changing up your environment can make anything an adventure. Set-up a tent in the backyard or make a blanket fort in the living room and have the whole family camp out together. Make smores, sing campfire songs, and really embrace the camping aesthetic. There’s plenty of camp-themed movies to watch in your blanket fort too!
Start A Reading Challenge
Get everyone involved in a reading challenge: the more books you read the more points you acquire. Make sure no one’s cheating by reading below their reading level and make sure you’re involved in it as well! Set aside a certain time every day that everyone needs to focus on the reading challenge. You’ll probably lose but you’ll enjoy your quiet reading time as well.
Go Fish
Literally: go fishing. A very popular solitary activity, fishing can be tons of fun for the whole family without needing to interact with anyone else. Make sure you check to see if local parks are open for fishing and keep your distance from any other fishermen.
Plant A Garden
Get your hands dirty with a family garden. Let the kids pick out their favorite vegetables (or maybe you’ll have to pick it for them 😉), research what’s in season in your area and get to planting!
Host A Family Olympics
This is an idea for larger families but even a family of four can pull it off. Split into teams and come up with a list of activities. Make sure there are a wide range of activities so that every member of the family can excel at something. Maybe there’s an obstacle course that’s easiest for toddlers to get through. Maybe there’s a basketball free throw shootout that your son is bound to excel in. Make it interesting with rewards for gold, silver, and bronze!
Teach Your Own Masterchef Jr.
Kids are a lot more capable than we give them credit for and cooking doesn’t need to be an adults-only activity. For toddlers, simple things like mixing can be amazing fun but for older kids let them mash the potatoes or measure the ingredients. After all, cooking teaches children science and math in a new and creative way.
Visit a Virtual Museum
There are tons of international museums that are offering virtual tours right now from the Louvre to the Guggenheim. For younger kids, though, they may be more interested in the Boston Children’s Museum or the dinosaur exhibits at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Make it a bonding experience by inviting friends and family you haven’t seen in a while to tour the museum with you virtually.
Make A Time Capsule
This is a year to remember and there’s nothing like making a time capsule to build some memories. Maybe your kids will choose to put a mask in the time capsule or some hand sanitizer. Have a grand ceremony to bury it and set a date far in the future to dig it up. Maybe one day, your kids will have kids of their own to show the capsule to!
Host A Virtual Sleepover
Your kids are probably missing their friends more than ever right now so why not set-up a virtual hangout for them to catch-up. Zoom now has parental controls to let you ensure it’s a private meeting room or you can host a Netflix Watch Party where you pick the movie and let their friends join in as well. It’s an easy way to stay in touch without the “touch” part.