If all this time at home has you or your people going a little stir-crazy, we’ve compiled some resources to help. We’ll continue to update this page as suggestions come in, so check back frequently! Thanks to Kimberly Anderson, Kami Hammond, and Andrea Patterson for many of the ideas below!
Happy living, friends!
Resources for all ages:
Free resources from Crossway Books, including E-books, articles, podcasts, and devotionals
Free online courses from TGC on theology and life
Watch:
The Gray Havens live concert on March 26
“30 Edifying Things to Watch” from TGC
Homeward Bound – classic family movie
12 famous museums offering free online tours
Virtual tours of museums, zoos, national parks, the Great Wall of China, Mars, etc
Free online classes and games for kids
Listen:
Songs of Comfort for Anxious Souls: free playlist from TGC
25 Hymns to Sing in Troubled Times: compiled by 9Marks
Stories for kids 0-18: Handpicked collection free on Audible
Daily book discussions by Russell Moore
ACTIVITIES for Kids:
Active Play:
Garbage Bag Fun. The kids put on garbage bags like a potato sack and we either race or dance around. They enjoy jumping in them
Pull the mattresses off the beds & couch cushions, etc – and make a big jumping pit
Play in the Rain/Mud/Etc. Basically – if it’s over 45 degrees – we are outside for at least an hour. Or, we sit in chairs in the garage and watch the cars/weather if it’s really windy.
Nerf Gun Targets. Put up pieces of construction paper all over the wall/window with different point values on it (or you could draw fun characters, etc), and the kids try to aim and see who gets the most points or who hits which characters, etc
Bubble Baths with kitchen bowls/scoopers, etc – they can make a “kitchen” in the bathtub
Drive around and find different things to look at or woods/pond to walk around. Play an “eye-spy” kind of game while driving or try to go through the alphabet and find things that start with each letter.
Sibling Play. Each sibling gets to pick something for the other to do with them (for about 20 minutes) and then they switch. If the kids have done a lot of things separate during the day, have them do this in the afternoon or while dinner is cooking.
Neighborhood walks
Hikes at a forest preserve
The “Seek” app: allows you to take photographs of any type of species – plant, fungi, birds, insects, etc and the app identifies it for you! It will also provide you info about that species, maps of that species’s usual range, how many people in your area have noted the same species etc.
Sit Down Play
Popsicle Sticks. You can do a million fun coloring/building/crafty things with popsicle sticks. Color them, build a house, spell letters, connect them, play tossing games with them. Let the kids get creative.
Tape Town. Use a roll of masking tape ($1) and create a massive town with roads, a park, corn maze, anything you can imagine. Matchbox cars all over the town are a big hit, but you could use Little People or Doll Figures too
Teach them card games. We got them each their own set of cards and they have LOVED learning different group & solitary card games.
Water Beads. You can get them very cheap on Amazon and it’s something different and fun to play with.
British bakeoff-style family competition with cupcakes or play-do. You can even find the Great British Bakeoff playlist on Spotify for background music
Poetry tea time (just what it sounds like: set up a party — as basic or as fancy as you want — and read poetry; nursery rhymes and A.A. Milne are great for littles)
Lesser-known games: Dragonwood, Sleeping Queens, Labyrinth, Three Little Pigs, Rush Hour Jr. (those last two are single-player puzzle games whose pieces also make fun toys, a nice option for toddlers while big siblings are playing a game)
Crafts
Big Picture Bible Crafts: 101 Simple & Amazing Crafts to Help Teach Children the Bible
“Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems” on YouTube
At-home learning activities from Scholastic. Pre-k thru grade 9
Art tutorials on YouTube (try the channels Art for Kids Hub and Let’s Make Art)
Perler beads
Hey Clay kits (soft air-dry clay with super cute and easy-to-follow instructional videos)
Supercoloring.com has tons of free printable coloring pages for all ages
Electronic type things:
Cosmic Kids Yoga on YouTube (engaging story-based exercise videos)
Making stop-motion movies ( can use the LEGO Movie Maker app for iPad)
Simply Piano (it’s an app for learning the Piano)
Duolingo (It’s a website with very easy/fun step-by-step ways to learn other languages)
Pull up a Youtube video of someone reading their favorite book & follow along at home (assuming you have the physical book). It’s even fun for the kids to type in the name of the book themselves into the search bar
READ
Picture books:
Fairy Tales (we especially like Paul Galdone’s picture book versions)
Anything by Jan Brett or Tomie dePaola
Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems
Good Night, Already by Jory John (and the rest in that series)
Bink and Golly books by Kate DiCamillo
Chapter books:
The Ramona series by Beverly Cleary
Tuesdays at the Castle (series) by Jessica Day George
Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
The Magic Tree House books by Mary Pope Osborne
Adult books: