Spring Break is coming up for us. I know that some schools have already had their break, but it feels a little like Spring Break all the time now that we are quarantined at home. We wanted to share with you some fun things to do at home with your kids and as a family. There are tons of resources out there, but we want to just share a few of our favorites that are simple fun for kids.
Virtual Tours of Famous Places
Lots of places throughout the world that are doing virtual tours since we can’t travel to these places for Spring Break. So take a tour of somewhere you wish you could visit. We enjoy the National Park tours since we are huge National Park fans, but the art museums are interesting, too.
- National Park Virtual Tours: There are 32 parks that are giving tours.
- 12 Art Museum Virtual Tours
- The Smithsonian: Visit the Natural History Museum and a few other sites.
- Ellis Island
- Nature Field Trips: Explore different ecosystems throughout the world.
- Become a Junior Ranger at Home: You and your kids can complete Junior Ranger booklets at home. Then mail them in for a badge.
Draw and Color with Art Ideas
Our boys have loved doing different art classes in the afternoon. It is a calming way to spend the afternoon hours. These are all FREE sites where we enjoy practicing our art skills.
- Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems: Mo Willems is doing different doodle lessons every day. The videos are on Youtube and they are so fun!
- Art for Kids Hub: My kids love the many options on the Art for Kids Hub site. They have created some really cute drawings.
- Draw So Cute: The characters have big eyes so that they look “cute.”
Go to the Zoo or Aquarium
We love going to the zoo in the spring. It is our favorite season. But you can check zoo and aquarium cams all year long. Make sure to check your local zoos and museums. Many of them are doing live events or tours every day for you to tune into. I know that Hogle Zoo in Utah is doing live events on Facebook at 11:30 most days.
Science Experiments
Another great way to spend and afternoon is by doing science experiments at home. We created a post with easy science experiments for toddlers using different colors, but our older boys love them, too. Here are some other places to find fun science experiments:
- Mommy Poppins list of 50 science experiments using household items
- No Guilt Mom very easy science experiments
Backyard Ideas
Here are some of our favorite activities to do as a family in our own yard. Mom and Dad play, too, so it’s family time.
- Race Cars: Down the slide or the driveway. We love to make a bracket, too!
- Kick the Can: Choose an empty can or bottle and set in an obvious location. One person is the seeker, everyone else hides throughout the yard. The seeker heads out to look for people, but if they see someone they can hop over the can to get them out once they spot them. If the hiders can sneak back to kick the can before the seeker sees them and hops over the can, they are safe that round.
- Hide and Seek: Simple game, but when Mom and Dad play, it’s fun.
- Sardines: Backwards hide and seek. Everyone start in the same spot. One person goes to hide, but the spot must be big enough for everyone to fit. Because every minute, someone else heads out to look. Once you find the original hider, you squeeze in. Last person to find the group hides first next time.
- Camp Outside: It’s too cold to camp in the mountains, but it might be warm enough to camp in the backyard. We love setting up the tent, eating tin foil dinners from the oven, and snuggling in our sleeping bags with the luxuries of a bathroom inside the house.
- Glow in the Dark Hide and Seek: Buy some glow in the dark bracelets and play hide and seek once the sun goes down. Kids have a little light with them, and it helps you spot people.
- Sidewalk Chalk Mosaic: We saw this idea all over Instagram, and we had fun making our own. Use painters tape to block out sections of your sidewalk and then color the spaces. Remove the tape and you have a beautiful art display in front of your house.
- Homemade Olympics: Create your own events. We created dice stacking, ball bouncing into a bucket, and more. Set up time limits and have fun.
- Picnic: Our boys favorite thing to do is eat outside whenever we allow them.
- Pioneer Games: We love to play marbles, jacks, jump rope, or other simple pioneer games.
Indoor Ideas
Here are just a few more indoor ideas in case you are still looking for something to do this Spring.
- Block Towers: Our kids build block towers and set all the army men on top. Then they use nerf guns or bouncy balls to try and knock them down. This entertains them for hours. This is easy to adapt. Set any small toys on top and have fun.
- PlayDoh: We love to make our own play doh with this recipe, but any play doh provides hours of fun at any age.
- Scavenger Hunt: Have the older kids set up scavenger hunts for the little kids or write one yourself. Even better, Google premade scavenger hunt cards, print them out and done!
- Stop Motion Movies: We saw this idea last year on a class about creativity, and our boys really enjoyed making Stop Motion Movies. We used an iPhone to take the photos and then edited them in iMovie.
- Ryan and Craig.com: My first grader watches stories on their site for his online school, and somehow the whole family gathers around when they come on. These two men read picture books, but add their own commentary, and we always end up giggling as we watch.
- Paint Rocks: We just painted a bunch of rocks from our yard to brighten up the garden and the flower beds.
- Puzzles: We love puzzles. We have hundreds. Our favorite puzzles are Dowdle Puzzles and Melissa and Doug Puzzles. We like Dowdle puzzles because they have such great locations, so we use them as souvenirs for places we have visited. Melissa and Doug also have high quality puzzles and a huge variety for all ages.
- Games: We love playing family games. We even wrote a whole post about our favorite Family Games. And we keep adding to the list!
Explore Locally
Find those off the beaten path spots near you where you can get outside. Here are a few ideas we have for those of you in Utah. The state’s website encourages us to spend time outdoors running, hiking, or walking, just not in busy areas and try to stay near home. So remember if trailheads look extra busy, try Plan B.
- 15 Easy Spring Hikes
- Drives in Utah to Get You Out of the House
- Try exploring Wildlife Preserves. They are less busy, but still great for hiking and exploring. Look for one near you. Here are some we love:
- Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge
- Ogden Bay Wildlife Management Area
- Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area
- Ouray National Wildlife Refuge
Other Ideas
If you are still looking for ideas for how to handle Spring Break while staying near home, we created these posts a few years ago. You’ll have to pick and choose what is still open right now, but there might be some helpful ideas for your family.
