This Lockdown has been hard on everyone. Amidst the chaos, your little bundle of joy can’t stop nagging you about going out to play. It is especially hard to make highly energetic kids understand, why it is safer to stay indoors. At the same time, they get bored from doing a particular activity again and again. They require constant entertainment that will keep them busy for a long time. Preferably activities that are fun and amusing. Below is a list of 20 fun things you can do at home with your kids to keep them engaged for a long time:

Pencil and Paper Games

Tell your kids to sharpen their pencil and gather some paper. Entertain them with fun paper and pencil games like hangman, sprouts, dots and squares or categories. These will keep them occupied for quite some time.

Building Forts

Ask your child to help you build a fort using blankets, bedsheets and pillows lying around the house. You can even make a spacious camping tent of sorts with the help of blankets and other furniture. Decorate the tent with your child’s favourite toys, books and other favourite things. They will have fun enacting imaginary scenes and role-playing with their toys.

Crafts

Provide your kids with coloured paper, crayons, buttons, threads and some glue. Encourage them to make something out of it. They can use Popsicle sticks or match sticks to build paper houses and trees. They can get even more creative by learning the art of paper folding and create cute little animals. Also knows as origami in Japanese.

Magical Mama

Select three identical cups or glasses, preferably opaque ones. Place a coin or a tiny ball under one of the 3 cups and shuffle them around. Now ask your child to guess the cup that contains the penny. You can trick your children by removing the penny from under the cup when they aren’t looking or sneak the penny out from the edge of the table. They will be shocked and amused when they find out that the coin is gone.

Card Games

Pull out a box of cards and teach them to some kid-friendly card games like go fish, crazy eight, war, old maid, memory, snap, rummy, I doubt it, slapjack, pig, bluff etc. Cards are a great way to challenge your minds and keep them occupied for a long time.

Puzzles

Flex your kid’s problem-solving muscles with a good number of puzzles. You can buy a wide variety of good puzzles from the store or ask your child to make his own. Tell your child to make drawings of his favourite cartoon characters on sheets of paper. Stick them on a cardboard sheet and cut them out in the shape of puzzle pieces. Mix them all up and tell your kids to join the puzzle pieces. The whole activity will last for a good number of hours.

Freeze

Children belonging to the age groups of below 4 years will especially love this game. Play some music and tell them that they have to dance until the music stops. When the music stops they have to stop dancing and freeze regardless of what position they find themselves in. if they move or laugh they are out. Toddlers will enjoy themselves because they can’t stop laughing when they are especially told not to laugh. You can award them with medals and prizes made from ribbons for maintaining composure.

Picnic

If you miss taking your children to the park for picnics, you can plan a one in your backyard. Prepare a basket of fruits, vegetables, sandwiches and other treats with a blanket and bring it to your lawn or garden. This way you get to enjoy some fresh breeze and get some vitamin D.

Gunny Bag Skits

Give your child a gunny bag filled with random things like spoon, fork, toys, socks, jewellery, ribbons, balls etc. Give them 20 minutes and ask them to construct a skit using these props. This game is fun when there are a large number of people. Especially entertaining during birthday parties or sleepovers.

Play-dough

Tell your children to create things using play dough. It could be doughnuts, cakes, houses, teddy bears etc. You can use store-bought playdough or make your dough by mixing the kitchen ingredients like wheat flour, salt, virgin oil and natural dyes for different colours. Provide them will rolling pins and cookie cutters to make their animated doughs look realistic.

Treasure Hunt

Start hiding objects or your kid’s toys around the house. Using slips of paper, provide clues describing the object and its hideout location. You can modify the game by asking them questions and if they answer correctly, you give them a slip with the clue. You can even design the treasure such that one clue leads to the next clue to find the buried treasure. Kids of all ages will enjoy playing this game.

Indoor Bowling 

You can use water bottles lying around the house to create an indoor bowling set. Arrange the water bottles similar to pins arranged in the bowling alley. Use duct tape to mark the starting line. Preferably choose areas that provide enough length to roll the ball. To balance the water bottles properly you can fill them with water. Don’t forget to screw the bottle caps tightly.

Hot Potato

This game will surely leave all the toddlers giggling. Make all the kids sit in a circle. Start the music, give them a potato and tell them to pass it around in the circle. The one holding the potato when the music stops will have to leave the circle. The last one to remaining wins the game.

Memory Game

Arrange a table with random things like a plate, top, cotton bud, fork, book, ball, pen, etc. you can use any number of things lying around the house. Cover all of it with a big cloth. Tell your child that you will remove the cloth for 10 minutes and allow him to memorize all the things under the cloth. After that, he has to list the things under the cloth on a piece of paper. This game is fun to play with a large group of kids. The one who lists the maximum number of things will be the winner.

Touch and Feel Box

Take a shoebox or any cardboard box with a lid. Cut a hole on top of the box, big enough to fit a child’s hand. You can even decorate the box to make it look pretty. Put something in it like a potato, bowl of jellies or anything. Ask them to feel inside the box and guess what it is. To give your kids an icky feeling and hear some giggles around the room, use slimes or cooked spaghetti. 

Bucket Basketball

You can scrunch papers, roll socks into balls or use smaller sized balls to play this game. Place a bucket at the end of the hall. Using duct tape mark a starting line. Ask your kids to stand behind the line and toss the scrunched paper into the basket. You can make the game more interesting by asking your kid to take a step back and then toss the ball into the bucket. The player to toss the ball from the farthest distance wins.

Finger Paint Animals

Provide your kids with paint and tell them to create animals and shapes using various parts of their body like hands and feet. They can use their imagination and add more details to the handprints or footprints using a pen or pencil.

Animal Impressions

Ask your child to pick an animal but not to reveal it to you. Tell them to give you clues by enacting its sounds and movements. This is sure to create a lot of giggles in the room if there are a large number of kids involved in this particular game.

Bubbles

Take a bowl, dunk a dime size dish soap at the centre of the bowl. Add some water into the bowl and swirl it around gently using a straw until it lathers. Tell you kids to place the end of the straw in the lather and blow it gently. Watch how the bubbles form. 

Baking

Two things children enjoy would be getting their hands messy and eating sweet treats. Involve your children while making pies, cakes and cookies. Use cookie cutters to make teddy bear-shaped cookies and allow them to decorate the cake with pretty confetti. The end product is everybody enjoys a bite to eat.