Activities: Sock Puppets, Scavenger Hunt, Tower Building, Journals, Cooking

Activities to Keep Kids Active When Schools Close

As a woman who raised children when the internet, tablets, Netflix (or any streaming service) didn’t exist, and computers were thoughts from the Jetsons, I learned how to entertain children without technology. Now that the kids are home for an extended period and can’t be shipped off to the mall, theater, or any other public place, it’s time to explore creative activities from “the old days.”

Each morning during our new reality of required family time, I will provide inexpensive activities to entertain children that require limited resources. Hopefully, these will ease the pain and provides some fun. Hug your kids and appreciate the time you share.

Sock Puppets

Gather unmatched socks from the laundry room, place them on the hands of everyone around. Instantly, you have a host of characters for an upcoming puppet production. With a little imagination personal touches can be added: hair, eyes, even clothes.

Use glue, needle, and thread, staples or even strategically placed knots to attach the decorations. Children can be entertained making the puppets and playing with them.

Educational: With younger kids, an adult can help them write a script. Encourage older siblings to compose a play and they will practice writing skills at the same time.

Scavenger Hunt

Multiple forms of scavenger hunts exist. So each day, I will share a different suggestion. Kids of all ages, even adults, love these activities and they provide an opportunity to get up and move. One of my favorites is to take close-up pictures of items around the house or yard.

For example, take a picture of a book but focus on only part of the title, capture the shoelaces of a boot or snap an image of a unique item in the yard. Then have the kids explore to find the source of the pictures. They will be busy for a long time and this also requires teamwork and collaboration.

Tower Building

Give kids one piece of paper and ½ inch of tape. Explain their task is to create the tallest tower using only the items provided and their intelligence. If there are multiple children, they can work in teams to complete the task.

Educational: This challenge can be performed each day with a twist. Add or substitute one or two items with the same instructions. Possible alternative items: marshmallows, spaghetti, string, rubber bands, toothpicks, straws — let your mind go crazy or even let the kids make suggestions. To really increase the educational value, have the children research how to strengthen their tower.

Newspaper/Magazine Scavenger Hunt

Somewhere in the house is a piece of paper with printed words that can be used for this activity. Challenge growing minds to see how many words they can find in the text that was not originally written as words. For instance, in the two previous sentences. I was able to find: here, sap, pie, ape, wit, Allen, dents, man, hey, ow, fin, hat, origin. Educational: Expand on this activity by creating stories using all the words they find, read them aloud, and laugh.

For example: While walking through the forest with a man in a big yellow hat, we discovered a wounded ape. His arm twisted backwards to look like a dolphin’s fin. We named him Allen and decided we should offer help. The man in the hat adjusted his arm causing him to wince and scream, “Ow!” I figured he must be hungry, so I made him a sweet pie from tree sap and berries.

Amazed at his extreme wit, Allen and I became friends and played when he started to feel better. We climbed trees, jumped and swung from branches. In my awkwardness, I left dents on the trees. At the end of the day, I wanted to take my new friend home but the man in the hat said we had to leave him in his place of origin. So, I gestured for him to come here and said goodbye.

Journal

This is a historic time in our lives. An event similar to the coronavirus has never affected life in this way, to this extent. Your kids will have stories to share in the future. Present them with a notepad, typing paper stapled together or even bind paper with needle and thread.

Have them record events as they happen. The age of your child will determine the perspective. If the child is older, remind them of the influence of Anne Frank’s diary and encourage them to make an impact on the future. Caution: Be sure not to compare this experience with WWII in severity; simply share that it is similar in the experience of isolation.

Cooking

Days of eating in restaurants may be limited. Teach children to cook. This can be a vocabulary activity: knead, blanch, dice, infuse, score, simmer . . . Cooking also requires math, reading, teamwork, and patience. Maybe even consider during the next couple of weeks, assembling family recipes for future use.

Resources

In my day, there were no dollar stores and limited money. We made (from scratch) many of our supplies and toys. Tune in each day to explore this growing list of resources that may be new to you or simply slipped your mind.

Glue

Flour and water is a simple formula to make glue. That’s all you need. However, to refine the process, once these ingredients are mixed until smooth, place on medium heat until it reaches a slow boil. Let it cool before use.

Since there is no flour on the store shelves, I am guessing everyone has a little to spare for this simple recipe.

I am a retired teacher, mother and grandmother. My husband retired after 30 years teaching high school automotive classes. One daughter teachers kindergarten and the other high school speech. We are a family of teacher hoping to share. Each day on my blog (until school reopen) I will post a few activities to entertain (often educate). You are invited to subscribe if you are interested.