Being stuck inside doesn’t mean you have to be bored. Take a day inside with the family as an opportunity to try something new, or jump back into an activity that has long been forgotten and cast aside due to busy schedules. The good news is that you don’t need to even leave your living room to have a fun day with your family. Check out our collection of fun family activities you can do at home like game nights, art projects, and more.
1. Make a Good Old Fashioned Fort
Relive your youth with your kids by making a DIY fort to play in. The great thing about making forts is that it’s an at-home activity that doesn’t require a lot of supplies. Transform old cardboard boxes or sheets and furniture into a fun fort that your kids will love.
2. Write Letters to Loved Ones
Take the time on a day in with the family to write letters to out-of-town family and friends. Writing a letter — with actual pen and paper — is a meaningful way to keep in touch with loved ones. Once the whole family has written their letters, follow these tips to address them properly.
3. Have the Kids Make Their Own Personalized Story Books
What’s better than a bedtime story than a book starring your own child? Shutterfly offers personalized story books that you can personalize to feature your child, sending them on adventures to encourage their imagination and interest in reading. Each book includes a fun story with photos of them and their name to integrate them into the story to make a heartwarming keepsake you’ll treasure forever.
4. Host a Family Game Night
Build memories together with an at-home family game night. Make the occasion extra fun by planning a theme and making some delicious snacks. For example, if the theme was a campfire, build an indoor fort for the family and snack on s’mores.
Depending on the age of your kids, having games they can understand and play is important. No matter what age, you can involve the whole family.
10 Game Night Ideas:
- Charades
- Uno or other card games
- Board games
- Kids memory games
- Indoor bowling
- Telephone
- Pictionary
- Set up a scavenger hunt
- Put together personalized puzzles
- Family Feud
5. Make Thank You Cards for Essential Workers
While the family is home together, use this time to thank the doctors, nurses, teachers, grocery store clerks, and all the essential workers who are keeping us safe and healthy amid the coronavirus pandemic. Set up an art station with your kids to make thank you notes that can be sent to hospitals and clinics or used to decorate your windows or cars. Get creative — you can make art with anything from crayons and paper to paint on rocks. Handmade thank you notes are a small but meaningful way to show your appreciation for our everyday heroes.
To express gratitude, share your child’s artwork with the hashtag #CreateThanks. Shutterfly will transform their creative works of art into thank you cards and posters and deliver them to essential organizations. Find more information and check out the #CreateThanks digital gallery here.
6. Build an Indoor Obstacle Course
When it’s a rainy day, and you need something to entertain the kids inside, why not build an indoor obstacle course? The family will have the best time with the challenge of having to complete each task. Obstacle courses are fun at-home activities to keep kids occupied and allow them to burn off energy. The best part is that you can build an obstacle course with things you already have around the house, and you can create an entirely new course every time.
7. Make Meals Together
Turn meals into family fun time by getting the whole household involved with the cooking. Whether you want to put together a full course dinner or just bake cookies, it’s a great way to bond with your family members and enjoy some good food. If you have older kids, consider having an at-home potluck where everyone makes a part of the meal to share with the family.
8. Get Creative as a Family
If you need an activity that will entertain the whole family, arts and crafts is a great way to pass the time. Spend your time together coloring with crayons, experimenting with watercolor paints, making colorful slime, or practicing your origami. You’ll want to save the art pieces your family puts together to make into a keepsake photo book you’ll look back on for years to come. Check out this list of easy kids crafts the kids can do indoors.
9. Relax with a Family Movie Night
Take a night off from your busy lives with a family movie night. Pop some popcorn, get cozy, and turn on a movie that the whole family can enjoy. Make movie night extra fun by picking a theme, dressing for the occasion, and whipping up some on-theme snacks. If you’re watching a movie about dinosaurs, for example, serve dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets. If it’s superhero movie night, make your kids personalized capes they’ll love to wear again and again.
Related Resources on Fun Family Activities to Do at Home
For even more inspiration on fun family activities, make sure to visit our related resources below:
