Ideas for Family Fun at Home

What did the shark say when it ate the clown fish? Tastes funny.

Why does a duck have feathers? To cover his butt quack

What did the triangle say to the circle? You're pointless.

Why should you never give Elsa a balloon? Because she’ll Let it Go.

If you were an Olympic gold-medal athlete, which sporting event would you want it to be in?

If you could have any super power, what would it be, and why?

How were you kind to someone today?

If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, which one would you choose?

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. ~Maya Angelou

Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. ~ Dalai Lama

You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. ~Wayne Gretzky

You've always had the power, my dear. You just had to learn it for yourself. ~Glinda the Good Witch, The Wizard of Oz

Make an epic pillow fort with couch cushions, sheets, and chip clips to hold things in place!

Bounce a balloon in the air without letting it touch the floor.

Give your toddler an old house painting brush you're ready to retire and set them up in the driveway with a container of water. They can dip the brush and "paint" designs all over the driveway, the sidewalk, or the outside of the house.

Play dress-up. Few things delight a child more than seeing grown-ups wearing a ridiculous variety of wigs, masks and accessories, so join in on the fun!

Ghost in the graveyard is an especially fun outside game to play at night in the dark. The object of the game is to find the "ghost." This is the player who is hiding. The player who finds the ghost’s hiding spot yells “Ghost in the Graveyard” to alert the other players as to where this person was hiding. The player who finds the ghost is designated as safe. All the other players must race back to space designated as the base. The ghost tries to tag someone else before they do and that player is IT for the next game.

Four square has been the go-to outdoor game for us. Draw one large square (8-10 feet across) with chalk and divide it into four equal squares. Squares are numbered 1-4, and one player stands inside each square. Player 4 bounces and taps a playground ball into an opponent's square to start play. When the ball enters any player's square, he or she must tap the ball into another square. Any player who misses the ball, lets it bounce more than once, or sends it out of bounds must move to square 1, and all other players move up one square.

Sharks and minnows is fun, and it gets played a lot at school. Players stand along a starting line, and must reach the finish line without being tagged by the shark. Any minnows who are tagged by the shark become sharks, too. Repeat racing across until all remaining minnows have been tagged. The winner is the last minnow to be tagged.

Capture the flag is a fun outdoor game for bigger groups, but a smaller group works as well - our family plays it with 4-6 players all the time! Divide the playing area into two territories and the players into two teams. Each team has a flag or other token which they hide or place somewhere on their territory. The goal is to find and capture the other team’s flag and bring it safely back into your territory. But beware! If you get tagged while in the other team’s territory, you go to “jail,” freeze, get sent back to your territory or whatever other consequence players decide ahead of time.

Treasure hunt is a simple yet always fun swimming pool game. Just throw a handful of coins (or other small sinkable objects) into the pool and have the kids dive to get them. Let them keep the coins as a prize or gather them all to throw in again.

Octopus is a variation on swimming pool tag that is especially fun to play with a lot of people. One person starts off as the Octopus, and tries to tag all the other players as they swim across the pool. When a player is tagged, that player and the Octopus have to hold hands, and work together to keep trying to tag other players. Anyone who is tagged joins the Octopus chain, and everyone in the chain has to hold hands in order to tag the other players. If too many players join the chain (making it difficult to swim), you can break up into multiple Octopus chains.

Marco Polo is always the first game I think of to play at the pool! Whoever is "it" closes their eyes and wanders around the pool trying to tag the other players. Anytime the person who is "it" says "Marco?" the other players have to respond "Polo!"

Keepy Uppy is an equally fun game to play in the pool as it is out of the pool! Just keep a beach ball (or two or three) up in the air as long as possible.

We buy small Graham cracker crusts (in the tiny pan) and add chocolate chips or pieces of chocolate bars. Then top with small marshmallows. Perfect on a grill or oven!

S'mores nachos: lay out graham crackers on a skillet and top them with mini chocolate kisses and mini marshmallows. Toast and enjoy! Add more toppings if you want too (i.e., peanuts, coconut, m&ms)

My kids wanted S'mores once but we were out of graham crackers, so I improvised with chocolate chip cookies, topped them with mini marshmallows and put them in the toaster over for about 5 minutes. The kids loved them!

Nutella, marshmallow and graham crackers

Set up a little frisbee golf course in the backyard and use a laundry basket as the target. The player with the fewest tosses to get their frisbee into the basket wins!

The geocaching app is a huge hit with my kids! There is a free option, but the $6.99 option has more caches to find. My kids (7 and 9) have so much fun with this in our neighborhood and also parks and paths nearby!

We recently discovered creeking from our park center super fun and free lots of activities too. I found it on the events tab on Facebook I’ve never done anything like it before but it was fun for my tot and myself .

A water balloon fight is a must every summer! The bunch-o-balloons water balloons have made the prep for this so much easier.

Pick up things with kitchen tongs. Our kids have so much fun using tongs to pick up socks on the floor, toys, or anything else that needs tidying up!

Peeling and placing stickers. Sticker books are great for this - we like the "paint by sticker" series, though it may be a little challenging for some little ones. My 4-year-old is awesome at it, but my 6-year-old (whose fine motor skills definitely need work) struggles a bit. I also really like the Phidal line of reusable sticker books - the quality is such that they truly are reusable!

Placing letters on a letter board. I discovered this one by accident, but I love how it keeps my 4-year-old sitting quietly for long stretches of time while he tries to get the plastic letters to stay in my felt letter board.

An OT told me this one: use small writing utensils such as golf pencils and broken crayons. This helps prevent children from grabbing the utensil with a fist and encourages the correct pencil grasp.

Picking weeds outside, watering flowers/plants/herbs and raking leaves is a chore that my kids find fun. (Added bonus if you buy their own gloves/watering can).

Lots of yard work options for chores! Older kids can mow the lawn, and all ages can help with sweeping, pulling weeds and other gardening tasks.

Vacuuming rugs. This is mostly a chore for my teens, as the vacuum is too big and unwieldy for the little ones.

Putting away groceries is one chore that my teen and tween don't mind, because they like to check out the grocery haul when I bring it home.