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Easy Activities for Kids and Teens To Keep Everyone Sane When You’re Stuck Inside

By Kira Lewis 6 Comments

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Easy Activities for Kids and Teens To Keep Everyone Sane When You're Stuck Inside

Sure there’s lots of talk right now about suddenly transforming everyone’s homes into “homeschools”, but lets be real. We’re all feeling a little stressed and anxious, and many parents are suddenly trying to work at home while also keeping kids occupied.

For those of you that are organized and on top of this and have your color coded daily school schedules – Go you! And I really do mean that sincerely.

But for the rest of us that just can’t quite get it together. That’s okay too! We are not failing. I mean, aren’t we scheduled enough these days? If one good thing can come out of all of this, maybe its a chance to say ” to hell with the schedule” for a little bit.

Lets relax, lets take the pressure off and maybe we can just let our kids be kids for a few weeks. They aren’t going to fall so behind in school that they’ll never catch up. And learning doesn’t have to be so structured.

Now, all that said, after the first week of all of this, most of us are probably beginning to need at least some ideas to keep our kids busy, from our elementary schoolers to our teens. They miss their friends, they’re maybe actually getting tired of playing video games non-stop and perhaps we’d like to give them something of value to occupy their time.

Here are tons of EASY ideas that can be as simple as downloading a podcast or a quick printable. Give them a try and give yourself a break.

First, this is a wildly popular post that is usually aimed at filling time during summer vacation. But as we’re looking at similarly long extended time away from school, the ideas might come in handy.  

100 Fun and Easy Screen Free  Activities For Kids (Toddlers to Teens)

Next, while this may involve everyone, its a good way to spend some of this time at home reconnecting. However, if you have two or more kids close in age then these games are also something they can play together to pass the time. 

Board Games (Family Game Night) 

12 Preschool Games to Beat the Candy Land Coma

Simple Card Games Preschoolers Will Love ; Go Beyond Go Fish

Card Games for Families; Make It a Family Game Night!

Top 10 Board Games For Tweens ; From Moms of Tweens

Best Board Games For Teens ; Ideas for Teens from Teens

Board Games For Teenagers (and tweens) To Make Them LOL

The following are all activities that have been popular on our blog for years! They are fun and super duper easy.  A few are theme based and others are more general. Just choose what makes sense for you kiddos and their interests. 

Lego Themed Activities

Lego Games Lego Challenge ; Thinking Outside the Boxed Set

Lego Star Wars Printable Game Cards

Let;s Get Crazy With Lego-Minifigures

Printables

Star Wars Printables An Out of This World Round-Up

Minion Printables Round-Up

Finding Dory Games; Printable BINGO

Frozen

Elsa’s Magic Painting and Frozen Math Game

Paint Your Own Frozen Puppets

Frozen Coloring Pages 

Teen Crafts

Crafts for Tweens ; Sparkle Tumblers

Crafts For Teens Decorative Hangers

Teen Room Decor 15 Stylish DIY Projects for Teen Girls

All tech time does NOT have to be mindless, there are plenty of ways that kids can use technology for both fun and education. For years, we’ve been compiling some of the best apps for kids. These apps have proven to be the most successful in different education fields.  

Educational Apps

5 Language Learning Apps for Kids that Aren’t Boring

10 Best Spelling Apps for Kids

STEAM Apps For Kids

The Best Art Apps For Kids

Math Apps For Kids

Apps For The Star Wars Lover

Coding Apps For Kids

The Best Apps for SAT and ACT Prep To Give Teens an Edge

If your kids are little older- elementary, middle or high school age – then podcasts and Ted Talks are another great way to pass the time. There are so may good ones out there that cover educational topics as well as storytelling or even just provide a good laugh (which is something we could all use right now). 

Podcasts

10 Podcasts for Kids That Will Make Them Say Wow! (And You Too)

10 Best Podcasts for Teens and Tweens to Expand Their Worldview

Hilariously Funny Podcasts for Teens That Will Have Them Laughing Out Loud

Ted Talks

The Best Ted Talks For Kids To Light Up Their Minds

The Best Motivational Ted Talks for Teens

Do not feel bad if your kids are blowing all their usual screen time limits out of the water right now. While it may feel like this time that we’re all for the most part stuck in our homes will never end, this too shall pass. 

Take a deep breath and don’t worry so much about how much time they spend watching TV or movies. Heck, join in with them when you can and give yourself a little break from reality too! 

TV/Movies

Kids TV Shows That Will Keep Them From Growing Up Too Fast (Kindergarten to Preteen)

Sports Movies for Teens and Tweens ; Inspiration for Your Young Athletes

The Best Modern Teen Movies on Netflix

The Best 80’s Movies Parents Should Watch With Their Teens 

Not all kids love reading, but if you have book worms and are looking for some good book suggestions for the coming weeks, we’ve got just about every age range and interest covered below.  

And even if your kiddo isn’t a fan of turning pages, consider getting some of the books suggested below in audio form. Many libraries have ways you can access audio books online and download to your device or consider signing up for Amazon Audible

Reading

Early Chapter Books ; Preschool, Kindergarten and Early Elementary

Suggested Reading for Elementary Schoolers; Ages 6-10

Star Wars Books for Jedis of all Ages

Suggested Reading for Middle Schoolers and Tweens

15 of the Best Adventure Series for Tweens

Suggested Reading for Teens in High School; Ages 14 and Up

Great Teen Books For High School Girls

Life Skills

Not all learning comes from a book or sitting in a classroom with an instructor.  In all our hustle and bustle, many of our kids today are lacking some of the most basic life skills. So, now is a great time to help them learn some of these important lessons. 

Cooking can be just a fun activity with kids (if you keep it super simple) and make stuff everyone loves to eat. But it can also be a great way to teach math concepts or help our olders prepare for life when their meals aren’t made for them by chef mom and dad. 

Cooking

Cinnamon Sugar Baked Donut Recipe

Sprinkle Cake Cookies

Secret Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies

Best Ever Homemade Brownies

White Chocolate Cupcakes with White Chocolate Frosting

Easy Fruit And Cracker Pizzas

And who says that all the time kids have their hands should be filled with fun. They can pitch in and help around the house and gain some valuable life skills in the process.  Here’s a few posts to help get you started. 

General Life Skills

9 Essential Soft Skills for Teens and Tweens

The Importance of Chores for Children (Printable Chore Chart)

10 Tween Chores Your Middle Schooler Needs For Survival

 

To all the parents out there just trying to get through each day, you are doing a great job! Your kids love you and you love them, that is what really matters. Everything else is just not that important right now. 

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Filed Under: Tweens and Teens, Young Kids

About Kira Lewis

Kira Lewis is a mom to a strong and sassy 8 year old girl and a funny, soccer playing teen boy.  Her career has included everything from corporate ladder climbing to teaching yoga. She's settled for now on free-lance writing and blogging where she covers topics like motherhood, parenting, technology, Florida travel and raising tweens and teens.Keep up with her parental musings by subscribing to sunshine and hurricane's weekly newsletter HERE.

You can also find her on social media:

Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Pinterest 

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  1. Printable Scavenger Hunts For Kids says:
    June 30, 2020 at 3:50 pm

    […] Easy Activities for Kids and Teens To Keep Everyone Sane When You’re Stuck Inside […]

    Reply
  2. Summer Activities for Kids - Star Wars Themed Week says:
    June 4, 2020 at 2:40 pm

    […] Easy Activities for Kids and Teens To Keep Everyone Sane When You’re Stuck Inside […]

    Reply
  3. Birthday Party Ideas For Kids While Social Distancing says:
    May 27, 2020 at 5:47 pm

    […] Easy Activities for Kids and Teens To Keep Everyone Sane When You’re Stuck Inside […]

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  4. May The 4th - Star Wars Activities For Kids and Families says:
    April 30, 2020 at 12:44 pm

    […] Easy Activities for Kids and Teens To Keep Everyone Sane When You’re Stuck Inside […]

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  5. The Best Audible Books/Series To Listen To As A Family says:
    April 23, 2020 at 5:53 pm

    […] or is a slow reader, reading can feel like an overwhelming task for them. But, now while you are stuck inside, it might be a great time to introduce them to joy of audiobooks. It can be a way to help hesitant […]

    Reply
  6. No More Tech Zombies - How to Tame Too Much Screen Time says:
    April 8, 2020 at 4:09 pm

    […] Easy Activities for Kids and Teens To Keep Everyone Sane When You’re Stuck Inside […]

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