What to do at Home to Keep the Family Busy

Some ideas we found at The Dallas Morning News:

Explore your backyard

Sure, you’re in a de facto state of staycationing already, but make it special. Weather permitting, treat a pool day like a beach day, if it’s warm enough. Set up a tent and camp in the backyard. Have the space for a garden? Create one, or at least an area for potted plants. Buy some outdoor games, such as ladderball, cornhole or KanJam.

Redecorate

Does your kid want a fun, colorful room that reflects his or her interests? Is your young teen ready to grow out of those bright pink or baby blue walls? Make it happen. Redo some walls, swap out some furniture or shop for a rug or lighting. Plus, can you come up with a more fun excuse to have them completely clean their rooms? It could even be time to reorganize the playroom and set up a system for containing all those toys.

Binge watch

This isn’t a novel suggestion, but there’s simply too much content out there to have possibly watched everything you and your kids want to see. Take a day or two to turn into such a couch potato that your brain gets mashed. Maybe use this as a good excuse to try Disney+ if you haven’t already, or any of the numerous streaming services available.

Create a craft

Head to a Michaels, Hobby Lobby, JoAnn or a big-box store and go nuts buying art supplies. It could be time to make those bird boxes you were thinking about, or try some painting. There are thousands of crafts you could create from just a few affordable supplies, using your imagination (and maybe Pinterest).

Break out the board games

You can get a lot of mileage out of a few smart board games, even if your family members claim they’re not competitive. Break out the classics, such as Life or Monopoly, or buy some new ones — it’s hard to go wrong. Or you can see if your kids want to design their own games. If your family wants something on the more calming side, there are always puzzles.

Reintroduce reading

If your kid complains about how boring reading is, clearly you need to introduce them to some good literature. If you aren’t planning to visit a public library or bookstore, don’t forget about the digital books available on most tablet apps.

Act out

Do you have some budding thespians in your home? If so, put their acting skills and imagination to use by breaking out some old Halloween costumes. Your kids can write their own scripts and act out their parts while in costume.

Keep school skills fresh

Help younger kids keep their learning skills fresh with grade-appropriate activities. Look for fun math problem books, science experiment kits and writing prompts for kids, available online.