AKA, I’ve done everything during the lockdown, and I’m running out of ideas. Help!
Indoor Fort. Supplies: Bedsheets, four chairs, paper, coloring instruments, smores, flashlight, and children.
To create the fort, you need some bedsheets and four chairs to draped the sheet over. You can also use boxes, a big table, or even a washing line with tape to keep the sheet to the floor. Have the kids put their sleeping bags, couch cushions, and/or blankets in the fort. If you let them, they will sleep there, and I don’t know why but something about sleeping outside your room is super fun as a kid.
The next step set the scene. Have the kid/s name the fort and decide where the fort is; the desert, under the sea, the Moon, or Outer space. This is where the paper and drawing implements come in, have the kid/s drawn the environment around the fort. Under the sea, they can draw fish/reefs/sharks; in outer space, it’s rocket ships/stars/aliens, or in the desert cacti/coyotes/Chupacabra. You can also get awesome nightlights that project a starry sky or hang up the Christmas lights indoors.
Last we have storytime. Only the kid/s tell you stories about the fort and the adventures they will have. Again it engages your child’s brain and imagination; also, children tell the wildest and the funniest stories. If you do storytime after dinner, then you can end the night with smores and maybe a movie about the environment they picked.
Treasure Hunt. Supplies: items kid/s like hiding places, a map if you are good at drawing or a floor plan. Wait until the kid/s go to sleep and gather the treasure, toys, or maybe candy. For older kids, you can include clues to find the treasure; seek the place where everything spins (washer a/o dryer), all bad smells go here (trash can), or I’m someplace small and freezing (freezer). You can also make a game of the game; winner picks movie or dinner? If you want to go the whole nine years, get some pirate costumes and have everyone talk like a pirate, yaar matey.
Obstacle Course in your house. You pick a starting point and endpoint, but each room you have to go through has rules or restrictions. In the Living Room, the floor is LAVA!!! When in the kitchen, you have to walk backward; you must close your eyes and let someone else direct you to safety in another room. Maybe in the hallway, you must hop like a bunny, you have to spin around five times before entering and exiting a room, and for the extra level of difficulty, one of the players does random Simon Says.
The last one, have your own summer Olympics since we didn’t have one in Japan this year.
- Hopscotch race, graded on speed but deduct points for missing a square.
- Marathon running in place, who can go the longest.
- Limbo Time!!!!
- Telephone Relay. For this you need two teams and a judge (grandparents/others) on Zoom/Phone/in the house. The judge will tell each team a different message and the message passes to each teammate, the last one retells the message to the judge. Again fastest time wins but each wrong word adds a second.
- Telephone charades. This one is for older kids a/o adults. Again a person is told the message and then use Charades to pass the massage to the next teammate. Again fastest time and points deducted for wrong words.
- From 1912 to 1952 the offical Olympics included an arts competition known as the “Pentathlon of the Muses”, arts inspired by sport. Which means you can add poetry, singing, and painting to your home games.
- Another sit down event, Rock Paper Scissors matches. Please note to make the game more high stakes wear a headband and wristbands.
- Egg & Spoon. Hard boil some eggs, you can decorate them, then place the egg in a spoon. Mark a distant for the race, line up, and go. If you go too fast the egg falls off the spoon so it evens out the game a bit.