Enjoy the Outdoors
Go for a walk in a non-crowded area. Spending time in nature can be extremely beneficial for everyone, and a walk is a great opportunity for kids to use up some energy.
Have a picnic outside. Grab some of your favorite foods and have a fun picnic outside to enjoy the fresh air. Make sure to avoid crowded areas and public playground equipment.
Make your own drive-in Movie theater! Set up a projector in your back yard with your favorite movie, pop some popcorn, and relax with your family.
Fun With Reading
The internet is a great resource for discovering new books to read. Visit the Greensburg/ Hempfield Area Library’s website. The in-person library is closed until at least April 6, but if you have a library card you can still access their catalog of Ebooks and Audiobooks. The Kids audiobook catalog offers the entire Harry Potter series, The Magic Treehouse Collection, and classics like Charlotte’s Web, among others! Reading is a great way to escape into exciting new worlds and to make being stuck at home more enjoyable. https://westmoreland.overdrive.com/
Indoor Fun
Bake and decorate cookies. Everyone likes a sweet treat! This activity is fun for the whole family. Older kids can learn to follow recipes, and younger kids can decorate the cookies with frosting and sprinkles.
Have a dance party! Don’t let boredom get you down. Put on some music and let your kids release some energy with their best moves.
Build a fort out of blankets and sheets! This activity is a classic for indoor fun. Your kids will have the chance to be creative with designing the fort, and when it’s finished they can bring books and games. Being in a fort makes regular activities seem way more exciting and it’s not just for kids! Grab some wine, some snacks and snuggle under the fort to watch Tiger King. (We watched the whole crazy thing.)
Go on a Virtual Field Trip!
Take a virtual field trip using google maps. Find a place that you’ve always wanted to travel to, and look at it through street-view. Or explore some of these educational virtual tours for free online.
Google offers Virtual tours of several art museums, including the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Take a virtual walkthrough street-view images of the museum’s galleries, and learn about the life and art of Vincent Van Gogh. https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/van-gogh-museum?hl=en
The Sandiego Zoo has a website for kids with educational videos, coloring pages, crafts, and other fun activities to do at home. You can even watch live broadcasts of your favorite animals! https://kids.sandiegozoo.org/activities
The Monterey Bay Aquarium offers free access to live cameras, showing footage of 10 different types of aquatic animals. The Aquarium website also provides educational information about the animals. https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/live-cams
PBS offers virtual field trips to places like ancient Egypt, North America, and Australia. Explore how these places developed throughout history with interactive elements like completing puzzles and searching for clues. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/explore-north-america.html
Geoguessr is a game that helps people learn about geography. It’s available for free online, or through a free app. The game places you in a random location on street-view. The goal is to try to guess where you are by taking a virtual walk through the area. This game is great for older kids, and adults with extra time on their hands! Find this game at https://www.geoguessr.com/
Free Educational Websites
Supplement your kids’ education with one or more of these websites offering free educational activities.
https://www.funbrain.com/ and https://www.mathplayground.com/ offer free, interactive math games for kids!
https://www.nasa.gov/kidsclub/index.html NASA Kid’s Club offers free science games for kids, as well as educational information about NASA missions. The website also offers a free activity booklet filled with coloring pages and games. Just print it out and let the fun begin!
Youtube is filled with educational videos that kids can enjoy. Check out the channel “Crash Course” for entertaining, and educational videos about a variety of topics from social studies to history. The channel “ScienceBob” has videos about cool science experiments, just don’t try them at home! The channel “What we do all day” has tons of videos about cool activities to do from home. The videos explain how to play a bunch of cool games, and give instructions for simple crafts.
The PBS Kids website has plenty of fun games based on popular kid’s shows. https://pbskids.org/
Art, Crafts, and Science
Crayola has a catalog of free coloring sheets for kids. You can find them online and print them out for a simple activity. https://www.crayola.com/featured/free-coloring-pages/
Make some oobleck: mix 1 part water with 2 parts corn starch, and add food coloring. This experiment is a fun way to teach your kids about liquids and solids. If you slap the oobleck it feels solid, but if you touch it slowly it feels like a liquid.
Science for fun has a huge catalog of fun science experiments for kids. Just make sure to clean up when you’re done! http://www.sciencefun.org/kidszone/experiments/
