If you have young children and are stuck at home all summer, you’ll need a few creative ideas to keep everyone entertained. Below I’ll share 10 awesome summer quarantine ideas for young kids.
Me and my littles enjoy the children’s museum, the bounce house-y places, the splash pad and the library on any given day, but especially during the summer. However, many of these places aren’t open or are operating on limited hours right now.
Summer is long and HOT (especially for us — we live in Texas). It definitely takes some effort on a parent’s part to entertain young children all summer long. But introduce the novel Coronavirus, and you’ve got a whole new challenge ahead this summer!
Here are a few ways I’m keeping my two kids (under five) busy and happy all summer long. Keep reading for my list of 10 summer quarantine ideas for young kids.
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1. Backyard Pool
If you have a pool in your backyard, then you’ve got #1 covered. We bought an inexpensive blow up pool from our local big box store. (Here’s a very similar pool on Amazon!) It’s simple to inflate and fill with the water hose. This could literally keep our kids happy for an entire day or weekend.
The best part is that it’s big enough to fit myself and my husband! Score! It was under $50 and well worth it for a long, hot summer of quarantine with young kids!
When the kids get bored with it, we add bubbles or water balloons. Bunch O Balloons are our favorite because you can fill up so many in less than a minute!
We also have a little plastic slide that we place at the edge of the pool and our littles have fun sliding down into the water. As long as you can stand watch nearby, or better yet, lounge in the pool, you’re golden.
2. DIY Ball Pit
This can be done indoors or outdoors, but for us, it’s a hot or rainy day staple. We bought a cheap plastic pool (the hard sided ones, like this) and filled with about 300 plastic ball pit balls (we already had these on hand). If you don’t already have balls, you can get them pretty inexpensively at Walmart or here on Amazon. They’re worth the investment if your kids are pretty young. You’ll use them often.
You can totally use the bathtub if you don’t have (or want to store) a small pool.
3. Read Along Books
Kids need just as much indoor stimulation as they do outdoor. If your library is currently open or doing curbside checkouts, grab some Read Along books. That is, books with corresponding CDs. My oldest (four years old) thinks they’re amazing. And the best part is they’re books he’s never read before, so there’s no growing tired of them.
If your library isn’t operating at this time, or if you’d prefer to not check out anything, download the Overdrive or Libby app for your local library. If they offer a collection of Read Alongs, your child can read them on a phone or tablet.
4. Make Homemade Ice Cream
Ice cream is the quintessential summer treat. I found a great recipe online from Barefeet in the Kitchen. We haven’t personally done this, but I’m adding it to my summer bucket list ASAP.
Not into ice cream? I love copycat Disney Dole Whips! This is the one we make and love.
5. Go Camping
This is a great idea if any campsites in your area are open. If they aren’t, pitch a tent in your own backyard! This is SO. MUCH. FUN!
If you have a tent, you’re practically all set. If you don’t, you can get a pretty inexpensive one. I love this two person tent.
Now all you have to do is buy items to make s’mores campfire style — graham crackers, Hershey’s milk chocolate, marshmallows and skewers.
If you’re feeling crazy, build a bonfire and roast away. If not, you can make s’mores inside too. See this blog for ideas on how!
6. Set up a backyard carnival
You can make just about any game you can imagine (or search on Pinterest for the best ideas). For the less-than-crafty mama, Amazon is your go-to for buying this stuff. Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing:
- Make a DIY ring toss game using bottles on hand and pool rings (like these!)
- Set up a concession stand with nachos, hot dogs, corn dogs, popcorn and lemonade (easy + cheap!)
- Create tickets with construction paper and require them to “purchase” games or food (a little lesson in counting!)
- Stack a pyramid of red solo cups and use a bean bag to knock down the cups for a prize
- Set up a face painting station
- Create an easy fish bowl toss with clear plastic cups filled with water, a ping pong ball and some pretend fish
7. Visit Cool Places Virtually
There are a myriad of virtual tours or live streams online right now — from zoos to national parks. Travel and Leisure has a very comprehensive list of places to see. This list is HUGE. I don’t think we could get bored from this if we tried.
For the little ones, be sure to scroll down to where it says, “Things to do at home with kids.” Keep scrolling because there’s a post for virtual Disney rides. Woot!
8. Start a Family YouTube Channel
Perhaps this is a big undertaking, but you can video just about anything from your iPhone. You can have a DIY family baking show where your kids make that homemade ice cream (from #4 above) or your grandmother’s famous chocolate chip cookies.
Have little theater kids in training? Write a play and let them act it out on your channel. Have a little comedian in your family? Video them making their very own Tonight Show, jokes and all!
9. Water Bead Fun
Ever heard of gel water beads? These sensory toys are fun for all ages and feel really cool! There are endless amounts of things you can do with them. For starters, grab a large bag of them from Amazon (we love MarvelBeads). Also, a little goes a long way!
You can put them in a bin and give the kiddos some cups, tongs, spoons or funnels to move them around. Or you can let them “grow” in the bathtub and take baths with them later. The options are endless, just make sure your babies aren’t going to mistake them for food.
Teaching Mama has a great post on how to best play with water beads.
10. Create a Scavenger Hunt
This can be done indoors or outdoors. It’s actually a great way to save everyone’s sanity on a rainy day.
Have a birthday during quarantine? Set up a scavenger hunt for all the gifts. That’s what we did for our son’s May birthday. It was honestly one of the most fun birthday activities ever.
He was obsessed with all things Mickey Mouse, so we hid all of his presents and I wrote clues and cut them out. Have your child read the clues out loud (great practice) or read your child the clues and send them all over your house (and yard) for each present.
For any other occasion (or just a random Tuesday), hide toys or snacks and send the kiddos on clues to find them. For example, and much like ones I created for my son: Where do we dry the clothes? Where does grandma sleep when she’s here? Where does sister swing? He knew exactly where to go!
Who says Easter eggs are just for Easter? If you have some laying around, fill them up with clues and/or healthy treats and do an Easter egg hunt in the backyard.
I’d love to hear your summer quarantine ideas for young kids
What do you think? As for me…I’m definitely going to be making ice cream and camping in the backyard this summer!
Do you have any ideas you can add to this? I’d love to hear!
XOXO,
Here’s a roundup of all the fun things I mentioned above. Happy planning!
Finding yourself in a slump this summer? You can read about my tips for a better morning routine here.
