10 Free Fun Things to Do With Your Kids

Boring weekend ahead? Nothing interesting planned? Here are some ideas for fun, free easy things to do with your kids that can bring hours of fun.

Fun Activities to Do with Your Kids

1 Have your lunch or dinner as a picnic in the house. Set up a blanket on the floor. Move some plants nearby. Put picnic-type foods in a basket. Maybe even build a fort out of tables, chairs and blankets and eat inside the fort. After eating tell stories and sing songs.

Elliott, 3 and Matilda, 1

2 Decorate the house for the next holiday, whatever it is. Get crazy and use crepe paper, ribbons, bows, balloons and homemade decorations. Make table centerpieces and decorate the chairs, too.

3 Make a pretend grocery store with real food from the cabinet. Make a cart out of a box. Use a calculator and create a checkout line. Use real bags. Help your child make a list, shop for food, and ring it up. Take it “home,” unpack it and do it again. And again. And again.

4 Fill a super-large container with various types of breakfast cereals. Provide various types and sizes of cups, spoons and small containers for filling.

Lauren, 3

5 Collect rocks, leaves, sticks and flowers. Add bits of things from your “junk drawer” like bag ties, rubber bands, toothpicks and whatnot and. Make a collage.

6 Take a walk after dark. Give everyone a flashlight. Wear all white clothes so you “glow” in the dark.

7 Have a non-Easter-egg hunt using balls, Hot Wheels cars, plastic dinosaurs or large LEGOs. Take turns hiding and finding.

8 Have a treasure hunt or a scavenger hunt all around the house or yard. Make each clue a guessing game. (“I’m in a cold place and there’s lots to eat all around me.”)

Lorelei, 3 and Annabelle, 18 months

9 Set up a beauty salon. Let the kids do hairstyles, paint fingernails, and put on make-up. Play dress up with your old clothes, hats and jewelry and put on a play.

10 Make a homemade book. Think of a story together. Take photos to demonstrate the story. Print them and glue them on paper. Tape it together into a book. If it’s a nice day, make it a nature book – take close-up photos of flowers, bugs, leaves, etc. Or . . .make a home movie!