Fun and Healthy Activities for Kids to do While School is Out

As we all stay home to help flatten the curve, it can become more and more challenging to keep children occupied. Instead of filling the day with screen time, try incorporating a few of these enjoyable yet healthy activities for kids into your family’s routine.

Positive Activities to Help your Children Pass the Time

Even without purchasing anything, it’s possible for families to enjoy healthy activities together that aren’t dull or boring.

Exercise as a Family

Exercise is a highly recommended activity every family can do even without workout equipment. By choosing to stay active while at home, you can entertain your kids and improve their mental wellness at the same time.

Easy and Inexpensive Exercise Activities

• Walk for Exercise
• Ride a Bike
• Push-ups and Sit-ups

As the weather gets warmer, now is the perfect time to begin planning healthy activities for kids outdoors.

Schedule a Daily Reading Hour

Just because school is temporarily out of session doesn’t mean that your kids need to take a vacation from reading.

You don’t have to go to the bookstore or even the library to pick up your favorite book. Libraries are now offering free access to reading material while some locations and stores are temporarily closed. You can find everything from classic titles to best-sellers online.

Reading Resources to Try

• Online public library collections.
• The Screen Actors Guild Foundation created a children’s literacy website that features videos of celebrities, like Betty White, reading children’s books. Each one comes with a recommended grade level and an activity guide.
• Other free reading resources are available at the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress.

Re-introducing one of the most fundamental healthy activities for kids in your daily routine will help your family pass the time productively.

Teach your Children to Cook

If you find your family spending more time hanging around the kitchen, why not get everyone involved in cooking meals?

This easy activity is fun, educational and healthy too as long as you consider the benefits of eating balanced meals.

Whether your kids are old enough to make big or small contributions to meal preps, bonding over food is an activity good for children of all ages.

Create Games Out of Simple Household Chores

Unfortunately, even when there’s less to do, few kids look forward to doing chores. To encourage your children to develop healthy habits, try creating simple games that involve typically dreaded tasks, like tidying up a bedroom.

Escape Room Cleaning

Just like the popular game, put each family member in a room and have them race against a time limit.

Musical Tasks

Everybody starts with an individual chore. When the timer goes off, swap tasks and pick up where the other left off.

Choose Chores with Roll of a Dice

Because there are always some chores more popular than others, let the dice decide who does what.

To make all of these games even more fun, give the winner a prize, like picking that night’s movie.

Include Healthy Activities for Kids in Your Daily Routine

As you can see, there are many activities you can do as a family that help to improve health and well-being. By encouraging a healthy lifestyle, you can make the most of the time while school is out of session.

After trying out our examples, get creative and come up with your own family activities. Let us know how it goes.