Social Distancing Activities For Kids
It’s been over two years since Covid-19 Pandemic started and we are still in the midst of finding fun social distancing activities for kids. It’s important that even through the pandemic times, these younger children and older children are exposed to physical activity that enhance their gross motor skills as well as fine motor skills. When the pandemic started, stay at home orders and social distancing rules with public spaces were a huge factor. Keeping safe distance was the smart way to maintain our safety.
But There are ways of keeping our kids safe while enjoying some social distancing games and fun outdoor activities too. So what are some activity ideas that includes free play, easy project, safe way, with much fun activities to do? Take a look at the following social distancing activities for kids and you’ll see some of the list of things that can help with the social activities, even with just some household items.
1. Scavenger Hunt
No matter what the ages of your children are, one of the best way to keep the kids in an engaging activities is to play scavenger hunt. Our scavenger hunt game consists of playing while cleaning. The music plays one of their favorite songs while the kids go look for an item that is requested. Once they find the item, they are asked to go put it back in the spot that it belongs in. The best part is that it’s a way to play and clean at the same time and the kids absolutely adore it.
2. Obstacle Course
I’m not sure if it’s just my kids but boy do they love creating an obstacle that has a finish line to it. It can be an outdoor games or an indoor one as you wish. The first person to finish would get bonus points to choose a snack of their choice first. The course is made to accommodate all age groups for a fun way and easy ways for them to have good times.
3. Classic Game Of Board Games
Growing up, board games used to be a great way to have a great time with the whole family. Since we didn’t get to have much screen time, our free time was used playing board games. Some of the classic ones were operation, life, monopoly, perfections, connect four, sorry, and many more. Some of these are still around for these young people to enjoy a great time together.
4. Dance Party
This is one activity that is enjoyed by both young children and older kids as well. One great idea would be to use Alexa to play the most popular games. One thing my kids also include while dancing is Simon says. They have Alexa say it to them and they have a better time that way.
5. Sidewalk Chalk
This one is a great outdoor activity because it allows the children to explore their fine motor skills in every aspect possible. The kids can draw pictures write letters/numbers, create little obstacle courses, and enhance their fine motor skills. Sometimes they ask me to draw a hopscotch for them to play with.
6. Movie Nights
Movie nights is a good way to have a Netflix party night. We don’t have to spend too much time exploring options because the kids have their all time favorites.. My husband makes sure he gets the pop corn ready while the kids get their little cozy comfy area prepared. Blankets and soft fluffy stuffed animals are brought out to join. Who can go wrong with a family movie night?
7. Card Game
Card games such as Uno and Go fish teach our kids new skills of playing in small groups setting. Uno is a game where the last person to get rid of all his/her cards becomes the winner. They start with a set number of cards and match the cards the previous players puts down in the middle. Once you are down to one card, you must shout out “uno” before any other play does, or you will have to get more cards.
Go fish is my son’s favorite card game. He asks to play that often. One of the biggest reasons of playing card games is number recognition, which he mastered 1-20 before he turned 2 years-old.
8. Family Game Night
Family game night happens when all family member agree that it’s a perfect time to do it. We gather all of our games We bring out the skee ball, bowling, ring toss, and hula hoops. We create a mini course that we all go through. Depending on what everyone votes for, it can be all the games or just a few at a time. Once you add more games, you can do rotations of each or create a game course too.
9. Spoon Race
This game was something that my daughter played in her kindergarten classroom before the pandemic happened. You get two rows and when the race begins, you go across from one side to the other side of the room with a spoon in your mouth that has a cotton balls on it.
10. Easy Science Experiments
One small experiment that my husband did with the kids was the mentos and the coca cola bottle. They saw this experiment in an episode of “Fuller House,” and wanted to attempt it many times. During the beginning of the pandemic, they were able to test this experiment and had a blast.
11. Jenga
Can you ever go wrong with a game with Jenga? We have the regular size one and the mini ones and they love taking turns in playing with either one. The mini ones do get a bit challenging became of the size of it so mom and dad have a hard time playing it. It’s an easy with for the kids for sure.
12. Bike/Scooter Time
One great thing about a big backyard is that the kids can ride their bike and scooter. They create little courses sometimes to go through as well. My kids both learned how to ride bikes at a young age so they don’t need any assistance with it.
13. Cookie Decorating
A fun simple activity that the kids can enjoy doing at hone is cookie decorating. You can either bake your own cookies, but we normally use the graham crackers. We get different flavors of frosting as well as sprinkles and other decorating materials. Provide them with a paper plate and a paper knife one on with it they go. Give them limits on how much of frosting and sprinkles to put so they know in advance.
14. Interactive Computer Time
My kids have been into online checkers/chess recently and they enjoy playing it. Some great online resources age-appropriate computer activities that the children can do. Set a timer so that they know in advance how much time they are given. Provide them with a 10 minute warning so that it’s not just a sudden shut down.
15. Reading, Writing, Arithmetic Time
We call it homework time because that’s how my little one has learned. When sister does her homework, he has to work on his workbook as well. Or we can also do some reading time where they each pick a book for me to read and/or they choose a book to read and browse on their own.
16. Video Chat
Ever since the pandemic started at the second half of my daughter’s kindergarten year, she’s learned to use facetime and zoom very well. Her whole first grade year was done through zoom. So whenever she has a downtime or wishes to talk to a friend via video, she will ask to use the facetime feature on the iphone/ipad with family or her best friend. It allowed her to virtually communicate with them. This activity is one of the best social distancing activities for kids because it helps kids maintain their social interactions with other people, even through these times.
17. Play-Dough
Play-dough is such a multi-educational item that can be used for all purposes. I used play-dough for both of my kids as a fun learning activity to not only reach specific goals but also to enhance their educational skills as well. They’ve built new habits along the way and the good news is that it’s not very difficult to make. The following is the simple recipe I use to make the playdough.
These are the ingredients that are needed:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour.
- 3 cups warm water.
- 1.5 cup kosher salt.
- 3 tbsp. vegetable oil.
- Food coloring.
- First I get large bowl to mix the flour, salt and the oil together.
- Then boil hot water on the stove or microwave and let it be until it’s Luke warm.
- Add the water to the bowl and thoroughly mix it.
- In this next step, you have the option of adding one food coloring to the whole dough or separating them so that you have different colors.
- Place it in a closed container for a few hours. I prefer to put my in the refrigerator but other’s like to keep it in room temperature. I feel like it’s the same either way.
18. Pool Noodle
My kids love watching American ninja warrior whenever they can. Making obstacle courses and challenges are something that they get motivated to do so it’s only fitting that they create a race using pool noodles. By using tape and scissors, with or without assistance, they can create a min course of their own indoors or outdoors.
19. Looking Through Old Photo Albums
Growing up, we used to be able to print out photos and create a photo album for keepsake. Nowadays with so much of the digital online photo storage options, printing photos doesn’t happen as much. Cameras aren’t used as much since our mobile phone camera capabilities sometimes surpass that of a camera. So often, the kids and I will look through our computer/mobile phone where the photos are stored and reminisce about the times in each photo. We could actually spend hours looking through all the photos.
20. Badminton
Who says badminton has to be in a specific locations? My dad bought the kids badminton sets and they enjoy playing with indoors and outdoors. Because the shuttlecock isn’t as strong with the kid’s hits, I allow them to play in doors as well. They take turns hitting it to each other. My daughter gets patient with her little brother because he still struggles a little with the racket.
Keeping social distance has helped with our immune systems being protected from the virus but it’s also has kept the kids from building stronger social skills and social interaction. We are hoping that in the coming weeks, things will continue to get better. These social distancing activities for kids are some ideas that have kept my kids active during the pandemic days. These can actually be used on a daily basis as well.
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