We’re now at 3 weeks being home with a newborn and a 3 year old. It’s been an adventure, and even though there have been some tough moments, we have had a lot of fun together. You would think now at this point, even with everything going on outside the home, this is all normal.

Today I’m teaming up with a few other moms around the web to share our favorite at-home activities with kids. Be sure to check out their posts, Julia of Lemon Stripes, Emily of Isn’t That Charming also has a newborn and love reading her ideas and the lovely Danielle Moss. Be sure to head over to their blog and see how they’re keeping their little ones busy during quarantine!

1. Go to the Beach

This was easily Sebastian’s favorite activity from last week. We even got baby Hugo and Matt involved. The night before we prepared everything for our “trip”. Sebastian and I packed our towels, hats, sun tan lotion, umbrellas, sunglasses and everything else we would normally take with us to the beach. By having everything packed the night before, it allowed us to stay on schedule the next day. It also that I set a time that we would go to the beach and leave the beach. Matt was our waiter and served us lunch at our “beach side cafe” and we even played the Beach Boys to really set the mood. We will be going to the beach again really soon!

2. Caterpillar Race

This is such a fun and easy way to have an interactive craft session with your toddler. To start, you make two caterpillars out of construction paper. Next, grab a straw from the kitchen and have a caterpillar race! This will keep them occupied for a while and in Sebastian’s case, a good 30 minutes! For simple how-to instructions, see the full tutorial here.

3. Grow Seeds

On Pinterest, I found this cute idea of growing seeds in old play dough cups. We had several empty cups and some packets of seeds I got from the pumpkin patch late last year. Sebastian and I cleaned out the jars, filled them with dirt and planted our seeds. It gives Sebastian something to watch after and the responsibility of needing to water the seeds every few days. Reminds me of when I was young and doing this exact activity with my mom. Love this idea and excited for our first sprout! Click here to see all the other ways to plants seeds with kids.

4. Yoga!

I love doing yoga with Sebastian. This is a great way to get everyone moving in the morning. It also gives me an opportunity to get in a few more exercises before I start the day.  With our yoga poses, we also chant little phrases together. He loves it but as you can imagine, they can venture off script. Just going to take practice and regular scheduling.

“I am wise” –> Tree Pose

5. Make Play Dough

Sebastian and I love cooking together so this one is a blast. I love getting him to participate in following  the instructions. We will measure out the different ingredients and I’ll have him repeat the measurements and tell me what we need to use next. It keeps their curiosity and excitement! I’ll also ask questions such as “Is a cup bigger or smaller than a tablespoon?” or “Do you think we should use a tablespoon of oil or a cup?” to stretch their critical thinking skills.  Play dough recipe below:

1 cup flour

1 tbs oil

1/2 cup salt

2 tsp cream of tartar (you can skip this if you don’t have it)

1 cup water (The texture comes out better if you use hot/boiling water. Add it in yourself, give it a few stirs until it cools completely, then let your child stir the rest.)

If you want to get creative, add a couple bags of herbal tea or a few drops of essential oils into the water to make it scented. Plus it adds another sensory component. We love adding different colors by adding food coloring. If you don’t have food coloring, you can try blueberries for purple, turmeric for yellow, cocoa powder for brown, etc. and put them in the water. Make it your own!

6. Letter Scavenger Hunt

Create a grid with all of the letters(capital) of the alphabet on a large piece of paper. Then write another set of letters and cut out each one individually. Hide the individual letters around your house and have them find them and match with the master list on the grid.  Works great with numbers as well!

7. Fine Motor “Cutting Box”

If you have a pair of child scissors at home, fill a box/bin with a selection of items for them to practice cutting (i.e. construction paper, wrapping paper, toilet paper rolls, leaves, old playing cards, etc.). As they get comfortable using the scissors, you can then draw lines and zig zags across big pieces of paper. This makes great practice for them to learn to have purpose when using the scissors and also adds some responsibility and patience. Sebastian loves this.

8. Toy Parade

I originally saw this idea on Busy Toddler’s Instagram page. We put our own little spin on the idea and had our own coordinated parade with Sebastian’s toys. We used color tape. You can also use regular tape if you don’t have colored and simply create several straight lines. We then lined up all his toys to to the proper color so they could march in the parade. It was really cute.

9. Cook!

Sebastian and I love cooking together, a few simples recipes I’d recommend are these brownies and this pasta. I’d also recommend measuring out all the ingredients before starting with your kiddo. It makes the process a lot easier! Sebastian loves wearing his apron, so if you have a little kiddo apron, they will love to use it. Makes them feel like a master chef!

10. Sink or Float?

Fill the bathtub with water, gather some assorted items from around the house and ask your child to predict whether the items will sink or float, then let them test each one. Simple but a great activity to do when they are taking a bath.

Here are a few other resources that might help you during quarantine..

Raising Dragons and Busy Toddler have some brilliant ideas on keeping your busy kiddos mind occupied throughout the day. If you’re looking for education videos, I recommend Scholastic’s “Learn At Home” series.  They now have daily lesson plans, make it that much easier to stay on track with a schedule.

Would love to hear any activities you are doing with your kiddos while stuck at home. Let me know if you have any questions and thank you for reading!

xo, Olivia