Fun At-Home Spring Activities to Try With Your Kids
When it comes to springtime, it can truly feel like magic is in the air. With the sun starting to peep out from behind those clouds to the new plants emerging all around, there is a wealth of fun activities that will bring all the beauty of spring right home. Consider these ideas for engaging activities for all ages.
Start a Mini Garden
Even if you don’t have a lot of outdoor space or the time to care for a full garden, you can create a mini garden with your kids. Consider growing edible food plants, like green beans and tomatoes, in planters. You can keep these potted garden plants in your backyard or on your porch or deck. Get the kids involved in watering, caring for, and harvesting the plants. Since the plants are in pots, there will be less weeding involved, and upkeep will be a bit easier. You can also use a small area of tilled land for a mini garden or create a small indoor herb garden, too.
Have a Spring Family Cook-Off or Bake-Off
Not only is cooking or baking in spring great to take advantage of some of the delicious spring produce that’s beginning to become available, but it can also be an at-home activity that’s surprisingly fun and educational. Kids learn and use skills like measurement, math, and science while also expressing their creativity by choosing ingredients and adding flair with herbs, spices, frostings, or toppings. Kids can learn about seasonal ingredients and nutrition, too. Finally, practical things like planning and kitchen clean-up come into play, making it a fun learning experience for everyone.
Have a Backyard Picnic with DIY Yard Games
If you’re already getting your kids acquainted with the kitchen, why not get them involved in a backyard picnic? Throw on your favorite comfy sweats, plan some fun picnic foods and get the backyard ready with a great picnic blanket and some outdoor pillows for a fun and relaxing afternoon. Set up some simple and fun DIY yard games, such as outdoor bowling with bowling pins made from old soda bottles, a ring toss with repurposed household materials, or a yard-sized tic-tac-toe game with X’s and O’s cut from old pool noodles. With a little creativity, the possibilities are endless.
Be an Artist or a Poet for a Day
Spring can be an inspirational time for kids with all the vibrancy of the colors and the start of the new season. Tap into their creativity by encouraging them to be poets or artists for a day and get inspiration from all the spring happenings around them. Give kids a notebook and pen or clipboard and pretty paper to start creating their original poetry, or set them up with a makeshift easel and some washable paints to get started on a spring masterpiece. Share the finished poems or artwork with family or friends to make your kids feel famous.
Make Up Your Own Spring-Themed Board Game
If there’s one thing that can be unpredictable in spring, it’s the weather. SInce you never know when you might end up with a rainy day, it’s good to have some activities planned that you can do when it’s pouring outside. Consider making up a board game with a spring theme to get everyone’s creativity flowing and have a fun game to play on a rainy day. You can either create your own game board and pieces from simple materials like poster board, pipe cleaners, and pom-poms, or use spare pieces from older, unused board games and give them new life. Write down the rules and instructions so everyone can remember them on the next rainy day, too.
Create an At-Home Camping Adventure
When it’s not feasible to go camping, create a mini camping adventure for springtime fun and excitement that kids of any age are sure to love. Set up a tent in the living room or playroom, and outfit it with cozy throw pillows, fleece blankets, and lots of books for a cute camping-themed reading area. Create a simple fishing game in the bathtub with DIY straw and yarn fishing poles. Use double-sided tape on the end of the pole, and put out lightweight objects such as foam letters or stickers for kids to fish for. Have an indoor campground lunch complete with hot dogs, trail mix, and microwave s'mores.
Have a Stash of Printable Spring Puzzles for the Family On Hand
You may also want to have a stash of printable spring puzzles on hand for some extra moments of fun when kids get bored. Word searches, spring-themed coloring pages, hidden picture pages, mazes, and much more are readily available online. Keep coloring supplies in cute seagrass baskets or canvas storage bins along with the printables for some quick spring fun at home.
Be a Backyard Scientist
You don’t have to have fancy equipment or be a real scientist to explore the outdoors with the kids this spring. Look for some of the most interesting things you can find in your own backyard, whether it’s insects, plants, animal life, or the weather. Snap some photos, and then look up the facts online and get to know the great outdoors a little bit better. Have kids write down some of their favorite facts or draw a picture of the new things they’ve discovered to make it a fun learning experience as well.
Springtime Can Be Filled With Fun at Home
By using a few simple ideas and a little creativity, you can come up with lots of at-home activities to try with your kids this spring. Whether it’s getting creative in the kitchen or cooking up some DIY games to play in the backyard, you can get everyone involved and keep kids happy all spring long.