Fun Family Activity Ideas to do at Home

Check out our Play at Home Booklet, simple easy and cheap resources and play ideas for you to try at home.

Play at Home booklet

Image of Play at Home Booklet front cover

 

 

 

 

 

 

Animal activities

Virtual Zoos - Take a trip to the zoo from the comfort of home with these 13 zoos that offer live streams of their animals.  Start your adventure here

Zoo Activities Free and engaging activities for children from a range of community zoos can be found here

Arts and Crafts

CREATIVE ART

Inspire Arts creative activities - free activity sheets from Inspire to get making at home, from making a paper mouse to pompom stars.

ActivityVillage.co.uk have put together some resources that they are making free to download whilst schools are closed.

Creative ideas – activities for Kids pinterest board

Art Ventures Lockdown activity list of 50 things to do during lockdown or sel-isolation

Trash Art and other simple ideas to do at home

Free Kids Crafts -  a range of crafts aimed at preschool to teenagers


LIVE ART CLASSES

Draw with Rob -  Ilustrator Rob Biddulph has taken to Twitter to offer a series of draw-along videos for kids, all you need is a piece of paper and a pencil .  Visit his twitter page https://twitter.com/RobBiddulph on Tuesday and Thursday mornings for the latest videos.  The videos can also be access on his website http://www.robbiddulph.com/draw-with-rob

Pete McKee Cartoon Workshops for beginners.  Videos posted on his YouTube channel Wednesdays at 12pm

Little Learners LIVE - free daily online activity ideas for under 5s.  Mon-Fri at 10.00am. 

Steve Harper Live drawing classes each day with artist Steve Harper

 


ART GAMES

Quick Draw - can you draw an object in less than 20 seconds and get the computer to guess it right before you run out of time? 

Mondian Sqaures - an online version of the game of Squares - can you get more than the computer? 

Art Games from Tate 


ART GALLERIES AND MUSEUMS VIRTUAL TOURS

The British Museum

The Natural History Museum

The National Portrait Gallery

The National Gallery

The Louvre

The Royal Air Force Museum


Health and fitness activities

PE with Joe Wicks on his Youtube channel Mon-Fri 9am

30 minute workout sessions for children and parents


10 minute shake up activities and more

From Change 4 Life


Midday Movers  - Mon-Fri at 12pm

Mini Athletics Nottingham and Loughborough free daily free daily energetic challenges on their Facebook page to get you moving


What's Your Name 

Fitness activity to download - simple and fun way of creating a personal daily fitness activity


TB Sport Daily interactive PE lessons

For all Primary School children from TB Sport

 

Oral Health Games and Activities for Children can be found in the following bulletins, and more can be found on the Nottingham Oral Health website

Indoor/Outdoor play ideas

Indoor Activities

LEGO Play Ideas

kidsactivities.com some selected ideas for if you’re stuck at home:

Captain Fantastic children's entertainer is offering some free online children's entertainment sessions. 

Make your own musical instrument - some simple ideas for making music at home


Outdoor Activities

Super sticks activity sheet 20 fun things you can do with a stick 

Gardening Fun - Lots of ideas for things to keep you busy in the garden can be found on the Children's Gardening Week website


Notts Summer Staycation

Notts Summer Staycation

Notts Summer Staycation is a set of resources aimed at providing children and their families with a series of ideas to help them to stay active over the Summer.

The activities start at home and thereafter are focused on exploring the outdoors in your local area.

There's an appendix at the end for you/your children to record what they've done over the summer in a diary format.

Languages

Learn the British Sign Language Alphabet

Download this chart to learn the BSL alphabet

Left-Handed Right-Handed

Play the fingerspelling 2 minute challenge game here

Create a fingerspelling animation of a word of your choice here


Science and Technology activities

Science Museum puzzles and games

Typing Games for Kids

Scratch  Learn to code and create your own computer games

NASA Kids Club - Children’s website about all things space

Science Museum Group - a range of science and maths experiments and videos

STEM Learning - a range of fun, hands-on activities for families to use at home, suitable for all ages from 4 to 16


Storytimes and reading

Storytimes and Rhymetimes

Rattle Rhyme and Roll at the library.  Some specially created videos from Inspire

Share a Story Corner - 18 picture books for toddlers brought to life in video books 

Storyonline is a collection of videos of children's books read by authors and celebrities

Big List of Children’s Authors Doing Online Read Alouds & Activities https://www.weareteachers.com/virtual-author-activities/ 

Booktrust Interactive books to read along online

Booktrust Home Timeplay games, win prizes, test your knowledge in our book-themed quizzes, or even learn how to draw some of your favourite characters.

David Walliams has some audio stories for FREE, so get listening to some of his wacky stories @ The World of David Walliams

Stories from Space  listen and watch these astronauts as they read stories whilst floating around in space - it's out of this world!

Signed Stories - Animated children's stories performed in sign language


E-Reading

Inspire Libraries e-books, e-audiobooks, e-magazines and e-newspapers all free to use with your library card:

Visit Inspire Digital


Reading Recommendations

Top 90+ Children's Books for primary school children as recommended by the Education Library Service

National Shelf Service - YouTube videos featuring children's book recommendations, helping children and families discover new, diverse reading experiences

Under 5s

Play at Home  A booklet of low-cost activities to do at home for Early Years children


Hungry Little Minds Website : Play Ideas for

0-6 months         6-12 months       12-24 months    2-3 years              3-5 years              


BBC Tiny Happy People Website: A collection of activities to do with

0-3 months         3-6 months         6-9 months        9-12 months       12-18 months    18-24 months

2-3 years              3-4 years              4-5 years              Nursery rhymes and songs


Henry Website : Activities for Babies and Young Children

Visit: www.henry.org.uk/activities


Big Little Moments Babies and toddlers are growing and learning every day and the little moments you share can make a big difference. From morning time to bedtime, waiting for the bus to playing together, every moment is a chance to help build a child’s brain.

Visit: www.smallstepsbigchanges.org.uk/biglittlemoments

Related Links

  1. Things to do at Home

Page last reviewed: 01/12/2023

Skip back to top of page
Feedback