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.
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 GALLERIES AND MUSEUMS VIRTUAL TOURS
Health and fitness activities
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:
- 30+ Indoor games for kids https://kidsactivitiesblog.com/50578/stuck-inside-games/
- 25 Screen-free activities for kids if you are stuck at home https://kidsactivitiesblog.com/124392/25-screen-free-activities-for-kids/
- 10 ways to get kids active indoors https://kidsactivitiesblog.com/136089/10-ways-to-get-kids-active-indoors/
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 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
Science and Technology activities
Science Museum puzzles and games
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 Time - play 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.