Creative, Free Activities To Do With Kids

Forts can be as permanent as a tree house or as temporary as stretching some sheets over a few kitchen chairs. Encourage your child to invite guests for a fort-warming party.

Turn your living room into a galley showcasing your child's art.

Help your child design and build a challenging obstacle course and then see who can complete it the fastest.

Let your child choose how to rearrange your living room and then commit to that arrangement for at least a week.

Allow room for exploring, wandering, attempting to create a fort out of fallen branches.

Create a list of items that are easy (or not so easy) to find around the house, and offer a handmade certificate for finding them all within a specific amount of time.

Put your child in charge of preparing a meal for the family using ingredients already found in the house. Make sure that you supervise the preparation, and allow at least twice the time it would take you to prepare the meal.

Ask your child to draw or color a picture for this purpose, cut it into 8-12 pieces, and then challenge different family members or friends to put it together.

Allow your child to lead the way on an afternoon walk, and set goals for the number of trees, men in hats, pieces of litter, etc. you’ll pass before it’s time to head back home.

Identify a problem around your house (you can never hear the doorbell from the basement; your dog always eats the cat food; no one likes to take the recycling out to the curb), and ask your child to brainstorm some solutions using materials your family has at hand. Put your child in charge of this project, but be available to assist/supervise the work.