The pandemic has canceled tons of activities, outings, and extracurriculars, leaving our calendars, including our familial ones, rather empty.
Quarantining with kids in summer — when the sun doesn’t set til late, the weather is warm, and you can spend your evenings doing things outside — is one thing. But quarantining in the cold and dark of winter? Woof. You get done with dinner, and then it’s like . . . alright, now what?
Sure, you can watch a movie or pull something out of the board game cabinet, but you probably don’t want everyone staring at a screen every night and you can only play The Floor Is Lava so many times.
If your family has been experiencing some pandemic-induced wintertime doldrums, below we present over 30 ideas for whiling away these long, dark nights. They have been selected and recommended based on the following criteria:
Indoor. These are things you can do entirely within the confines of your house, because baby, it’s cold outside. Easy. There are tons of involved crafts to tackle out there, but at the end of a long day, nobody wants to bust out a ton of supplies, spend an hour on some meticulous project, and then have a bunch of clean-up to do. The activities below require minimal supplies (and that which is required you’ll already have lying around the house) and minimal preparation and work. They’re turnkey. Save more involved crafts — like building a periscope, pencil catapult, or coin-powered battery — for Saturday afternoons. Which, let’s face it, are awfully long too.Novel. Sometimes a little weird and eccentric, these are activities that you may not have previously thought about doing, and that will give you a welcome break from your typical entertainments.The McKay family has field-tested all of these ideas and given them our seal of approval. Some will keep your kid occupied for a fairly long time; others provide a short diversion and quick laugh. Some are one-and-done type things; others are games your kids will want to play night after night after night (sometimes to your chagrin!). Keep this list handy and pick a couple things each evening to try out and use to pass the time in some memorably interactive, full-bore wholesomeness.
Wonder Ball Game
This old camp game, passed down to us by Kate’s father, has been a weirdly big hit in our household. It’s akin to hot potato: you toss a ball around a circle while all singing the Wonder Ball song, and whoever has the ball in their hands when the last word of the song (“out!”) is warbled, is, well, out. Keep on doing rounds of it until only one person, the winner, is left standing.
Here’s how the song goes:
The Wonder Ball Goes round and round To pass it quickly You are bound If you’re the one To hold it last The game for you Has surely past You Are Out!
In our house, we call the game “Wonder Toad” because instead of using a ball, we use a big plushie of Toad from Mario Kart. Here’s the tune:
The Art of Manliness · Wonder Ball GameThe Art of Manliness · Wonder Ball Lyricsc
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