Games for children to do at home: the magnificent 15

Posted by Md Khann on March 11th, 2020

Is it raining or hot? Baby with a fever? Discover on Sitly blog the most fun games to do at home with children. But who said that afternoons at home are boring? Is it raining or hot? Baby with a fever? Discover on Sitly blog the most fun games to do at home with children. But who said that afternoons at home are boring?

Homemade games for 1 and 2-year-olds

1 The box of disguises

2 The decanting game

3 The big hedgehog

Games to do at home with children aged 3 to 5 years

4 The Montessori frame

5 Hide and seek while seated

6 Take aim

7 Who went away?

Fun activities for children aged 6 and 7

8 The little architect

9 Tangram

10 Gymkana housewife

11 Home games with pen and paper

Fun games for children of 8, 9, 10 years

12 Board games

13 Origami

14 Playing with coding

15 DIY candles

It is not always necessary to organize special things to entertain one or more children. Nor much less special equipment, entertainers, clowns, and cotton candy machines are needed to organize a birthday party or an afternoon at home with friends, and not even a  fun New Year's Eve for children ... All you need is imagination, some snack ideas that children like, and some simple objects: the games to do at home are many and fun. (And numerous: there are so many that we have made a list of them: 101 fun games to play with the kids at home!). 

games to do at home with children

By the way, today children have a life marked by a thousand organized activities: swimming pool, karate, painting and catechism. For them, being at home one afternoon, enjoying their spaces with their mom or babysitter, without haste and in pajamas, can be fantastic. For example, if you wonder what to do during the Christmas holidays with children, a thing that you like a lot, are the chores. Christmas chores easier, certainly, but also jobs Halloween, Easter odd jobs or chores Mother's Day, chores with straws: every occasion is good! For example, do you know what to do with the egg carton? Returning to the games, since each age has its own characteristics, and the one that amuses a child of two as crazy would bore one of six to death, we have divided the games to do at home with mom or grandparents baby sitter by groups of age. About baby games, we talked in an ad hoc post, dedicated to how to entertain a baby from 0 to 12 months. Here we start from 12 months onwards. 

Homemade games for 1 and 2-year-olds

No "madness", tantrums and tears, if the baby is sick and can't go to the park, don't worry. The games to do at home with young children are many. This is the age when the child begins to learn the first social rules, through imitation, he experiences the first physical skills (walking, running, manipulating); he wants to know the sounds, the colors, the "physical consistency" of the world. Here are some fun activities for one and two-year-olds. You will find many more in the post we have dedicated to   games for children of 2 years :

1 The box of disguises

In a box or a basket, collect everything that can be used to make small role-playing games. An old carnival wig, a cloak, a nightgown, a hat, a pair of glasses: fish together from there, and invent for the child the stories of which you and he are the protagonists. Better still if the invented story concerns characters from everyday life: the doctor, the mother with the baby, the dog or the cat. In this way, with imitation and play, the child learns social behavior and rules (and has a lot of fun!). The disguise box is among other things one of the most original inexpensive gifts for children!  Do you need a babysitter but you don't know how much it would cost you?

2 The decanting game

On the kitchen table, place in a beautiful view bowls containing chickpeas, pasta, lentils, flour. Give the child a small cup or spoon and encourage them to transfer the different materials from the full bowl to an empty bowl. Have it start with larger materials ( egg pasta) and finish with smaller ones, so that it is a game of increasing difficulty. You can find a variant of this game in our post on the games of the Montessori method. you may read also fun activities for kids

This activity, in addition to being very fun for children of 1 year or 2, is also "instructive". In fact, if they make the movement from left to right (the opposite for left-handed children) they will refine skills that will come in handy for writing. (Are you interested in knowing which activities stimulate language development? Read our post on nursery rhymes for kindergarten children ).

3 The big hedgehog

As you know, children of this age have fun putting small objects into large objects and practicing shapes and sizes. One of the most fun games to play at home when it rains, for example, is that of the "big hedgehog". Take a colander, turn it upside down and show the child how to insert spaghetti into all the holes. In a short time, he will have built a large hedgehog of wheat!

Games to do at home with children aged 3 to 5 years

There are many simple games to play at home for children of this age. The activities, games, and chores that we can offer will also serve to stimulate the skills necessary for school children: fine motor skills, orientation in space, the concepts of above and below, before and after, left and right.

4 The Montessori frame

From Montessori pedagogy come many suggestions to create - at home and with little expense - games for children that are fun and capable of stimulating their natural aptitudes. This is a game suitable for 3-year-old children to teach them daily gestures such as buttoning a shirt, opening and closing a zip, and fastening shoes.

Home games: the Montessori loom

The funny thing is that you can do it at home, with a wooden tablet (if you don't have a frame/frame), drawing pins or hot glue to fix the fabric, an old shirt, a sweatshirt you no longer use, laces of shoes. (The latter version is suitable for older children). 

5 Hide and seek while seated

The typical example of a game to do at home in which the child, in addition to having fun, acquires those important skills that we said at the beginning. Hide an object in the room: in a wardrobe, inside a vase, on a shelf. The child should find him by asking you questions like "Is he under the bed? is it in the closet? is it near the door? ”, then change roles.

6 Take aim

Have the child help you draw rigid cardboard rings, and paint them together in different colors. And this alone would be a fun job to do with children. But don't stop here: turn a chair over and try to center the legs with the rings. Each leg can be worth a different score, or the colors will distinguish the scores.

7 Who went away?

A classic one of memory games for children. Put some items on a tray or table (start with four and then gradually increase). The boy watches them for a few seconds, then turns around and you take one-off. The child has to guess which one is missing. It is not as easy as it seems: try to do it yourself and you will see it! If these home-made games for children up to 5 years of age are not enough for you, take a look at the post we have dedicated to games for children of 5 years.

At this age, educational games for learning to count are also particularly suitable: take a look at our post on games with numbers for children to bring them closer to mathematics from a very young age. Finally, we recommend that you also take a look at our post on what to give to a 3-year-old: there are many good ideas of toys suitable for stimulating the imagination, knowledge of the world, the skills of children of 3 or 4 years. Toys they can play with for hours.

The activities we have chosen for 6 and 7-year-olds are perfect games for an afternoon with mom but also to do with the night baby sitter: they can be done at home, even just in two, with very simple materials such as paper and pen. There are some games that provide some movement, although suitable for indoor spaces. And then you play with words, shapes, numbers, to exercise the skills needed in school. But also some ideas for jobs for children of 6 or 7 years. At this age children are able to concentrate longer, they know how to cut, color and build, so you can engage them in creative projects. Here are some ideas; if they are not enough to look for other ideas of games for children to do at home for 7 years.

8 The little architect

Collect shoeboxes, pieces of fabric, wooden clothespins, straws, ice cream sticks, recycled materials of various kinds and unleash the creativity of the child on a budding architect project: a dollhouse, a farm, a castle medieval. Glue, cut out, paint with oils or watercolors and finish the details with plasticine and purple. It will be a great satisfaction for the child, but also for you!

9 Tangram

The  Tangram is an ancient game, which helps the understanding of the figures and space. And with its forms to compose, it unleashes the imagination: it really is much more than a chore for children. First of all, the game starts from the construction, don't buy it done: just search for "tangram tutorial" on youtube to learn. Then, use it to reproduce animals, or numbers or what fantasy suggests to you and the child.

10 Gymkana housewife

And to stretch your legs a little, offer the child an obstacle course. (And yes, this is a game very suitable for young and energetic girls, so babysitting is a  student job !). Draw it together on the floor with scotch paper, put a chair here and there, a pouf to climb over and then off: it's up to the child to move along the lines with a tray in his hand, loaded with objects (an apple, two pens, etc ...) do not drop. At each turn, you can increase the difficulty by adding an object, or by asking the child to carry the tray with one hand or with his eyes closed. A variant with spoon, ball, and costumes, very fun, you can find it in our post on Carnival games. And while playing the child exercises attention, concentration, and hand-eye coordination.