Parents everywhere have wished for more time with their kids, less time at work, and fewer obligations on the calendar. It may be in an unexpected and scary way, but that time is being granted to us right now.

If you can push away your fears and anxiety, you can use this time to bond with those you love most. You can come out of this awful situation in two ways:

1. Upset, angry, and mentally exhausted
2. Happier, stronger, and a closer family unit

While we are all in the same position of working (or not working) from home, educating (or not educating) our children, and maintaining some sort of schedule, there is one thing that is for sure - we can make good use of this time.

Indoor Family Bonding Activities

Obstacle Course:

Grab your blue painter’s tape that ’s sitting in your garage somewhere and start mapping out an obstacle course throughout your entire house. Toddlers to teens, all of your kids will want to race over couches, under broomsticks, around lego traps, and on top of pillows. You can create challenges (push-ups, count to ten in another language, etc). Have as much fun with this as you can!

Puzzles:

Dedicate your dining room table to a huge puzzle that you all work on together at random times throughout the next few weeks.

Read Aloud or Audiobooks:

stories.Audible.com is providing free audiobooks for all ages right now. If you can’t find one there, download a library app and check out a few there. Audiobooks are great because you can all be listening together while completing other tasks like cooking, laundry, building legos, etc.

Podcasts:

Another option to explore - podcasts! Depending on your children’s ages, there are thousands of podcast options to choose from. You can stick with educational podcasts or jump over to fictional stories!

Yoga:

Thanks to yoga instructors around the world, you can now take any type of yoga class you want (at any level and any age) online. Set up a class on your TV or streaming device, spread out, start stretching, and get your blood flowing together.

Planting Seeds:

It’s garden time, and right now is the best time to start your vegetable garden. You can order seeds or seedlings online to be delivered to your door (respecting social distance, of course).

Cooking/Baking:

It’s the perfect time to pull out a recipe book (or website) and try something new! Let the kids plan an entire day’s worth of recipes and have those ingredients delivered. (Thank you to all of those ensuring that we can still have items delivered right now!) Turn on the music (or podcast!) and start cooking together.

Family Tree:

It can be fun to start talking about your family history with kids from elementary ages and up. You can search for old photos, use the internet, or call your extended family for help.

Hide and Seek:

There’s always somewhere fun to hide inside your house.

Egg Hunt:

Dig out those plastic eggs you have waiting to be used for Easter. Skip filling them with anything and just make up games using them! You can hide them and have kids look for certain colors. You can write letters on them and have kids solve mystery puzzles. The options are endless.

Scavenger Hunt:

Type up a list of items you want each person (or team) to find and then set the timer and start hunting! Dirty sock, baby wipes, something purple, you get the idea.

Dance Party:

Turn on the music and dance together. This will always make everyone smile!