50 Fun Things to Do with the Family

Staying home? We've got you covered! Check out 50 Fun Things to Do with the Family When You Can't create!  These are challenging times and we at Happily Hooked Magazine hope everyone is safe and happy!  Stay-at-home orders pose a challenge for families.  Filling the void of not working or being in school can be hard.  Of course, we love to craft!  But we know there is a desire to fill family time too.  This is why we have compiled an extensive list of 50 fun things to do with the family, including…

• Free Classes
• Zoo Live Streams & Virtual Field Trips
• Museum Tours
• Educational & Fun Videos for the Kids
• Exercise Classes
• Science Experiments

and so much more…

50 Family Fun Things to Do

Free Classes

Art Classes

Art can be very therapeutic in troubling times.  Some of the most beautiful artwork stems from times of turmoil and strife.  Out of tragedy can come beauty.

 

• Duke University is offering a class on Public Art and Pedagogy, and it is open to beginners.
• Harvard University is offering a class on the Pyramids of Giza: Ancient Egyptian Art and Archaeology here.
• The University of Central Florida is teaching a class on the psychology of Art and Creativity here.

There are several more art classes you can find on this list.

Ivy League Courses

Taking classes from Ivy League schools is a gift.  Many of those schools, including Harvard, Cornell & Princeton, are offering classes to take for free online.
Free courses range from artificial intelligence to personal development courses.  We picked a few for you below, but head over and check out the enire list below.

 

• The Science of Well-Being
• The Age of Sustainable Development
• Vital Signs: Understanding What the Body Is Telling Us

The rest of the courses are here.

Zoo Activities

Zoos provide a safe place for animals to thrive without fear of predators in the wild.  Visiting a zoo is a great way to get the kids to ask questions and interacting with these magnificent animals too.  Below is a list of zoo activities and live streams.

• The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden is hosting a live event every day at 3 pm, and this should be a lot of fun to watch and something wholesome.
• This article has a list of zoos in Japan that are live streaming.
• The San Deigo zoo also has a set of live cams and archived live cam footage to keep everyone engaged for days.

Museum Tours

There are 2,500 museums you and your family can visit while staying at home.  What an excellent way to spend some quality time and discuss the timeless masterpieces.
Here are a few to start, and there are more courses here.

• British Museum, London
• Louvre, Paris
• Uffizi Gallery, Florence

 

Educational & Fun Videos for the Kids

• The Kids Should See This “is an unprecedented collection of over 4,500 kid-friendly videos, curated for teachers and parents who want to share smarter, more meaningful media in the classroom and at home. Selections are grown-up-friendly, too. And thanks to our members, it's free for everyone.”
• Many of you may remember Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings from your childhood.
• Also, they have a great video on the coronavirus to help children understand.

Exercise

YMCA

One crucial aspect emphasized in our stay-at-home order is to make sure we all get enough exercise.  This can be a challenge for some because gyms are not always affordable.  Luckily, the YMCA has taken money out of the equation and given us free courses online.

• The YMCA is offering 60 free online courses for training and well-being during these tough times.  Check out their course listings here and get moving with the family or on your own.  Exercise is so vital for relieving stress and releasing healthy endorphins.

The Ayurvedic Experience

Ayurvedic is an ancient system of natural medicine that literally means “knowledge of life.”  Ayurveda is derived from the idea that disease is a result of lifestyle, stress, and imbalances in the mind, body, & spirit.  The emphasis of Ayurveda is on personal well-being and self-care, which we can all use right now.

• This site is perfect for health and well-being.  It is called the Ayurvedic Experience, check it out.

Family Fun Science Experiments

Who doesn't love a great science experiment?  Science experiments are something we all remember from childhood and almost seem magical!  Remember the egg & vinegar experiment, where the egg becomes transparent?  We do too!  Check out these fun science experiments to keep the kids busy and entertained while staying at home.

For the Kids

Science experiments are so much fun.  In this video, you will find 14 Science Experiments for Kids by 5-Minute Crafts.

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Positive Parenting Ally

Positive Parenting Ally

• 14 fun science experiments for kids that you can do using household items.  Check out the post here.

Music

If you like classical music or want to try something new, there are several orchestras and operas streaming orchestras or presenting live archives.  These include the Berlin Philharmonic, where you can access their Digital Concert Hall.

• The Detroit Symphony Orchestra that allows listeners to stream and sign up for free.
• The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Centre, where live streams and past shows are available with no signing up required.
• NPR has an extensive list of virtual live concerts from musicians around the world.  These are streaming on websites and as Facebook lives to extend to April 11 and to update regularly.

You can find more links to classical music streaming free here.

Fun Kid-friendly Activities

Empathy is a trait that does not come easy for many people, especially children.  In today's world, with the fear and hopelessness that can surround children because of COVID-19, it's important to teach coping skills.  Playing #empathy with your kids while confined can be the perfect opportunity.  Katherine Train and Lidewij Niezink put together some games for you to play. We'd love to hear how they go!

Taking care of children can run even the most experienced mothers, fathers, and teachers ragged.  Children have so much energy to get out of their systems!  This list of activities for kids will help you fill their time and create memories that you can keep for a lifetime.

• The 52 weeks of creative ideas for parents include fun activities like pass-along a story, pretend time activities like “time traveler arrives from ancient times” and “imagine dinosaur pets.”
• There are more fun and engaging, at-home learning activities on the Crayola website.
• Here is a list of 18 Crafts for Kids, including glitter bottles, cloud dough, & kids stained glass and 15 other great fun at-home projects!
• Another great resource is brought to you by No Guilt Mom with some fun activities, including changing the color of celery, exploring colors with baking soda/vinegar, and frozen slime recipes!

Reading

Mouse Circus

For kids, head over to MouseCircus.com, The “Official Neil Gaiman Website For Young Readers,” where you can listen to the author read the entirety of his best-selling The Graveyard Book on video, as well as another video where Gaiman and “lots of other people” read the whole of Coraline.

Open Library

Open Library is a fantastic internet archive with thousands of free books to read.  Titles range from fantasy, science, biographies, to art and romance.

Courage Under Water

Courage Under Water: The Adventures of Brymey the Seal and Hana the Honu (Aquatic Adventures Book 1)  is free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers and is a book about love, selflessness, and courage – very inspiring for times like these.

You can find Courage Under Water here.

Family Friendly Crafts

Learn to crochet (of course!)

If you already know how to crochet, teaching your kids to crochet may give you the much-needed crochet time we all crave!  However, if you are new to crochet…
Crocheting is a wonderful stress reliever.  If you don't know how to crochet, there is a wealth of videos out there that can help you learn. When you learn to crochet, you can create anything from scarves to stuffed animals.

Absolute Beginner Crochet by Bella Coco

Bella Coco is a crochet blogger, and teacher who creates beautiful YouTube videos on learning to crochet.  Find more of her tutorials here.
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Happily Hooked Crochet Magazine

When you start learning to crochet, you will never want to put it down.  Subscribing to Happily Hooked Magazine would be a great place to start your crochet adventure too.  Happily Hooked Crochet Magazine is a digital monthly publication loaded with tested patterns by experienced designers from around the world.  Learn some new techniques like Mini C2C in this post.

A Piece of Rainbow

This list is a great place to start for creating some fun and cute projects to do with the kids.  They are fun and fresh and easy to make!

 

• The kids' crafts include painting rocks, upcycling containers, and making pop-up cards.  Check out the post here.

Audiobooks

Audiobooks are a great way to wind down and enjoy stories with the family.  Audible is perhaps the largest audiobook provider out there, with free trial period and low monthly payments.  However, in these times, Audible is offering free streaming.  See the details below.

Audible is offering free streaming in six different languages for as long as schools remain unopened.  The best part is there is no signing up or log in required!

Podcasts

This American Life

This American Life podcast is entertaining journalism that chooses a new theme each week.  Their stories for the entire week revolve around the chosen topic.

This American Life is available for free streaming on various platforms, including Pandora, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Radio Public, as well as their website.

RadioLab

Radiolab is a New York Pubic radio podcast with topics ranging from adulting to live comedy shows. Here is a sample of some of the shows they have available.

Check out RadioLab Podcasts here.

Podcast for Kids

Here is an extensive list of podcasts for kids.  Below, you'll find three of our favorites!
Book Club for Kids

The place where young readers meet to talk about books. The show includes a celebrity reader and an interview with the author. The host is award winning public radio journalist Kitty Felde. Book Club won the California Library Association Technology Award and the DC Mayor's Award for Excellence in the Humanitites. Named one of the top 10 podcasts for kids by THE TIMES of London.

Sesame Street

Download and subscribe to the Sesame Street video podcast featuring the furry and loveable Muppets of Sesame Street. Sing songs with Elmo, Abby, Cookie Monster and Grover. Learn about friendship, patience and sharing with Bert and Ernie. Celebrate sunny days with all of your favorite Muppets with new episodes every Monday!

Little Stories for Tiny People: Anytime and bedtime stories for kids

Little Stories for Tiny People is a kids' podcast featuring original kids' stories and poems that will delight the tiny people in your life. Perfect for bleary-eyed parents, innovative preschool teachers, and at-wits’-end babysitters looking for an alternative and non-annoying way to engage the toddlers and young kids they love at bedtime or anytime! Each story for children is lovingly written and performed with attention to the
whimsical senses of humor children often possess. Visit www.littlestoriestinypeople.com for more info and to learn about the upcoming picture book.

If you like 50 Fun Things to Do with the Family When You Can't Create, then please check out this post on 10 Crochet Techniques You've Probably Never Heard of and Why They Are so Cool

Gardening

Staying at home can be hard, but it is Spring, and pretty soon, the threat of frost will be over.  Spring means it is time to start planting in the ground.
It also means we can start seeding indoors and playing around with herbs and other vegetables you can regrow from existing plants.
It’s lovely to watch something new grow from an existing plant, and these are a great way to teach children a sustainable way of life by recycling plants and growing their food!
Check out the 20 Vegetables You Can Re-Grow From Scraps here.

More Things to Do At Home:

• Virtual Visit to Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom
• Educational Shows on Disney+
• Imagineering in a Box
• 150 Educational Shows on Netflix
• Boredom Busting Bingo
• 1000 Free Disney Coloring Pages

We hope you enjoyed this list and hope everyone is healthy, and staying safe.  We will get through this.
If you're wondering who we are, keep reading…

About Happily Hooked Crochet Magazine…

Here at Happily Hooked Magazine, we are continually striving to help our readers live healthy, happy lives by providing fun, informative, and engaging content in our magazine and on our blog.
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Do you have any ideas to add to the list?  Leave a comment below! and thanks for stopping by!