Fun projects for kids that you can do from home

As public places, including many parks and campgrounds, are closing to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, you might be left scratching your head on what you and your kids can do.

Plenty!

As we’ve highlighted this week, Scouts can still meet virtually and serve others. They can also go on nature hikes around your neighborhood, develop a hobby (and share them with Boys’ Life!), camp in the backyard, try out a new recipe, work in the garden or help with a home project.

Let’s take a look at a few activities that would be perfect during this time we should limit group activities:

For Lions (Kindergarteners)

Kindergarten-age youth do best when they have structure and schedules. Keep it simple and routine. Here are a few fun activities to add to their schedule:

• Make bubble juice – blow bubbles and pop them. Make homemade bubble wands with yarn and straws.
• Put together a genius kit of miscellaneous items and make a gadget out of them. The gadget doesn’t have to work; they can use their imagination to describe what it does.
• Make a container garden.
• Complete the Rumble in the Jungle Adventure. Play a game and choose an animal they would like to be and why.

For Tigers (First-graders)

Structure and schedules are best for first-graders, too. Ideally, this schedule is as close to what they would experience at school.

• Learn a magic trick.
• Spell your name using sign language.
• Create a secret code.
• Learn about your family history. Interview a grandparent or parent about what life was like when they were young and what were their parents like, and make a family tree.
• Observe the night sky. Identify two constellations.

For Wolves (Second-graders)

Second-graders are natural explorers. Create a list of home rules or expectations; allowing them to be part of the process can help chances they’ll follow them.

• Make a clean room chart, and do the chores for at least one week.
• Talk about why it is important to stretch before and after exercising. Demonstrate proper warm-up movements and stretches before and after each activity that involves action.
• Select a seed, and plant it in a small container. Care for it for 30 days. Take a picture of your plant once each week.
• Grow a mold culture.

For Bears (Third-graders)

As with all elementary-aged youth, a schedule and routine can help maintain normalcy and give them confidence to try new things. Here are a few activities they can do:

• Create a cookbook, using at least five recipes that they could prepare with adult supervision.
• Make a marble obstacle course.
• Create a game using marbles, designing the rules of the game and sharing the game with a family member.
• Make static electricity by rubbing a balloon or a plastic or rubber comb against another material, such as fleece blanket or wool sweater.

For Webelos and Arrow of Light (Fourth- and fifth-graders)

Fourth- and fifth-graders are starting to become more independent and like to be part of making plans. At this age, you can have a discussion with them about the schedule and specific times things should happen and how much time should be allotted.

• Build a model of the solar system. Chart the distances between the planets so that the model is to scale.
• Put together a tool box with at least five tools. Describe what each tool is used for and how to properly use it.
• Learn how to plunge a toilet and how a plunger works.
• Show how to change a light bulb; learn about the difference in sizes, watts and measurements of brightness.
• Discuss chores that each family member does. Develop a list of at least three tasks you can do on a daily basis and do them for at least two weeks.

App access

Since you may have extra time on your hands, you and your Scout will have access to an entire year’s worth of Boys’ Life issues for free on the Boys’ Life app for a limited time. From this month’s issue on back, you can read about all the Scouting adventures, comics, jokes, how-to’s and witticisms from Pedro the Mailburro on the app for iOS or Android.

More on BoysLife.org

For more ideas on fun stuff to do at home, check out these 25 activities on the Boys’ Life website. Also available on the site are online games, stories, podcasts, quizzes and more.

This might be a great time to encourage your Scout to enter BL’s 2020 “Say Yes to Reading!” Contest. Scouts can read a fiction or nonfiction book, write a report and turn it in for a chance to win an Amazon gift card. Everyone who enters will get a cool free patch.