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24 At-Home Learning Activities to Share with Parents of Young Children

*We originally published this post near the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. While some things have changed since then, the activities in this post are still great skill-builders for young children! 

As schools close due to COVID-19 concerns and new guidelines on social distancing take effect, many parents are home with their young children—and looking for new ways to keep them occupied while building on the skills they’ve been learning in the classroom. Keeping kids engaged and active (without overusing screens!) can be tough during an unexpected break like this, especially when new safety recommendations put a temporary hold on play dates, restaurant trips, and visits to crowded parks, zoos, and other places kids love.

If you’re a parent of young children—or if you work with families—today’s post is tailored especially for you. We’re bringing you a collection of 24 at-home learning activities parents can use to boost their child’s academic, motor, communication, and social-emotional skills while they’re home from school. Adapted from some of our best books on early childhood development and education, these fun and inexpensive activities will keep kids learning and give you easy ways to connect with them during this unexpected break in routine.

Please share these ideas with any families who might benefit, and if you have a favorite at-home activity to share, add it in the comments below!

Academic skills

Supercharge your storytimes. Your daily book reading sessions are golden opportunities to actively build early literacy skills. To boost vocabulary knowledge, watch for words you think your child may not know and briefly define and talk about them. When you reread a book, ask your child if they remember what the word means, and try to use the new words at other times of the day to reinforce knowledge. To build letter recognition skills, try pointing to letters as you say their names, singing a slowed-down ABC song while you point to each letter in the book. Turn to random pages in the book and see if children can name and point to the letters themselves. You can follow up by having your child make their own ABC book, finding or drawing pictures for each letter.

Make a museum. Your child’s favorite museum might be closed to the public right now, but they can make one at home with a little imagination and a few simple materials. If your child has collected little treasures over the years (rocks, shells, toy dinosaurs, buttons, etc.), show them how to arrange their collections in themed displays using shoe boxes, small jars, or egg cartons. Help children label their treasures—a great way to practice letter writing and recognition—and build their language skills by encouraging them to give “tours” of their personal museum to visitors. (Also, did you know that many museums are giving free virtual tours right now? Here’s a list of them , and here’s a link to the kid-friendly online tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art . While you’re teaching young children at home, a virtual museum tour might be a fun way to spark conversations about art and history.)

Start a language-rich restaurant at home. If your family eats out regularly, kids might be missing the interesting change in routine that a restaurant offers. Why not start a restaurant at home, and use it to help teach language and literacy skills? Stock your play area with empty boxes, food containers, and restaurant props with writing on them, such as takeout menus, placemats, or a newspaper circular. Read the menu with them, or help them create their own menus from scratch. Help kids make a sign with their restaurant’s name. As children play, point out words on the restaurant props and encourage them to spot familiar letters and words.

Measure their masterworks. Are your kids passing the time by making a long cardboard road for their cars, or building a tall tower with blocks? Dig out your ruler and incorporate a little measurement lesson into their play. Show them how to use the ruler to measure the length of their road or the height of their tower. They might have fun predicting how many inches long or feet high their creations are.

Communication skills

Have an adventure—without leaving your living room. Sit with your kids on a rug or couch and pretend you’re leaving for a big adventure on a magic carpet, submarine, or school bus. Ask them to share their ideas on where they want to visit, and take turns concocting a story about your adventure. Describe the sights you see and ask kids questions that invite their creative participation: “Look, there’s a circus! Can you see the elephants? What are they doing?” “Do you see that school of fish? What do you think fish learn about in school?” This is a great way to strengthen communication skills while having fun with kids who feel cooped up.

Set up a home office for kids. This is an indoor activity kids love, especially if your own home office is getting a workout right now—they’ll enjoy the chance to be “just like you.” Set up a pretend office in a corner of your home where kids can make calls, write letters and “send” them, and type important emails. Be sure to provide lots of varied materials for them to work with: an old keyboard to type with, file folders and paper, a calculator, an old phone (toy or real), pens and pencils, tape, envelopes, rubber stamps, and notepads. Then pretend with them—give them a “call” and ask when the mail will be arriving, or ask to have a face-to-face meeting in their office.

Have some flashlight fun. This activity can help boost communication skills while easing your child into bedtime. Once your child is in bed, give them a flashlight and play with it together in the darkened room. Take turns shining the light on different things. Ask your child questions about the items in the room, and talk about what you see. Whisper and laugh together, and make up a silly story. Bedtime chats like these hone language skills while helping your child feel safe, secure, and calm.

Motor skills

Open your own “art school.” Start by reading your child some favorite picture books and talking about the different techniques the artists used for the illustrations. Then have the child practice fine motor skills by making books or illustrations of their own, using materials such as watercolors, paste, paper, cloth scraps, ribbon, foil, string, stamps, greeting cards, and box tops. When they’re done, your kids can hang their masterpieces in a special gallery area or “read” their illustrated books to you or each other.

Make egg carton caterpillars. If you’re shifting to at-home cooking and using up lots of eggs, here’s a fun fine-motor activity to do with those leftover cardboard egg cartons. Cut the egg section of the cartons into strips, one for each child in your house. Have each child choose a caterpillar body and decorate it with paint or markers or by gluing on different colors or textures of paper. Pipe cleaners make great antennae, and children may even want to add some pipe cleaner legs to their caterpillar. Remind them to draw or glue on a face!

Outline an animal. Does your child have a favorite animal? Draw a simple silhouette of the animal on a big piece of paper and give your child some glue and a bowl of Cheerios or uncooked pasta shapes. Then have the child outline the animal by gluing the cereal or pasta pieces to the page, following the lines you drew. (Always supervise carefully when children are working with small items that could be a choking hazard.)

Social-emotional skills

Pound some dough together. Mushing, squeezing, and pounding dough is a great activity for helping kids process feelings of anger, frustration, and helplessness (and housebound grownups might find this just as therapeutic). Mix up some cookie dough (like these “Get the Mad Out” cookies on the PBS website) and mash and knead it together. Or if baking isn’t your thing, let the kids smush and pound play dough or clay. They’ll let off steam in a safe way and hone their creativity at the same time.

Encourage nurturing play. When the world feels scary, nurturing dolls and stuffed animals is a good way for children to refocus their feelings and practice caring behavior. Set up toy cribs where children can put their “babies” to bed, water tables where kids can bathe their dolls, and places where the babies can be fed with old bottles, sippy cups, and spoons. Help children create caregiving scenarios and praise children for their TLC. (Be sure to include kids of all genders in this activity—every child can benefit from practicing their caring skills.)

Try some therapeutic art, too. Art activities are more than just fun—they can provide children with a powerful outlet for their emotions. Alice Honig describes one example in her book Little Kids, Big Worries : “Lonnie drew a bus and then scribbled all over it with a brown marker. The teacher was puzzled. She did not act disappointed by his scribbles. She did ask him gently to tell her about his picture. The child soberly explained, “That is the ambulance that took my dad to the hospital.’ The brown scribbles over Lonnie’s picture expressed his dark scared feelings about his father’s illness.” Teach children how art can be a healthy way to process difficult emotions, and provide them with lots of different materials they can use to express whatever they might be feeling: pages from magazines, photos, stickers, paint and markers in vivid colors, etc.

We hope this post gave you some new ideas to try with kids, and we wish you and your loved ones continued good health and safety. Stay tuned—later this week, we’ll share a roundup of distance learning resources for K-12 educators who are now teaching remotely. Please let us know how else the Inclusion Lab can support you in the weeks to come!

MORE FREE RESOURCES

20 Stress-Busters for Young Children (designed for early childhood classrooms, but many of the activities can be adapted for home use)

24 Ways to Have Fun with Math at Home

Sample ASQ-3 Learning Activity Sheets 

Sample ASQ:SE-2 Learning Activity Sheets  

EXPLORE THE BOOKS

The activities in this post were adapted from and inspired by the following books:

Activities 1 and 8: Let’s Talk About Math  by Donna Kotsopoulos and Joanne Lee

Activities 2 and 3: Connecting Through Talk  by David K. Dickinson & Ann B. Morse

Activities 2, 4, 9, 15, and 22: Talk to Me, Baby!   by Betty Bardige

Activities 5-7: Blended Practices for Teaching Young Children in Inclusive Settings, Second Edition, by Jennifer Grisham-Brown, Mary Louise Hemmeter, and Kristie Pretti-Frontczak

Activities 10, 11, 14, and 16: ASQ®-3 Learning Activities by Elizabeth Twombly and Ginger Fink

Activities 12, 17, and 18: Early Literacy in Action  by Betty H. Bunce

Activities 13, 19, and 24:   ASQ®:SE-2 Learning Activities by Elizabeth Twombly, Leslie Munson, and Lois Pribble

Activities 20,21, and 23: Little Kids, Big Worries by Alice Sterling Honig

Stay up to date on the latest posts, news, strategies, and more!

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Amy Lambert says

How can I share this with my parents?

jlillis says

Hi Amy--would it work to distribute the link to this article via email? Or if your program has a website, you're very welcome to post it there, as long as you credit and link back to us. Would it help to have it in another format?

Lydia Vazquez says

Lydia Vazquez March 20, 2020 Is this available in another language (Spanish) I have children with dual language

Hi Lydia--we don't have a translation available at the moment, but I will pass this request on to our department director. Thanks!

Logan Brown says

Awesome article! It’s a tough time for children, who have to stay indoors and a challenging time for parents as well. Communal park times are indeed getting difficult, and if at all it’s possible, parents need to consider the sanitation of the playground equipment. This is applicable to the backyard DIY playgrounds as well.

Parul Gupta says

Great article. As a parent of a young child, these tips will really help me a lot to encourage my kid to try & learn new things.

So glad you found this article helpful! Thank you for reading!

Really Awesome Ideas You Have shared for the community, Thank you for sharing.

Its of great help, loved the ideas! I had personally tried this https://bit.ly/2PKSvgS for my kids to learn at home.

Thanks for sharing these great ideas with us. My favourite fun activity with my child is to give her a task sheet each day where she finishes tasks that include either colouring, counting and circling the correct answer, organising her to cabinet, etc. It keeps her busy and active. Sometimes she comes up with her own ideas and we try to play to few games.

Thanks, Noori! Great idea--we're so glad you shared it with us!

Best Nanny Training Institute in India says

Thanks for string this valuable information

Most important thing, like the key to success in homeschooling, is to entertain your child. The fact that she/he is spending time with paret is the big advantage. Other thing is that you shouldn't creat a regular school at home. You can be creative and/or go with the best methods. One of them is to use chess. You need to interest them with something. In my opinion chess is the best game, because it's impossible to get bored by it. So many possibilities, different situations, and you don't always need to play all the game or need someone to play with. You can always focus on solwing the chess problems. I can recommend a very good and briliant book, that can bring you a lot of fun. It's alll about chess. The rules of chess are very simple and children can learn them already from around the age of three. Not everyone can or wants to become a professional chess player but everyone can use chess for learning. For this purpous I can recommend a book (net-boss.org/chess-puzzles-for-kids-by-maksim-aksanov) with bunch of great exercises, which will help you and your kids to be better in this :)

Winnie says

Wow! Really the great ideas you have shared with us. It will be helpful to many parents to keep their kids engaged in various activities!

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The Legislative Process: Congress at Work

In this activity on DocsTeach.org, students analyze historical documents of the House and Senate to understand the sequence of steps in the legislative process. They reflect on how the process of legislation enables Congress to fulfill its constitutional role of representing the American people.

Click the “Start Activity” button to launch the interactive student activity .

The War in Vietnam – A Story in Photographs

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The Impact of Bloody Sunday in Selma

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Nixon Visits China: The Week that Changed the World

The Space Race: Project Mercury

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20 Fun Learning Activities for Kids to Enjoy at Home

These exciting educational activities will keep your children plenty busy .

From practicing sight words to simple coding activities, these projects cover literacy, STEM, and social studies, among others, so you can focus in on your kids' particular area of interest (or subject where they need the most additional practice). The one thing they have in common is that there's some kind hands-on component to all of them, so kids can get really involved in their own learning. As they get older, they can even help set up the activities for themselves, too. These are mostly geared for elementary school students, but if you have a toddler or a preschooler, you can check out these fun toddler activities , since even the tiniest students deserve a brain workout.

Sunflower Word Family

Kids just learning to read can explore different sound combinations with a word-family sunflower. Write word endings on the petals, fill a paper-plate center with all the letters of the alphabet, then let kids spin and read the results.

Get the tutorial at Happy Tot Shelf »

RELATED: These 50 Fun Activities for Kids Will Keep Them Entertained for Hours

Pipe Cleaner Constellations

Lots of classrooms make students create dioramas of the solar system, but what about mapping out other celestial bodies? This activity uses pipe cleaners and beads to give kids a hands-on way to learn how stars connect to form different consteallations.

Get the tutorial at 123 Homeschool 4 Me »

Chromatography Flowers

This is a science experiment that turns into something you'd want to display on a desk or table. Draw stripes on coffee filters with markers, and then fold them up into triangles and dip the pointy end in water; the water will travel up the filter and separate the marker into different pigments, making a cool pattern on a flower-shaped filter.

Get the tutorial at Steam Powered Family »

RELATED: Easy Science Experiments for Kids You Can Do at Home With Everyday Items

Sight Word Craft-Stick Puzzles

If you're practicing sight words , go beyond the run-of-the-mill flash cards with a craft-stick matching puzzle. You can tailor the words by grade level , and add more pairs as your kids become stronger readers.

Get the tutorial at And Next Comes L »

LEGO Coding Maze

You don't need screens or apps to show kids the foundations of coding. Set up a simple LEGO maze, and give kids commands to get a minifigure to go through it. The mazes and concepts can get more sophisticated as the child gets older.

Get the tutorial (plus printable commands and maze templates) at Research Parent »

Backyard Treasure Hunt

One way to sharpen those map-reading skills? Hide a treasure in the backyard and have the kids use a map to find it. It's even better if they can hide something from you and draw the map themselves.

Get the tutorial at Life Over C's »

RELATED: The Best Learning Activities for Toddlers to Get Them Ready for Kindergarten

Fraction Flowers

Not only will these beautiful blooms help kids visualize their fractions, it'll teach them equivalents: Two one-eighth peals will be the same size as a one-fourth petal, for example. Not into flowers? Try pizza slices.

Get the tutorial at Teach Beside Me »

Sidewalk Chalk Letters

Get their brains and bodies working at the same time! Hop from letter to letter to spell out different sight words.

Get the tutorial at Buggy and Buddy »

Decoder Wheel

Ready for some spy missions? An easy decoder wheel lets kids write and decipher secret messages. From there, you can move on to other types of codes , or talk about how cryptography has been used in history .

Get the tutorial at Dabbles and Babbles »

Word/Definition Memory Game

Practice two skills at once: Write new vocabulary words on one card, definitions on another, and then play a traditional Memory game. You can also do this with synonyms and antonyms.

Get the tutorial at Diary of a Not-So-Wimpy Teacher »

Color-Mixing Experiment

The classic vinegar-and-baking-soda experiment becomes extra exciting when food coloring is added to the mix. In addition to using an eye dropper or baster to make more "explosions," kids can also see what happens when different colors combine.

Get the tutorial at The Best Ideas for Kids »

Pop Top Math Game

This game is so simple to set up: Stick math equations on the top of a bottle cap, and write the answers inside. Then, if a student answers a math fact correctly, they get to keep the top. If not, it stays in the pile. The player with the most caps at the end of the game wins!

Get the tutorial at Crofts' Classroom »

If kids are going to grow up to be writers, it helps to know how stories are put together. A story map lets them dissect the parts a book. They can either make one for tales they know well (something like "Goldilocks and the Three Bears"), or use them as an outline for an original creation.

Get the tutorial at Mrs. Byrd's Learning Tree »

Marshmallow Shapes

A delicious lesson in geometry, you can use mini-marshmallows and toothpicks (or small pretzel rods) to build different shapes. As kids get more advanced, they can move from 2D to 3D creations.

Binary Code Jelwelry

Another coding-related activity that doesn't require a screen, this craft uses different colored beads to represent the 1s and 0s in binary numbers. Kids can convert letters into binary and "code" their names into a necklaces or bracelets.

Get the tutorial at Mama Smiles »

Fingerprint Forensics

Forensics 101: Leave a fingerprint on a drinking glass — it helps if your fingers are a little greasy, so pizza night is the perfect time to try this out — then have your kids use flour and a paintbrush to "dust" the glass for prints. You can even try to "lift" the fingerprint with a piece of tape and transfer it to a piece of construction paper. You can talk about the common patterns found in fingerprints , and how prints are used by law enforcement.

Family Flag

Tell your kids they're going to become vexillologists — it sounds super impressive! Vexillology is the study of flags, so talk about the symbols on the flags of different countries and what they represent. Then, they can design their own flag — show them the North American Vexillological Association's " Good Flag, Bad Flag " guidelines — or you can come together and create a flag for your family.

Mental Math

The great thing about this activity is that kids can do it independently, whenever they have a few minutes (like in the car): Write out a series of math problems on craft sticks to give kids a chance to practice doing math in their heads. See how many sticks they can get through in a certain period of time.

Get the tutorial at Lesson Plan Diva »

Star Crystals

By growing crystals in a Borax solution, kids can learn science and make a new decoration for their rooms. (Just use extreme caution with the Borax, and make sure they know it's not sugar.)

Get the tutorial at One Little Project »

Pasta World Map

Give the world map a 3D twist with this crafty learning activity. You can paint coffee filters for the oceans, or use different colors and shapes of pasta for different regions or geographical features.

Get the tutorial at Parenting Chaos »

Marisa (she/her) has covered all things parenting, from the postpartum period through the empty nest, for Good Housekeeping since 2018; she previously wrote about parents and families at Parents and Working Mother . She lives with her husband and daughter in Brooklyn, where she can be found dominating the audio round at her local bar trivia night or tweeting about movies.

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Natalie Lynn Kindergarten

Teaching Ideas and Resources

Free, Hands-On Home Learning Activities for Preschool and Kindergarten

I think we’re all in agreement when I say this week was weird and uncomfortable. Suddenly teachers and parents were thrown into new situations and new roles. That’s why I decided to create these FREE hands-on home learning activities. These activities will keep your preschool, pre-k, or kindergarten student active and learning even on an extended break. Yes, these were created with the coronavirus school closures in mind, but they could absolutely be used for summer learning.

Count Around the House

Count Around the House is a great activity to get your child up and moving while practicing 1-to-1 counting and number sense! Your child will go around the house or the room counting the objects and then write the number they found on their page. I have included 4 different versions of this activity. Ready for more? Try Add Around the Room :

Here, students will count the objects and write the number. Then, they will add the numbers together to find the sum. Find Count and Add Around the House HERE !

Write Around the House

For this activity , students will search for words around their house to write. You can let them write any words they find or give them categories to find like “Find words that start with C.” Not ready for words? Have them hunt for letters :

Find Write Around the House HERE !

Sticky Note Alphabet Hunt

For this alphabet hunt activity, you will write letters on sticky notes and place them around the house. Your child will find the letters and wither trace that letter on their page OR color a picture that begins with that letter. This activity is great because you can easily differentiate if you have children of different ages! Grab this letter hunt in the free Home Learning Pack below!

Targeted Letter Hunts

This letter hunt activity is similar to the one above, but for this one you will only choose 2-3 letters to target. You will hide multiple sticky notes with each letter around the house. When your child finds them, they can bring them back and match them to the correct mat.

Fine Motor Practice with Letters

When they are done, you can sneak in some fine motor practice by letting them decorate the letters! Stickers are great for this, or you can let them paint, use bingo daubers, etc. These letter hunt pages are included in the free Home Learning Packet below.

Nature Hunt

Need to get outside? Go for a nature walk! You can bring this free Nature Hunt activity with you. There are two levels included. For the first one, your child will color the pictures when they spot it on your walk. Or, you can have them trace the words when they find each object:

Find these Nature Hunt pages here!

Go On a Color Hunt!

This is one of my favorite home learning activities! Your child will search for objects that are each color and then color the crayon the correct color. This is great color word practice! You could even take this activity outside and look for objects in nature that are each color! This activity is included in the free Home Learning Activities pack below.

Color Word Practice Pages

Here’s the thing about home learning – it should be fun and sometimes you just need to color! These pages are great for practicing identifying colors, appropriate grip, and building fine motor strength. These pages are also included in the free Home Learning Pack below.

Label Around the House

This is one of the easiest ways to practice stretching out words and writing the sounds they hear – let your child label objects around the house. Just give them sticky notes or index cards and then let them go!

Sight Word Hunt

Similar to some of the activities above, you will write either sight words or letters on a sticky notes and hide them around the house. Your child will search the house for words to write on each bug. This activity is included in the free Home learning Pack below.

I know, there’s a lot of hunting going on! But that’s because its one of the easiest ways to get your child up and moving while still learning. This shape hunt is perfect to do around the house, on a walk, or on a drive. This is included in the free Home Learning pack below.

Editable Games

Editable games are great because you can choose the letters or sight words you want your child to focus on! Find these editable games free in my store: FREE Editable Letter ID Games FREE Editable Sight Word Games

Daily Writing Journal

This daily writing journal is perfect for any elementary student. Students will first record how they felt, one thing they were thankful for, and then what they did each day. The feelings pictures match the pictures in my Calm Down Kit book . You can easily use this kit at home to help your child deal with anxiety and other big feelings. The writing journal is included in the free Home Learning Pack below.

Home Learning Activities for Preschool, Pre-K, and Kindergarten

Grab your free home learning pack by entering your email below. It will be delivered straight to your inbox! Then, pin this post for later:

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Reader Interactions

21 comments.

March 25, 2020 at 7:19 pm

Great job! Love these activities. Im a kinder teacher turned Stay-at-home mom. Thankful to be able to dig out “all the things” and momschool my own kinder at this time. Keep up the creativity!

April 23, 2020 at 10:26 am

This is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you so much for sharing:)

June 5, 2020 at 5:55 am

Love your creativity. Great activities to support parents at home and many can be used in classroom centers. Thanks for sharing:)

August 2, 2020 at 9:19 pm

OMG! This content is amazing! Thank you so much! Will help me a lot!! Kisses from Brazil

August 15, 2020 at 3:54 pm

This is awesome! Thanks so much for sharing!!!!

October 21, 2020 at 4:04 pm

Great resource!! Thank you 🙂

November 12, 2020 at 7:58 pm

Great ideas!

November 12, 2020 at 7:59 pm

Can’t wait to use these with my hybrid teaching.

November 13, 2020 at 8:54 pm

November 14, 2020 at 4:18 pm

Love these!

November 16, 2020 at 8:59 am

The plug in to download it stopped working, but I believe it is working again! You should be able to sign up and download it now.

November 15, 2020 at 8:59 am

Looking forward to receiving

November 16, 2020 at 8:58 am

November 16, 2020 at 8:54 am

Looking forward to the worksheets

Can’t wait to see your stuff

March 22, 2021 at 1:24 pm

hi there! i signed up for the email but cant see the download option in the email? these are such wonderful resources!

March 22, 2021 at 5:52 pm

Email me at [email protected]

September 21, 2022 at 2:06 pm

Thank you! looking for in kind activities for preschool that can do at home with the family.

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Welcome Friends!

My name is Natalie and I am the face behind Natalie Lynn Kindergarten. My passion is creating hands-on and engaging resources for the classroom and helping teachers to make learning FUN again! I love showing teachers how they can give students ownership over their learning and create meaningful learning experiences.

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