Let us know your favorite boredom busters for at-home activities with your family!
FREE Virtual/Online Experiences
- Illinois State Museum has online resources and events that are fun and educational. Plus, check out their butterfly & moth collection.
- A 3D tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Fallingwater” plus a 30-minute documentary.
- Readers in the family? Try a literary virtual scavenger hunt from Book Riot.
- Get goofy with sound! Explore 16,000 BBC Sound Effects available to download from the BBC.
- Free Digital Collection of 1,000+ Artworks by Van Gogh
- Have kids who love tractors? Check out the coloring sheets and videos on this web page of activities from John Deere.
- Education companies offering Free Subscriptions and activities due to school closings.
- Interested in art? The Museum of Modern Art offers free online courses!
- storylineonline.net Online storytellers and featured videos
- The James Dyson Foundation offers activities and experiments to teach your child engineering lessons at home!
- The Neon Museum in Las Vegas has virtual tours that let you wander around their famous “boneyard” – Password = Neon. neonmuseum.app/guide
SpringfieldMoms Resources
Salt dough ornaments (not edible but super cute for décor) are an inexpensive way to make memorable gifts for others and plan ahead for holiday gifts too! Access the Recipe link for regular or cinnamon salt dough ornaments. Local mom Lori and her daughter Addison jumped right in during the stay at home quarantine to make their own.- Free Coloring Pages from Local Artist Ken Pease.
- Book Nook Recommendations for Kids and Adults
- Headphone Harmony – see our favorite podcasts and YouTube channels for kids
- Our Organizing 101 resource motivates you to de-clutter and fill a donation box or two! It’s also time to organize closets and drawers of clothes and “stuff” and make your piles for donation giveaways. Kids should be involved in this process. Set a goal and a timeline, then you can come back and review their progress.
- Neighborhood Garage Sales: If you know the 2024 dates of your neighborhood garage sale please send to us for our popular guide!
- Crafts for Kids Will the slime creation craze make a comeback? Homemade play dough is a personal favorite for all ages.
Spend Time in the Kitchen: Kids can help prepare meals, stir recipes, set the table, etc. Get the cookbooks out and let them try something new. Some of our favorite recipes to start with:
- Rainbow pancakes (for those who don’t mind extra food coloring!)
- Easy Dutch Apple Pie
- Healthy Recipes for Teens to Make
- Easy at-home activities for Toddlers using supplies we have around the house (oatmeal containers, cards, markers, paper, etc.)
More Fun at Home
We transformed our dining room table to a “make your own” creative station with crafts, paints, photos and scrapbooks. Uploading photos to apps (i.e. Walgreens) and ordering them to be delivered at home to update our albums and scrapbooks.- Window markers, sidewalk chalk or sidewalk paint
- Squigz, Kinetic sand, LCD tablets and dry erase boards
- Sensory bins (filled with rice or pasta, and searching for small items, magnets, etc….kind of like a scavenger hunt)
- Cosmic Kids Yoga on YouTube
- iPad Apps – Playhome and Toca Boca
- Paint, markers or crayons and have them decorate boxes or build their own forts.
- Magnatiles
- Butterfly Garden w/ Live Caterpillars
Have a birthday?
Check out a fun birthday option from a Springfield family.
Teens
Trying to keep them off their phones 24/7 is task number one. I’m designating times to help around the house. It’s time to clean out one closet and one drawer at a time! Or you can suggest these “courses”
- AP Laundry: advanced techniques like stain removal, proper folding and what to hang dry
- Honors Biology (pet care, feeding, cleaning, exercising)
- Art: make cards for area senior centers and family members.
- Home Economics: Kids can make their own lunch and set a meal plan for dinner for a few nights. Look in the cabinets what do we have available and ready to make?
Share or post your best online resources and tips for things to do with us! springfieldmoms.org@gmail.com
