When your kids are home sick, or if the weather isn’t cooperating and your kids can’t go outside, here are 10 mellow activities for kids to keep them entertained without wearing them out.
Our top 10 mellow activities to prevent complaints and entertain your sick child:
1. Make a fort in your child’s bedroom or the living room where he can nap.
2. If your child is young, have various story times throughout the day. If your child is older, give her some pleasure reading books (not school books).
3. Mix up some Jell-O—the perfect snack for sore throats!—in creative shapes, either with fun-shaped silicone baking molds or ice cube trays, or use a good ol’ cookie cutter.
4. Change location. Being confined to the same spot all day will make anyone restless, so switch between the bedroom and living room. This writer’s favorite place when home sick? Mom and Dad’s bed, which was big enough to snuggle with Fido.
5. Cook up a big pot of chicken noodle soup, which delivers protein, carbohydrates, some vitamins, and other helpful nutrients in an easily digested form. A study made at Mount Sinai Medical Center found that hot chicken soup, either the smell or the taste, “appears to possess an additional substance for increasing the flow of nasal mucus,” which helps remove germs from your system and gets you on the way to recovery, according to Sue Castle, an NYC mother, in her book Mother Knows Best? The Truth About Mom’s Well-Meaning (But Not Always Accurate) Advice.
6. Dust off that stack of coloring and activity books, or print free ones at home (check out crayola.com and nickjr.com for seemingly endless options).
7. Legos (need we say more?)
8. A little screen time never hurt—cue up movies on Netflix, the Disney Channel, or Nickelodeon.
9. If your kids love playing in the tub but never get enough time for it before bed, here’s their chance to dawdle in a long, warm bath.
10. Play a board or card game of bygone days—crazy eights, cribbage (bonus: math skills practice), or Sorry, anyone?
