Your Quarantine New York Kids Weekend
For more fun ideas to do in quarantine, check out 32 Things to Do at Home: Fun for the Whole Family
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Family-Friendly Puzzles to Do in Quarantine
Puzzles are the perfect fit for your stay-at-home family activity, educational engagement, and a boredom buster. Here are some family-friendly and challenging puzzles to keep your quarantine puzzle game strong piece by piece.
Llamas on the Farm is a 100 piece jigsaw puzzle by Sunsout and is a “llama” fun. Kids will love that the llamas and butterflies are oh so cute and colorful. Parents will love that it is 100% made in the USA with eco-friendly, soy-based inks on recycled boards. $8.99
This Land Is Your Land United States Map by eeBoo is a perfect trifecta of map, teaching tool, and puzzle. Kids will love the images that help identify products, industries, and famous features of all 50 states. Parents will love that the visual association of recognizable images help children to memorize state locations and bordering neighbors. You can also make it a fun game using the included stickers to mark important places, family, and friends! $18.99
The Unicorn Garden Round Jigsaw Puzzle for Adults and Kids by eeBoo lets your family take on the exciting challenge of a round puzzle. This intricately painted, 500 puzzle piece scene will transport any puzzler into a magical realm. Kids will love the shape and design, and parents will love the extra challenge. $17.99
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Read the Latest Chapters of the Ickabog Online
J.K. Rowling is publishing the fairytale online for free “so children on lockdown, or even those back at school during these strange, unsettling times, can read it or have it read to them,” she says. She’ll be posting a new chapter (or two or three) every day until July 10th. The first two chapters are available here. They introduce readers to King Fred the Fearless, a monarch with curly blonde hair (who looks “magnificent in his tight breeches”), and the Ickabog himself, a mysterious monster who lives in the marsh. Rowling says the book is designed to be read aloud but is also suitable for 7- to 9-year-olds to read themselves.
To learn more, check out J.K. Rowling Is Publishing a New Children’s Book Online The Ickabog – And She Wants You to Illustrate it!
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Tie-Dye Summer Crafts
It’s almost 70 degrees outside and the summer is just around the corner. With a new season on the horizon and summer-vibes starting soon, it’s time to dive into colorful tie-dye crafts that the whole family can do. So are you ready for some vibrance this season? Here are some super fun tie-dye crafts and techniques to make with your kids.
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The Best Virtual Travel Experiences for Families While in Quarantine
Travel to Australia and visit the land down under with Live from Australia and virtually experience the one-of-a-kind events hosted by some of Australia’s most iconic personalities. Explore across the continent from the Great Barrier Reef to the Sydney Opera House, and along the way plan to dance with The Wiggles and learn Aussie BBQ secrets from Hayden Quinn. What a way to say g’day mate!
Visit the Bahamas with ‘At Home with Baha Mar.’ There’s a digital care package with ways for families and friends at home right now to get creative, relax, and connect with loved ones – all inspired by the Bahamian islands. With themed coloring pages, playtime with kids’ crafts, Happy Hour the Baha Mar way, and family game night ideas, Baha Mar provides families with a little Bahamian-inspired escape. You’ll practically feel the island breeze!
It’s never been so easy to take a trip across the country to California. Many family-friendly California institutions from LA to San Fran are posting virtual experiences and fun lessons online, bringing celebrated California attractions to families at home and almost all of them are totally free. Some family favorites that will especially delight the kids include SeaWorld San Diego, LEGOLAND California, Spitzer Space Telescope, Monterey Bay Aquarium, and The Exploratorium.
For more places to visit virtually, check out The Best Virtual Travel Experiences for Families While in Quarantine
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Try Famous Recipes Released From Fan-Favorite Menus
With not being able to visit our favorite restaurants, these food chains are releasing some fan-favorite recipes that you can cook at home. It may not be the same as going out to eat, but it’s pretty close given limited food delivery options. Maybe you have been craving your Shake Shack or just want to give a well-known recipe a whirl, whatever it is, you can check out these released recipes to recreate some delicious meals and treats for the family!
Check out these famous recipes here!
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Online Gym Classes for Kids
If your child is finding it tough to stay active at home and looking for exciting new ways to get moving, New York City gyms for kids are offering online live streams and classes for all ages. Check out the YMCA’s dance parties and jumping jack challenges, Brooklyn Zoo NY’s at-home parkour classes and more online gym classes for kids at home.
Super Soccer Stars, a New York-based sports program, is offering three options for online exercise and soccer skill development. First, your child can register for weekly classes, which are divided by age. Classes are 30-45 minutes, designed for small spaces and capped at 15 students per coach. Children ages 1 to 12 can participate in Super Soccer Star’s online classes at $45 per month.
Super Soccer Stars also offers live stream classes at $20 per month. Your child can follow along for energizing and interactive 20-minute lessons, available to stream seven days per week, and also access the archive of previously-streamed lessons. Each session is age-specific and content-themed. Lastly, Super Soccer Stars has a 14-week age-specific curriculum of soccer skills available on their Skills + Drills mobile app
The Little Gym believes in the importance of offering young children a safe and inspiring environment to direct their energy, build confidence and develop key skills through play. Stay engaged with The Little Gym through their Youtube channel, where they post videos like Dance Skill Spotlights, at-home Sing-A-Longs, and parent-child classes to keep your child moving and learning.
Brooklyn Zoo NY Gym’s wide variety of online exercise classes for kids include acrobatics classes, hip-hop dance classes, basketball classes and more, tailored to children who are 7 to 15 years old. Parent-child classes are available for kids ages 3 to 7. Brooklyn Zoo NY’s trademark King of the Jungle classes are parkour-based and use calisthenics and cardio to keep kids active during quarantine. The online class gym membership, which provides access to all classes on Brooklyn Zoo NY’s robust online live stream schedule, costs $15; Brooklyn Zoo NY is also offering $5 drop-in classes so your child can see if the classes are right for them.
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Listen to a Podcast
With an incredible variety of creative topics, themes and genres, these podcasts for kids are the perfect way to keep your child engaged and entertained while at home! Listen to Julie Andrews read children’s books, cook with the Mystery Recipe Podcast’s mystery cook-along and learn the answers to big science questions with NPR’s Wow in the World! With episodes that inspire through music-making, storytelling, research, creativity and more, there’s sure to be the perfect podcast for every young listener.
Podcasts for Kids
Have fun getting excited about cooking and eating with these 20-minute episodes about the fantastical sides of food with America’s Test Kitchen Kids. Each episode focuses on one ingredient and finishes with a mystery recipe cook-along! Mystery Recipe Podcast has 26 “silly and unexpectedly educational” episodes out now; the latest of which are titled “Starch of the Penguins” and “Carb Your Enthusiasm.”
The Music Box, hosted by music educator Faith Murphy, is an interactive podcast that teaches lessons on musical objectives for young learners. Through performing, responding and connecting, kids are encouraged to make music and explore fundamental concepts! The 10-minute episodes can be further supplemented with printable lesson plans on the Music Box website.
Geared toward kids ages 3 to 9, the Noodle Loaf podcast is full of singing, dancing and play! Led by a music education specialist and his goofball kids, each Noodle Loaf episode encourages your family to join in for 10 minutes of creative fun.
To see our full list of podcasts, check out The 26 Best Podcasts for Kids in 2020
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Grow Your Own Crystals Names Experiments
You’ll need: pipe cleaners, fishing line or yarn, pencils, scissors, glass or plastic containers for each different color (mason jars work great), a container large enough to hold your name (spelled out with pipe cleaners), Borax, food coloring, liquid measuring cups and a heat-safe mixing bowl
Instructions: form your name in pipe cleaners, making sure the letters are small enough to fit within the glass or plastic container without touching the sides. Boil water and measure out 3 tablespoons of Borax per cup of hot water, enough to fill each of your containers. Stir until the Borax dissolves, pour the mixture into your containers and add a few drops of food coloring into each. Next, use fishing line or yarn to suspend the letters from a pencil so that they hang into the container and are suspended in the liquid mixture. Leave the letters overnight, and take them out the next day! Hold them up to your window to watch your name sparkle in the sun.
When Borax is dissolved in water, it creates a suspension, which is a mixture that has solid particles large enough for sedimentation. When the Borax begins to settle, it crystallizes on the surfaces it comes in contact with — like your pipe cleaner letters.
Experiment and Photo via Playdough Plato
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Virtual Zoo Tour
The Bronx Zoo, New York Aquarium, Central Park Zoo, Queens Zoo, and Prospect Park Zoo bring the best of wildlife to you online! Bronx Zoo’s Instagram account is where you can take a virtual trip to the Zoo and watch animal routines even when the Zoo is closed. Special training sessions are physically and mentally stimulating for many of its residents, like the sea lions, who need to play with keepers regularly to socialize and have fun. Join them!
Managed by the Chicago Zoological Society, Brookfield Zoo is a world leader in high-quality animal care. The Zoo has captivated and educated visitors since 1934 and continues to do so now online. It is home to 2,000+ animal residents and is also an accredited arboretum. To see the animal caregivers in action, you can visit the Zoo’s YouTube channel, watch videos of animals’ everyday lives and learn more about them. You can chat with the Zookeepers and even vote for newborn animal names!
San Diego Zoo’s Conrad Prebys Africa Rocks highlight the incredible biodiversity on the African continent. Enjoy the beautiful graphics of the unusual and striking animals ready for their rise to fame. Guiding you into the different habitats like the mountains of Madagascar or the smooth beaches of the South African coastline. The Zoo’s lineup includes the African Penguin, the Blue-eyed Black Lemur, the Baboon, and so many more fascinating animals.
