7 After School Activities We Love

What do you do with young children after school when they still have energy to get out, but yours is starting to fade? When there is not a lot of time to hop in the car for a road trip these may be a few activities to try out and invite the neighbors over for too!

Neighborhood scavenger hunt

Create a checklist for the kids of items to find. They can break off in teams or go solo. Think about items in nature (see the next idea in our list) or for younger children tell them to find things in certain colors or shapes to help them learn.

Paint items from nature

Use what they found during the scavenger hunt like. We love to paint rocks like creatures or decorate them with kind words or phrases and leave them around the community for people to find.

Create snack art

Who doesn’t love a good old “ants on a log” treat? A simple Pinterest search will have you lost for hours scrolling through snack art ideas. We love this recent list from Buzzfeed.

Direct and star in their own movie 

Put their iMovie skills to use with this activity and give them permission to use technology on this night. Let them use their imaginations to create their own storyline and see how it plays out! This is something fun they can save and show off to friends and family or look at years from now when they are starring in a real movie!

Make an obstacle course 

What better way to burn off after school energy than running around? There are endless ideas online of making these indoors or outdoors. All it take is about 15-20 minutes of prep, items from around your yard or home.

Arts and crafts 

Mess-free crafts are our favorite! You can inspire creative minds without glitter, glue, and feathers stuck to every surface of the house or your kids. Check out our own Zoolikins options or pop-in and let us help you shop.

Puzzles 

Puzzles are a fun and easy way to get the whole family involved! For older kids you can do a more complicated puzzle and put it on a table that is a central location for everyone. Plan even just ten minutes a night to work on it together. By leaving it out, whenever someone walks by and feels compelled, they can stop and work on it at their leisure. For younger kids, try a more simple puzzle that will keep them engaged and promote concentration, spacial awareness, fine motor ability, and more.