Crazy Fun Things to Do with Kids At Home For Competitive Families

When you’re stuck in doors for a while, you tend to get bored… really bored. And your children? Well, let’s not even go there. ? So what can you do to entertain yourself when you’re not able to go out? For us, we’ve been entertaining ourselves with these random, fun things to do with kids to help us feel less bored.

In fact, many of the below make us feel like we’re in an arcade or in some sort of game competition LOL! You see, I’m a boy mom and you will definitely be able to tell once you go through all the activities we have been doing at home.

So since we all are having to follow social distancing or have been quarantined in some way, I decided to share my own list of activities with you. Here are all the fun things to do with kids without having to leave your home! And by the way, my son helped me put this list together for you so hope you enjoy our recommendations. ♥

[Disclaimer: Please note this post may contain affiliate links. This means I may receive a commission if clicked at no extra cost to you. Though the opinions remain my own.]

13 Fun Things to Do When Bored

Like I said, I’m a boy mom so many of our activities are sports driven. I myself am a sports fan as well so is easy for me to enjoy. However, even if you’re not a boy mom or a sports fanatic, you would still have fun with these things to do with kids.

Plus, many of these also intrigue our competitive side. Yes, we are that kind of family. ? We love any type of activity that allows us to bring on a competition. And no, we don’t go easy on my son. If he wins, he wins fair and square (which makes it that much better when he does).

So take a look and see which fun activities you can add to your list each time you are stuck indoors, even if it’s on a rainy day.

Related Post: Crazy Fun Stay At Home Date Ideas for Couples With Kids


Movie Night

Of course we have movie nights! And these past few weeks, we’ve had plenty of them. Our go-to movies are usually an animated comedy that we rent off Amazon Prime Video. And since we shop through our Amazon Prime account quite often for non-urgent items, we earn credits to use towards our digital media (which includes movie rentals).

Yup, you can do that with your prime account! So this helps us expand our movie search outside of Netflix and Disney+ and watch newer movies that have come out. But don’t get me wrong, we still do love Netflix and Disney+ as well, but we don’t use them as much for our movie nights (we’re just picky like that). ?

And whenever we have a movie night, we’ll either order pizza and wings or eat sandwiches. We push the rug out of the living room and eat in there (it’s the only time this is allowed). Or if we choose to watch the movie after we eat, then my son usually convinces us to eat cookies or ice cream while we enjoy the movie… he knows about our sweet tooth LOL!

If you don’t have either one of these programs, get your free trials to Amazon Prime Video and Netflix here to at least get you through a few movies. And if you need any movie recommendations, let me know. I have an entire list I could probably share haha!

little boy playing darts game
Celebrating his “touchdown” bullseye ??

Dart Board Game Competition

THIS darts board game has been our life changer and is probably the real reason we are still sane LOL. We play this multiple times a day as we have added it to a wall in our living room. We even spaced out the couches so we can throw a few rounds here and there.

Even during his homeschooling (and my mini work breaks), we take a few minutes to throw some darts. We change the number of rounds per game depending on what we have going on. For example, during homeschool and work, each game is about 3 rounds, which lasts no more than 10 minutes. Once daddy arrives, we increase the rounds by 3-5, making it a full 30 minute game.

We literally have so much fun playing this. Plus, there are little benefits coming out of the game for my 6-year old. He counts the total points scored and tallies them up. Plus, he’s in football so throwing darts is also helping him practice his aim. Who knew so many benefits would come from such a simple game? If you don’t have one already, you can order this fun, affordable one here.

Play Basketball in the Patio

So… we’ve had a basketball hoop in front of the garage for a while now. But we had NEVER used it until a few weeks ago – particularly when schools shut down. The reason is because we live on a busy street so I didn’t like the idea of my son playing out in the front. In addition, I would have to be glued to the garage the entire time he plays, I mean he’s 6 so yeah, not letting him out in the front lawn alone.

But when his school closed, we needed to figure something out. Our son has loads of energy so we wanted to find a way to give him some outside time without me having to sacrifice work time. So what did we do?

We moved our basketball hoop to the backyard. And whoa, this was the best idea we’ve ever had! I literally cannot believe we didn’t think of this before. Now, we shoot hoops almost everyday (yeah, we). I’ll take small breaks from work to spend some time with him, and this is one of the things we’ll do. And once my work break is over, I come back inside to continue working while he stays outside for “recess” to keep playing.

It’s only been about two weeks since we’ve had this setup. It was initially going to be temporary but there is no way we’re moving it back to the front. It’s there to stay now! So if your patio is big enough (ours is ~13×25), consider moving your basketball hoop to the backyard. And if you don’t have one, you can order yours here and have it delivered to your home!

man doing a backflip on the trampoline
Daddy showing off his backflip skills ??
My son’s goal is to get 100 views and likes on this video ?

Jump on the Trampoline

Yes, really! If you have a trampoline, go jump in it! It’s not just for kids LOL. This has been a game changer for us because did I mention my son is filled with tremendous energy? And, because of COVID-19 and all the closures, his soccer practices and games also cancelled. So now this boy was out of outside recess and soccer! Whoa, I wouldn’t have been able to handle all this excess energy LOL!

And we don’t have a huge backyard so not much running space. Plus, we keep our dog, Canelo, in the backyard and he is just as energized taking up half of the yard space. So we brainstormed what we could do to help give him (and us) something to do during his “recess” and our family lock-in time. That’s when we decided to buy a trampoline. It was something we had already considered but figured it was time to go ahead and purchase.

We just finished setting ours up a few days ago and not going to lie, it’s pretty awesome. I think daddy was as equally excited to get his jumping game on. Plus 30 minutes on there, and my son is already out of energyproblem solved! ?

Related Post: 19 Exciting Fun Summer Activities for Kids at Home

Play Board Games

Yup, another classic and one of the most common things to do with kids. We love to play board games. We are a competitive family so of course playing games keeps us entertained!

Some of our go-to games are Sorry, Trouble, Monopoly Gamer Mario Kart and Uno. All of these are perfect for my son’s age group (he’s 6) and don’t last hourss to get through (not even the Mario Kart Monopoly). And we don’t go easy on my son – like I said, when he wins, he wins fair and square. It just makes it that more fun.

Don’t get me wrong, we obviously help him with his strategies. We give him ideas or explain to him our thought process when it’s our turn so that he can learn to develop his own strategy. So besides playing for fun, it’s also a great way to teach friendly competition and winning strategies.

Take Turns Reading Books

I think this one is a given except that we like to put our own little twist to it. And this twist primarily began when we started reading my son’s favorite book series, Dog Man.

So what’s our twist? Well, we take turns reading the pages in the book. This makes it for a more interactive reading session between the three of us. And honestly, it was my son’s idea. Since he’s in first grade, we had stopped reading to him and were letting him read to us. So one day, he asked if we could instead all read together by taking turns.

And now, this has became our nightly routine. We read 1-2 chapters a night or 1-2 books (if they’re short). It’s a great way to end the night as a family and my son reallyy looks forward to it. So if your kids are old enough, give this twist a try. And if they’re still too young to read, perhaps daddy and mommy can take turns reading and allowing your child to read a word or two. ??

Beyblade Battling

Have you even ever heard of beyblades? I hadn’t either until it was the only thing on my son’s Christmas list LOL. So apparently it’s this thing (still not really sure what it is ?) that you battle. I call it the new generation Pokemon haha.

Anyway, since my son is an only child, he doesn’t have anyone to battle his beyblades against. And of course we couldn’t let Santa’s gift go unused and unbattled! So we bust out his beyblade battle set from time to time and have a couple matches. And guess who’s actually getting good at it… ??‍♀️ << I am, haha! Daddy has gotten the hang of it too, watch their battle in the video above to see for yourself.

Watch Game Replays

In case you haven’t noticed, my son is a sports fanatic. He plays football and soccer and aspires to become a professional one day. So when his soccer practice and games were postponed / cancelled for the season, he was devastated!

To keep sports in his life, he would constantly ask if he could watch game highlights on YouTube. Yeah, he’s that kid that jumps up and down screaming at the TV when someone scores a goal or touchdown. ?

However, I’m not a huge fan of letting him watch YouTube so I searched for alternatives. And whoa, due to social distancing at home because of COVID-19, NFL Game Pass is giving away complimentary access through May 31st! Normally it’s about $99 per year so it’s such an awesome deal. And instead of just highlights, you get full games without the commercials!

So if your family likes watching sports or if you need to give them something to do while you work on something else (hehe), you should really claim this deal and get your complimentary access while you can!

boy preparing to play the foosball game
Getting ready to play some foosball! ⚽

Play Desktop Foosball

I’m not kidding when I say this kid is a total soccer fanatic! He lives, breathes, writes and talks about soccer all day long. Even in school, all his writing assignments are about soccer lol. So it only made sense to allow soccer inside the house in the form of a desktop foosball table.

Since we’re a small family of three, we got the smaller version and play one-on-one. But if you’re a family of four, this slightly bigger desktop foosball table might work better since you could actually do two-on-two. And because it’s not common, I feel like this is one of the awesome things to do with kids that is often overlooked.

We really enjoy playing this game, but sometimes it can get a bit more competitive than it should. And by that, I mean the table gets slightly lifted from the surface with the soccer ball flying out. That’s actually why we moved it away from the desktop to the floor. ? We’re hoping one day we can upgrade to full-size foosball table but this one will have to do for now.

football puzzle
My son has rebuilt this puzzle twice in the past two weeks ?

Build Puzzles Together

Man, so this one we actually haven’t done in a while! However, we did find a football puzzle that my son has been dyinggg to do and we just haven’t came around to it. So since we’re now locked indoors, building puzzles has officially been added to our list of things to do with kids.

And the best part is that building puzzles is something that kids of any age can do. My son has tons and tons of puzzles in his game room. Many from when he was a toddler because he does like to go back and build them every now and then (but shhh, don’t tell him I told you).

So even if this is not something you do often, try it out. If you’re stuck indoors and need a family activity to do, building puzzles as a family is a great way to pass time. Plus it gets our brains thinking so is a fun brain exercise for the whole family!

Related Post: 200 Would You Rather Questions for Kids

boy celebrating while playing desktop air hockey
Can you guess who was in the lead? ?

Play Desktop Air Hockey

Yes, we have lots of mini games haha! Desktop air hockey is one we got over the Christmas season and have had a good time playing it. I will say it’s a bit harder for me to lose on this one but if I don’t watch myself, my son can catch me off guard and score on me! ?

But to be fair, we did implement a rule. We can only reach to hit the disk on our half of the table (otherwise, my arm reaches all the way across). So this actually makes it a bit more challenging for me since I have to remember to keep my arm bent lol. So yeah, desktop air hockey is another one of the fun things to do with kids!

Play on the PlayStation

Okay so playing on the PlayStation isn’t my favorite, but it is my son’s, of course. We have several games but the two main ones that my son plays are of course Madden NFL and FIFA. And since these are multi-player games, we’ll sometimes join him and become virtual players.

When we do this, daddy is on a team by himself while my son and I team up against him. I personally prefer to play FIFA as I do not understand Madden NFL as well as they do. But regardless, it’s something that my son extremely enjoys and appreciates so much when we play on the PlayStation with him.

So if you have any type of gaming console, find a multi-player game that you can play with your child. And even if you have one-player games, you could take turns playing to see who gets the highest score. Your kids would love this new type of family activity.

Play Jenga

If you haven’t jumped on the Jenga game bandwagon yet, you’re missing out! In fact, we have the Classic Jenga and Jumbo Jenga at home that we play with! It’s so much fun and we all get to compete against one another.

And similar to puzzles, this game gets your brain thinking! You have to be strategic with the block you want to move so that the tower doesn’t come fumbling down. And surprisingly, my 6-year old son is actually pretty good at it. Perhaps it’s because we play so many other thinking games as well LOL! But trust me, this is a great game that can be enjoyed by the whole family so order yours here if you don’t have this game yet.


Have Fun At Home!

Being stuck at home with your family is NOT a bad thing. In fact, when you have an awesome list of things to do with kids, it makes it soo much easier to plan for fun at home. These are personally our favorites and the ones we do on a frequent basis. As we find more things to do with kids, they’ll be added to this list for sure so make sure to save it for later! Hope you enjoyed seeing how much fun we actually do have with these activities. Stay safe! ♥

What family activities do you do when stuck indoors? What was your favorite from this list of things to do with kids? Comment below as I would love to hear from you. And don’t forget to pin this for later so you can refer back to it whenever you’re bored with your kids at home!

All images below were taken by Cheers to Life Blogging.

Related Motherhood Posts:

Sharing is caring!

23 thoughts on “Crazy Fun Things to Do with Kids At Home For Competitive Families”

  1. Great ideas for kids, teens, and adults! Our family plays Catan and Risk just to see who gets the bragging rights for world domination! Lol!

  2. These are such great ideas! My boys have been so into Beyblades lately. The biggest thing they are doing now is having Nerf gun battle with their dad. Hilarious and fun.

  3. Great ideas! My kids used to love Beyblades and would spend hours competing! Thanks for the info on the Sports Pass, that’s a good one too.

  4. These are all great ideas! I’ve wanted to get a trampoline for a while now, but my kids are pretty accident-prone. Maybe when they’re a little older 🙂

  5. Love these ideas! My son has been bugging me for a trampoline so I guess it’s time to break down and get one. We were already isolating at home for a month before our state imposed a stay at home order and I don’t see it lifting any time soon so trampoline it is!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published.

Scroll to Top