Hi mamas! So I was talking to a friend at the park the other day, and we both realised we haven’t really done anything for ourselves in… months? Years? And somehow every afternoon we hear “Mama, I’m hungry!” “Mom, she’s breathing on me!” while one child is climbing the couch like it’s American Ninja Warrior, and the other one is dramatically crying because their banana broke in half.
It’s why I like to create calmer afternoons without pressuring myself to become a full-time Pinterest mom (because it always fails for me). Joking aside, for the past week, these 10 low-prep activities for bored kids have helped SO much in keeping my kids entertained. Even though some of the activities require my presence partially, the amazing thing about them is that they put a pause on the whining and complaining while giving them something else to focus on, and that’s a win in my parenting journal. All of the activities are low-mess, quick to set up, and most only need household supplies
So if you came here looking for low-prep activities you can put together in under five minutes so your kids can stay off screens and focus on something more tangible, you’ve definitely come to the right corner of the internet. Let’s dig in!
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10 low-prep activities that have been on repeat at our house
1. Build a LEGO Emotion
Grab your kids’ LEGO pieces and draw face parts on each piece with your washable markers; don’t be scared to. The markers wipe off easily. For example, one eye on one piece, half a mouth on another, but they will be different emotions, like happy, sad, angry, or excited faces. Then give them to your kids to find the different emotion parts and build an emotional face.
2. TP Roll Animal Puzzle Rotation
Use empty toilet paper rolls and draw animal tops and bottoms that your kids can mix and match. We made silly combinations like ladybug-bears and bee-chick, well, at least it was funny to my kids. If you’re down for more toilet roll activities, check out my post on easy toilet paper roll activities for kids.
3. Rice Bin Pattern Hunt
Fill a bowl with dyed rice (and if you feel a certain way about using food for play, you can use lots of other things like pompoms, shredded paper, cut-up straws, cotton wool, buttons, or beads instead). Cut patterned paper into squares, then hide the missing pieces inside the rice for them to search and match back together. Very simple but sneaks in a brain-jogging activity plus sensory play all at once.
You can also read more about why sensory play is important for preschoolers here.
4. Silly Letter Hunt
Write one big page of random letters and numbers. Then make mini prompt cards that say things like “Give all the 5’s ears and a tail,” “Scribble all the K’s,” “Turn every V into a bird,” and so on. Shuffle the prompt cards and place them face down. Pick one card and read out each prompt for your kids to do the activity. If your kids can already read, let them do the reading… it makes them even more curious about what’s coming next and makes the activity more fun to do.
If you don’t want to keep scrolling my feed to remember these activities, click here to download my complete 30-Day Low-Prep Checklist to print and hang on your fridge for free! All the low-prep ideas are listed, along with a detailed list of the supplies needed for the activities.
5. Rainbow Tunnel Race
Tape two or three sheets of paper together vertically to create one long activity sheet, then draw clouds on both sides and colour-code them for a simple matching activity. In the middle, draw a road running down the page. Next, cut rainbow-coloured construction paper into long strips and let your kids match the strips to the coordinating clouds by turning them into little tunnels across the road.
Once all the tunnels are set up, your kids can race toy cars under them, blow pom-poms through the tunnels with straws, or roll little balls across the road. This one kept my kids entertained for surprisingly long and somehow turned VERY competitive in our house.
6. Popsicle Stick Pattern Match
Draw simple patterns on cardboard, and draw the same patterns on popsicle sticks. Then let your kids find and match the patterns on the cardboard. Super simple, super quiet, and one of my favourite low-mess activities for my preschooler.
7. Magnetic Tile Tic-Tac-Toe
Use magnetic tiles and a dry-erase marker to create a giant tic-tac-toe game on cardboard. Just draw a simple grid onto a piece of cardboard, mark Xs and Os onto the magnetic tiles, then let your kids take turns playing. My six-year-old kept beating her four-year-old sister, and thankfully, she’s not a sore loser… but she definitely needs to step up her tic-tac-toe game a little, hehehe. But really, though, it became a full sibling competition, and at least it kept them doing something other than watching TV for a good amount of hours. See more ways I use magnetic tiles to create screen-free fun for my kids.
8. Footprint Flip-Flop Lacing
Trace your child’s feet onto cardboard, then give it to them to design it however they like. Now for the motor skills part, apply glue around the outline of the feet, then give them yarn to carefully stick along the lines where the glue is. Alternatively, you could make holes around the edges and let your kids thread shoelaces or yarn through them. I tell you, if you want a calming activity, both for your toddlers and big kids, who have been active all day, this one makes the cut.
9. Roll and Build a City
Draw two number rows on cardboard, one below, one above. You can design around it to make it look like an actual city. Give your child a die or two dice rolls. They roll the dice and write down whatever number it lands on in the box below, then build that same number with their LEGO pieces or blocks in the row above.
10. Playdough Monster
Give your kids their playdough and random loose parts like buttons, googly eyes and pipe cleaners and let them create silly monsters. For real, though, this might be one of the easiest kid activities ever because they do almost all the work themselves.
Finally
I’ll tell you something you probably already know: I’m a sucker for low-prep activities that can help break a hot, chaotic afternoon and save me from turning the TV on, probably for the hundredth time. And what is good about such activities is that they only need supplies you most likely own and have, the setups are usually low to none, and some of them can go on for hours and hours.
But if you try any of these activities, send it to another tired mama who’s currently hearing “I’m bored” every five minutes.
I hope this post was helpful.
