Draven Jackson
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Whether it’s rainy, hot, cold, or self-quarantine, easy DIY games can be a great way to change up the plan and have fun with the whole family! It doesn’t have to be expensive – DIY games can be made with anything you have at home, whether it’s scraps of fabric or colored construction paper. Your kids will love making and playing your new game, and you’ll love finding new ways to keep everyone interested and having a fun day!
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Music Bingo

Making easy DIY games that every member of your family will love starts with music bingo! To start with, you can either hand draw 25 square grids on sheets of paper or make them online. Make sure they’re arranged in 5×5 squares so you can offer multiple directions for a B-I-N-G-O!

Next, you’ll want to pick between 25 to 45 songs that you can mix and match on each board. Keep the center square open as a “free” square, but have fun picking and choosing songs that everyone in the family will love, from Adele to Kids Bop to Taylor Swift. Let your kids add their favorite songs – and make sure to include some of yours!

After you’ve finished the sheets, you’ll want to find all the songs online. While you could have someone playing the “DJ” and manually choosing the songs, it could also be fun to create a playlist on YouTube or Spotify that randomly shuffles the music. If you can, make a playlist of the music videos on YouTube so you can watch while you play.

Then wait for the BINGO! If you have prizes, let the winner pick a special treat after they finish their card. If you want it extra interesting, create a couple of themed bingo rounds, like “One Hit Wonders” or “Songs that start with T.” Otherwise, just have fun listening to good music and enjoying a playfully competitive bingo game.

Cartoon “Who Am I?”

FOr other easy, DIY games  for a day indoors, let’s look at how to make a cartoon-themed “Who Am I?” Much like how Headbandz works, with the cartoon “Who Am I” you can challenge your kids to guess their favorite cartoon characters based on a series of yes or no questions.

First, decide on which characters you’re going to include in your game. Make sure to print off pictures of each character – you’ll want to choose photos that are easily identifiable for all players. Cut each photo into a square to get rid of all the extra white around the edges.

For the actual gameplay, you can either choose to hold the photos to your forehead with an elastic headband or with a small piece of tape – anything to keep them in place while you ask your question. For new players, there may want to be a practice round to go over helpful questions, like “Am I a boy” or “Am I an animal”.

You can either make it a “for fun” game with no clear winner or create your own rules that “the first to 5 wins” – whatever works best for your family and promotes the most fun!

Yard Yahtzee

For days when you have nice weather but nowhere to go, Yard Yahtzee is one of the man easy DIY games that encourages you to go outside and lets you be a little crafty in the process. Yard Yahtzee does require dice made from squares of wood, which you can make yourself with five 4×4 wood pieces.

Once you have your wood squares, you’ll want to draw the circles on each side to create large dice. Here’s where you can get a little creative – you can either make them the traditional black circles or you can make them colorful and mismatched! If you wanted to get really crazy, you can trade in the plain circles for different shapes – flower, hearts, stars, you name it! As long as each side has shapes representing each number 1-6, it doesn’t have to be anything specific. If you want to get the kids involved, making the dice is a great way to get their creative juices flowing and work with the little ones on their numbers!

To play the game, you’ll place all five of your dice in a bucket, which you’ll use to throw them during your time. Keep a sheet or whiteboard nearby with each player’s name and the Yahtzee categories so you can keep score as you play!

Glow-In-The-Dark Ring Toss

For our night owls looking for a fun way to spend an at-home Saturday night, glow-in-the-dark ring toss is a fun game the whole family will love! The only materials you’ll need are a 12” glow stick or metal rod and a bunch of glow sticks necklaces.

The 12” glowstick or rod will go in a hole in the ground at the desired toss location, while the glow stick necklaces will be paired up to make the rings. You’ll want to buy the necklace packs as they have plastic connectors to put multiple glow sticks together. Each person will get 4 rings to play the game. Have fun mix-and-matching your glowstick colors to make your rings!

Once it gets dark, it’s time to play! Like “Who Am I,” your family can decide whether to keep score or just play for funsies.

Let’s Go Fishing!

For those looking for craftier easy, DIY games, Let’s Go Fishing is a perfect choice! you’ll need some fabric pieces, a dowel rod, tape, string, and paper clips. To make the fish, cut two pieces of fabric into a fish-like shape and either hand stitch or sew the pieces together. Don’t be afraid to get a little crazy with your fish! Let your kids help you by picking out the fabrics and cutting the fish shapes – the fishes don’t have to be uniform, so don’t worry if they’re different shapes and sizes.

At the end of each fish, make sure to attach a string loop. For all my non-sewing moms, no worries! You can make your fishes out of construction paper “sewn” together with string looping through holes punched around the edges.

Next, you’ll want to tie a long piece of string to the end of the dowel rod. I also suggest taping around the end tied to the rod to make sure it doesn’t move around. Make sure your string is long enough to reach the fishes from wherever you’re fishing point is, but not long enough to drag the ground. I would suggest turning a chair around and “fishing” over the back. At the end of the string, tape a bent paper clip for your “hook.” You’ll want to bend the clip enough that the fish’s string loop can be hooked, but not so straight that it will fall right off.

Then go fishing! There’s no need to keep score here – just enjoy the challenge of trying to catch your fun and colorful fishes!

Do you have any fun and easy DIY games for a family day at home? Make sure to tell us in the comments!

About Draven Jackson

Draven is an avid writer and reader who enjoys sharing her opinions on movies, books, and music with the rest of the world. She will soon be working as a teacher in Japan and hopes to use her experience to connect with other teachers and students around the globe. Draven spends most of her time at home with her family, her dogs, and her ferret.

To see more, view all posts by Draven Jackson here.