10 Minute Quick and Easy Family Activities with No Prep Work

Spending time with family can be hard to squeeze in, but with these quick and easy family activities for young kids, you can spend time together anytime and just about anywhere.

Easy Family Activities

Do you ever feel like getting together as a family is difficult and chaotic? Sometimes finding the time to get everyone together can be challenging. There are so many schedules to manage, nap times, meal times, and too many items on my to-do list. I love spending time as a family, and I love it even more when my daughter says “I love it when we all spend time together”.

While I fully promote making and scheduling big moments together, including vacations and Holidays, sometimes it just doesn’t happen. You look back on the month and realize that you’ve hardly spend time together. I think the more time we spend together the greater the bonds and love we all share. My kids benefit a lot from family time. As they grow up, I hope they see us as a support system and a safe haven from the world.

Some of our fondest memories have been when we have just a few minutes before bed-time, or bath time, or before we have to run our errands, and we do a simple activity together. It’s, mostly, completely unplanned and spontaneous. When my kids are begging for my time and attention, or when I know we could all benefit from some much needed family time, I pull out a quick activity.

I’ve complied a list of different activities we’ve done or would like to do that only take about 10-15 minutes of everyone’s time, requires little to no prep work, and is super easy. If you’re ever feeling like you need to spend more time as a family, or your lives seem to be a little busy at the moment, pull one of these activities out. Everyone will have a blast!

Side note: Most of these family activity ideas are geared towards families with younger kids, but I bet if you asked your older kids to participate, they would have a blast too.

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10-15 Minutes Easy Family Activities

The Hug Game

We have played this in our family several times, and the kids love it. You have everyone line up on one side of the room, except the person who is “it”, they stand on the opposite side of them room. Make sure there is nothing in between you to run over. Create as much space between you as you’d like. At random, the person who is “it” picks a person to run to and hug. The person receiving the hug is now it. This might seem too simple, but it’s what you make it. You could try to trick people as you’re running over. You could add tackling, if you’re feeling brave. You could also sit on the couch if that’s easier. This is a more gentler game of Red Rover, which would be more geared toward older kids.

Hide and Seek

This game is a staple in our house. I think we played it everyday for a month. My daughter would play it 3 times a day if she could. I am usually not in the mood to play because she always seems to ask me right when I get home from work and all I want to do is sit. But I usually make myself, and I always have fun and it takes like 15 minutes. The kids NEVER forget it. They love it!

Do you Love Your Neighbor

Play do you love your neighbor by putting enough chairs in a circle for everyone but one person to sit. The person in the middle then walks up to a person sitting down and asks “Do you Love Your Neighbor?”. The person responding either says “Yes, except for people (insert adjective here, i.e. wearing red, with brown hair, with blue eyes, etc…)”. All the people who meet that description have to get up and find another chair, while the person in the middle has to sit in one of those chairs. Once all the chairs are filled, the new person in the middle asks someone else the same question. If the person responding says no, then the people on either side of them has to switch seats and the person in the middle has to try and squeeze into one of those seats.

This game can get rough, so beware. 🙂

Picnic

We all gotta eat dinner, so why not make it special and eat outside. Usually on pizza night, we will take a blanket and eat it outside. It’s super easy. We just grab some paper plates, napkins, and drinks, and we’re good to go. It’s the little things. My kids get so excited about a picnic.

Roller Coaster

We’ve played this in our house a couple of times and it’s a huge hit. You’ll only be able to do it with younger kids. Get a laundry basket and have your child sit in it. Place the laundry basket on the couch, table, or ottoman right in front of the TV. Turn on YouTube and search for Roller Coaster Rides. Play it while you move the basket with the motion of the Roller Coaster. The kids have so much fun! Who needs Disney?

Dice Game

This is a great game to do as a family when your kids have too much energy. Using a regular dice, designate an action with each number, then roll the dice and do the assigned action. For example, if you roll a 4 you would do 4 push ups, if you roll a 5 you would do 5 jumping jacks. Let the kids help you come up with the rules and then start rolling away. So simple, but the kids love it. I find that the kids love when adults participate in games they find exciting.

Walk

Go on a walk. Again, another simple activity, but could be turned into an adventure. This is also great exercise and an energy sucker. :). You could make it interesting and do a scavenger hunt along your way. I have a Picture Scavenger Hunt that you can download.

Laughing Game

We have been wanting to play this game. I think my daughter will really like it because she LOVES to laugh. I played it as a child. You all lay down in a square by laying your head on someone’s belly. If you have an odd number, you can kinda make a circle. Then someone starts the laugh by doing a pretend “Ha!”. The next person does “ha, ha”, and then “ha, ha, ha”. You keep increasing the number of ha’s. Pretty soon, everyone is laughing for real.

Bubbles

We always make sure to have bubbles on hand. They are so fun, and all kids love them. You can make your own bubble recipe, but that takes a little bit of prep work. You can also buy a big bubble maker to keep handy. that’s just pure magic for kids.

The Classic Games

There is always time to throw in a classic Simon Says, Mother May I, Red Light, Green Light, Tag, or Follow the Leader, hangman, battleship, and tic tac toe.

FREE printable

Hopscotch

Make a quick hopscotch with some sidewalk chalk, or with T-shirts or pillowcases. Make it interesting and create challenges. This fun foam hopscotch mat would be perfect.

Baseball

We like to play baseball as a family a lot. We have a plastic bat and ball, and we just go outside for a few minutes to play together. This would work with just about any sport if you have the equipment handy. Some great ones are: Kickball, Soccer, Mini Golf, or Football. Just do a quick pick up game.

Shadow Puppets

This is a great bedtime activity too. Turn all the lights off and turn a lamp on. Make different shadow puppets with your hands. If you need some good ideas or instruction, this is a great resource.

Sing Songs

Do a singing time together, or riddles. Let your kids put on a show for you. Teach them a clapping song.

Story Time

Have everyone huddle around and tell a story. I like to use stories from my childhood, and I don’t tell them it was me until the end.

Hot Potato

Pick any object or ball to play Hot Potato with. Throw it around the room and sing a song, or play a song. A good game to have on hand is Pass the Pig. We have this game, and it’s basically hot potato, but it makes it easy to play and super fun. My kids LOVE it.

Thumb Wars

Teach your kids about Thumb Wars and have a Thumb War Tournament. You could also do an arm wrestling tournament.

I Spy

A very over-rated classic game. I spy is our go-to game when the kids want to play something, but I don’t want to move.

20 Questions

One of the super easy family activities and classic game is 20 Questions. One person thinks of an object and everyone else has 20 questions to figure it out.

Another fun one, that we often use when we are waiting for our food at a restaurant is Would You Rather (you can download my FREE printable).

There are also so many other fun question games with kids.

Staring Contest

My daughter is always asking to do a staring contest with me, and she’s really good at it.

No Smile Game

The no smile game is a lot like the staring contest except you can’t smile. You stare at each other until someone loses by smiling. It’s fun, and the kids love it.

Card Game

Keep a few card games handy that you can pull out really quick like a matching game, Go Fish, Old Maid, or Uno. You can buy a cheap kids card pack that has several different card games.

Family fun in 10 Minutes

All of these easy family activities can take less than 15 minutes, but the kids remember it forever. Some of our best moments come from an impromptu game of Hide-n-seek or a quick Staring contest as I’m putting the kids in bed. Taking 10-15 minutes out of your day for your kids means so much to them. You always have a few minutes to spare. AND most of these easy activities can be done anywhere!

10 Minute Quick and Easy Family Activities with No Prep Work

10 Minute Quick and Easy Family Activities with No Prep Work

Easy Family Activities