This Fourth of July is very different than what we’ve seen in former years. Local and national politicians have ordered all to remain away from beaches, public parks, national monuments, bars, and dine in restaurants. They are still trying to prevent the COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus from spreading, infecting and killing the masses. Therefore, lets make lemonade out of lemons and enjoy our family.

Below are 5 Stay At Home Ideas to help enjoy family together while keeping everyone occupied!

1. Backyard BBQ

Break out the hamburgers and hot dog buns, we’re going to have a cook out! Barbeque is a big staple in American culture, and if you have some meat, poultry or vegetables to grill now it the time to start marinating it in your favorite spices and sauces! When we grill we love putting the corn on the grill, and you can actually keep them in the husk so that are insulated and get nice and soft. You can get help from others and get the kids excited about setting up the backyard table for a nice lunch or dinner.

The best BBQ’s have homemade lemonade too! Just chop up some lemons, add a cup of sugar, and some cold water in a pitcher. Pour and enjoy! If you prefer iced tea, add 10 tea bags to the concoction and let it sit for a few hours. Better start prepping it now! If you have mint growing in your backyard, pick and add that too.

Fruit salad is a great citrus treat, that is fun for the kids to help out with too! If you have a watermelon and a watermelon baller, you can give the baller scoops to the kids and have them ball out little pieces of watermelon for your fruit salad while you prep the pineapple, grapes, blueberries, strawberries, mint and more! Some like to add papaya and mango too, it’s really up to you!

2. Karaoke Dance Party

Kick it! Below are the best free karoake dance apps you can download today and get to singing your heart out!

  • Smule (Free 7-day Trial)
  • Karaoke by Yokee (Free 7-day Trial)
  • StarMaker Lite (Free)
  • WeSing (Free)
  • Midifun Karaoke (Free)

3. Creative Crafts + Puppeteer Ideas

Let’s make patriotic necklaces! As soon as COVID hit this year, I ordered a bag of beads and string for the kids to keep them busy and creative. I ordered it right off of Amazon and they delivered it the next day, but if you have Amazon Prime they should be able to deliver your craft needs within the hour if they have them on stock.

Tell a story with a puppet show! If you have a big empty cardboard box, you can cut it out and make a stage for either sock puppets or puppets on string. The kids can make up a story line, practice and put a play together for the adults. This is a great way to get the kids thinking outside of the box and get their creative thinking caps on too!

4. Family Game Hour with Board Games + XBOX

There are plenty of fun family board games out there that you can buy and play! My favorites growing up were Twister, Sweet Valley High, Chutes + Ladders, Monopoly, Connect Four, Tic Tac Toe, Uno, and Boggle. If you have a deck of cards around too you can play Go Fish, Gin and Rummy, Poker, Spades, Matches, and more. We have an old XBOX here, so we’ve been enjoying old Nintendo games like Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, Sonic the Hedgehog, Zelda, Mario Brothers 1-3, and more. There are plenty of fun games to play, you just have to search for them!

5. Sidewalk Chalk Games + Drawing Contests

You can play tic tac toe, hopscotch, draw hearts, birds, stars, whatever you’d like! This is be sure to get the kids going, and they will be happy to brag about their special creations!