Keep Kids Occupied During Spring Break

When the bell rings this afternoon, kids across the Las Vegas valley will be celebrating the start of their spring break. Parents, not so much. It can be tough to keep excited little ones occupied and away from screens for an entire week, whether you’ll be home with them or not. So we’ve rounded up a few of our favorite spring break activities that are active, educational, and fun.

If you’ll be holding down the fort next week, try these easy-to-DIY games that can be enjoyed just as easily indoors as outdoors, depending on your weather.

Super Spy:
Let imaginations run wild by turning your house into Super Spy HQ for the week. Stretch lengths of yarn or painters tape across a hallway to create a tricky laser grid for little agents to navigate through. Assign secret missions like finding a lost key or counting up the number of red objects in the house. If friends will be coming over, use post-it notes and an ink pad to scatter finger prints around the house and see if your agents can match the print to the person. Old favorites like dress-up (agents in disguise) and hide-and-seek (find the double-agent) are easy to fit into this theme to keep the fun going all week long.

Life-Sized Board Games:
You could start with scaling-up classics like checkers or shoots and ladders with the help of some construction paper and painters tape, but why stop there? Encourage kids to gather up their toys and create something totally new! The Spruce provides some great ideas for getting started.

If instead, you’re hoping to get everyone out of the house, you can plan for a single afternoon or the whole week!

Design Zone:
Design Zone is the current traveling exhibit at Discovery Children’s Museum. There, kids can learn how math is used to create everything from video games to roller coasters to music. Make a day of it by getting into all of the permanent exhibits too, like Patents Pending and Water World. You can even pack the cooler with a picnic lunch to enjoy in Symphony Park beside the Smith Center when you’re ready for a break.

Red Planet Green Plant:
For kids who are looking for a week-long adventure, check out Red Planet Green Planet, the spring break camp at Springs Preserve. Campers ages 6 to 12 learn about environmental issues here on earth by pretending to build a colony on Mars!