Activities for Teens at home
Activities for Teens are ideas for a group of teens with friends, or a family activity with teens. Fun at home when it’s a good time to stay home.
So many resources at your fingertips, you just have to make the effort! Aim for a DAILY 5 each day in these activities for teens. Choose something from each section each day, to keep yourself well rounded, in addition to your other dailies (brush teeth, eat food, spiritual nourishment). Search for tutorials via Google or YouTube for most anything you want to try or learn. Each * on the print denotes a clickable link below.
Daily 5 Activities for teens:
- Serve–think of others
- Connect–do something with your family
- Exercise–MOVE your body!
- Create–Expand your horizons
- Learn–work your brain muscles
Download the printable here:
Online resources for teens
I need to keep it simple with these activities for teens for my kids, while also offering ideas. All of them are listed on the print, hang in a prominent spot and check off as needed. The idea is to print off this 1 page list, and to aim to hit all 5 daily, choosing something from the list to change things up. From the ideas I listed, here are those that link to something else.
- Memorize Something! It can be a poem, a song, or a scripture. When we encourage our teens to memorize something substantial, it STICKS with them indefinitely. I have some free scriptures on my website that are great memorization tools. I’ve got a bunch for free, or you can purchase sets of Doctrinal Mastery Scriptures for my teen friends enrolled in the seminary program for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You can challenge teens to memorize 1 a week or 1 a month, depending on time, and even offer incentive. Here are a few I have available on my site:
- Learn a new language with DUO LINGO–My family has loved this free app (with some optional in app purchases), and we used it heavily when my son was sharpening his Spanish skills last summer before moving to the Dominican Republic. It was a family effort, and there are different challenges and coins you can earn where you can advance rounds and earn points, and compete between family members. Not only do they have Spanish, French, German, and other common languages, but also silly languages like Cling-on and the language from Game of Thrones.
- CONSIDER THIS cards to discuss phone etiquette. This is such a great family activity, and even inviting your kids friends to join in the discussion as well. Many cases, there are no WRONG answers, as etiquette feels different to different people. It helps to be able to explain texting, voice calls, social media etiquette to teens to be better social citizens. You can purchase the box of 50 cards, or download 6 free right on that page I linked to.
- CREATE PHOTO ALBUMS– I love to create a CHATBOOK with everyday iphone memories. I also love making BLURB books for a full yearbook of the year or Project Life templates with travel pictures or family picture sessions.
- Games for Teenagers–There is a really fun games called Queen Elephant that my kids learned a few years ago, and it is great with a group of teen friends, or a family (4-6 ideal).
- Podcasts for Teens–This is a fairly new territory, and I don’t know of a TON, but if you hear of any I don’t mention, please let me know! When I create the teen podcast last year, Fist Bump, I had only seen ONE other podcast for teens, Becoming for Teens. Since then, I’ve seen a few more.
- Word of the week challenge–Select a challenging or silly word to be your word of the week, and see how often you can use it in conversation, text, etc. I’ve got some printable downloads you can print and hang on the fridge or somewhere else visible. Challenge your family members, and have fun with it!
- TikTok dance–Teens seem to love featuring parents in their TikToks, it’s totally trending over there! I wrote a post about this a while back called “Is TikTok Safe?” My girls LOVE making dances on TikTok, and they actually love to include me as well. The older generation is quite popular with the teens on TikTok. Also, if you have not already printed the free TEENS + SOCIAL MEDIA GUIDE, print it off and chat with your kids about it!
- Exercise–here are a few of my favorites on YouTube Mr and Mrs Muscle: my new favorite way to get in a quick 10 minute workout. Sometimes I’ll do 2 or 3. They also have some workouts on IGTV on their Instagram. Yoga with Adrienne is has a great beginner yoga as well as a video made yoga for teens. Another beginner for kids and teens.
- 1 Second Everyday Video Diary– is an app that you can import your phone videos and select the best 1 second to create a longer video over time. My teen daughter has done this for a year, and it’s so fun to see what she has put together, and intentionally takes fun videos for it.
- Our favorite family games for all ages listed on that link with Amazon links to it.
