With the whole family spending more time at home, it’s easy to get a little stir crazy. To ease the long days without school or organized sports, we’ve put together some activities that your Girl Scout (and her siblings!) can easily do at home. Beat the boredom and try out one of these ideas!

Beef Up Your Badges

No need to pause the Girl Scout experience until your troop meets again, there are plenty of awesome badges you can start working on in the comfort of your own home. For even more inspiration, head on over to the Badge Explorer to find one that catches your eye! Here are a few of our favorites:

• Daisies can explore outside and use what they see and hear to make different kinds of art with the Outdoor Art Maker Badge.
• For the Brownie Home Scientist Badge, girls can create static electricity, make something bubble up, and become a kitchen chemist!
• By exploring how music is made, listening to music from around the world, and composing something of their own, Girl Scouts can earn their Junior Musician Badge.
• Cadettes can get creative and learn how to tell a story visually with “sequential art” to earn their Comic Artist Badge.
• Seniors can hone in on their writing and editing skills by being the creators of their own narratives with the Novelist Badge.
• With the Ambassador Photographer Badge, girls can find out how to present the world through their eyes.
• Girl Scouts of all ages can build resilience and test their emergency preparedness with our new at-home patch program, Be Prepared, Not Scared!

Care for Your Community

When current times are so unpredictable, it’s easy to feel like things are out of your control. By taking a note from the Girl Scout Promise, we can still make the effort to “help people at all times” while still staying at home!

• For those who can sew and assist your Girl Scouts, learn how to create a homemade Mask for Medical Heroes with our step-by-step tutorial!
• Head over to a local park or community garden and spend 20 minutes picking up any trash you see. It’s never a bad time to look after the environment!
• Help out your elderly neighbors (call first!) by offering to clean up their yard or pick up groceries.
• Clear out outgrown toys and books to set aside to donate to charity.
• Write a letter to a family member who lives far away. An easy way to brighten someone’s day!
• Learn how you can conserve natural resources and decrease waste in your own home. Start brainstorming and hop online to research!

Expand Your Knowledge

If you’re tired of your current book collection, your local library offers a ton of additional online content for you to enjoy! Let someone else take the reins or your imagination by trying out a new eBook.

• Ventura County Library – The eLibrary has plenty of resources to help you with that project your teacher assigned you.
• Santa Barbara Library – Check out storytime on their YouTube channel, access read-alongs with your library card, try out a MOXI at Home STEM project, and much more!
• County of SLO Public Libraries – Access eBooks, audiobooks, and magazines, or check out online learning classes in their digital library.
• San Benito County Free Library – Check out their online resources to learn a new language, get online tutoring, and even virtually register for a library card (if you don’t have one already!).
• Monterey Public Library – Download eBook bestsellers, comics, movies, and more.
• Santa Cruz Public Library – Access thousands of eBooks, eAudiobooks, eMagazines, News, Movies, and Music 24/7 from home in the virtual library with your library card and PIN/password.

Get Moving

Feeling like you need to shake off some of that extra energy? Get up and get active with one of these activities.

• Use toys and games from your garage to create an obstacle course in your backyard!
• Create your own outdoor scavenger hunt. Write down a list of some items you might spot outside, take a nature walk, and try to cross off as many items on your list as you can. (You can do this indoors too!)
• Test your strength, agility, or flexibility and balance with these kid-friendly workouts.
• Blow up a balloon, tie a piece of yarn between two chairs, and have an indoor volleyball game with a sibling.
• Use a pencil to write down an action on a Jenga block (10 jumping jacks, hold a yoga pose, etc.). Set up the tower to play, but each player has to do the action on the block they pull out!

Go Virtual

Now is the time to take advantage of the HUGE variety of resources that are available online. Explore somewhere new, plan your dream vacation, learn a new language, and so much more!

• Where is somewhere you’ve always wanted to do? See if you can find a virtual tour! We love these ones of the San Diego Zoo, National Parks, Canadian farm, The Louvre museum in Paris, Great Wall of China, and even the surface of Mars!
• Learn about somewhere new by exploring the cultures and countries of the world.
• Check out millions of STEM experiment simulations covering topics like Physics, Chemistry, Math, Earth Science, and Biology.
• Learn how to play an instrument, sing in tune, and understand the language of music with a free trial!
• Immerse yourself in cryptography and learn to crack a code.
• Engage yourself in the world of art by browsing through different time periods, places, and subjects.
• Type in any city, state, or country to check out historical photographs and documents from that place!
• Learn all about the ins and outs of the government with Ben Franklin as your guide.

Extra time at home doesn’t have to be boring! It’s important now more than ever to look after your family’s mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Find tons of other learning resources for grades K-12, games, activity ideas, and so much more here. And when all else fails, simply enjoying each other’s company never hurts.