101 Things Your Kid Can Do With a Cast On

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Honestly, I could have also titled this list “101 Laid Back Activities for Kids Who Like to be Active.”  But since I made this list when my toddler, Toby, was wearing a cast, we’ll stick with that.  Toby managed to get a hairline fracture in his leg while being silly last fall. It took three days, two trips to the ER, and several sets of x-rays to revise his injury from a sprained ankle to a fractured tibia. Let’s just say, while I was sad he broke his leg, I’m glad I listened to that mom instinct and returned to the ER for more x-rays.

We had two stressful days in a temporary splint before we were able to get in for the permanent cast. Which wasn’t a walking cast, persay. But in all honesty, who can keep a toddler from walking or standing on their cast for three weeks? Not this mom.

The loss of independence was really rough for Toby. To go from doing pretty much everything himself to having to ask for help with the simplest things is tough. It doesn’t matter if you’re a kid or an adult! I helped my husband through a similar situation when he tore his patellar tendon. It doesn’t matter if you have a caregiver who is more than happy to take care of you — it’s the loss of independence that wears you down. Not being able to walk or get around is rough. And more so for kids because they can’t verbalize their feelings.

I wracked my brain to come up with things that we could do — things that Toby would enjoy and be kept busy with while the cast remained on. Let’s just say I was really grateful that we had weekly activities on the schedule to help pass the time. Preschool, moms and tots, and the like. But the one that didn’t work? Swim lessons. Although I did find some waterproof cast covers for swimming on Amazon (#afflink) that looked really neat — this discovery came midway through our cast time and it wouldn’t have been used more than once by the time I could get it in hand.  A fellow mom shared one of her blog posts with me about her child’s cast activities: Having a Blast When Your Kid Has a Cast.

All in all, we made it through.  What did we do?  Well, a lot of things.  While I didn’t document our every adventure, I did compile a list of 101 things your kid can do with a cast.  Keep in mind some of these activities may need to be modified depending on whether you child has their leg or arm in a cast.  But hopefully these things will get you thinking of even more ways to have fun when your kid is somewhat immobilized!

101 Activities You Can Do While Wearing a Cast

1. Read books
2. Visit the zoo
3. Make a sand volcano
4. Bake bread. We like to make Irish Soda Bread (recipe)
5. Play beanbag games (indoors)
6. Get them thinking about helping others by making an acts of service jar
7. Visit the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum (a local children’s museum with tons of activities to do and things to see).
8. Make a portable tinkering kit
9. Go to story time at the library.
10. Learn to code (get a kano computer kit on Amazon #afflink)
11. Visit the park and go on the swings (this could work for casted legs, arms not so much)
12. Go see a play or musical
13. Take a bike ride (if you have one of those pull-behind bike trailers that’s on my wishlist #afflink)
14. Play a musical instrument (or just make noise on one)
15. Make a toy boat from a greeting card
16. Go to an aquarium
17. Host a playdate (or meet up at a park).
18. Come up with creative ways to play with Magna Tiles (we LOVE ours! Get your own Magna Tiles on Amazon #afflink)
19. Plant some seeds and start a garden
20. Make a foldable take along train track set
21. Go “digging” for bugs with an excavation kit
22. Have a movie night, with popcorn and kid-selected “toppings”
23. Make your own mini microscope
24. Make a camera obscura (shadow box from my ABCs of Photography for kids activity series)
25. Make sculptures from nuts and bolts
26. Combine learning and play with racecar math
27. Make heat sensitive color changing slime
28. Play with glowsticks
29. Practice lacing with these free printable lacing cards
30. Learn how to work (or play) with yarn
31. Make Lego Inspired electric playdough
32. Have a camp out, complete with tent if you have one (either outdoors, or in your living room)
33. Color rocks with permanent magamerkers
34. Sew a nature pouch
35. Go to the grocery store and let your kid ride in the “fancy” car shopping cart
36. Put together an arts + crafts busy box
37. Make milk carton crayon ice candles
38. Have a bonfire and make smores
39. Play numerous indoor games with balloons
40. Make bouncy balls from loom bands
41. Have a sing-along party
42. Make a play fort kit from old sheets
43. Make raisins dance (science experiment)
44. Play “I Spy” (with flashlights!)
45. Make a bug house (or be lazy like us and buy a bug house on Amazon #afflink)
46. Make a time capsule
47. Create a new recipe (we made peanut butter jelly dip)
48. Make trail mix (and let your kid pick what goes in it)
49. Make popsicles and learn about diversity in the process
50. Do a science experiment to make flowers change colors
51. Make a buckle toy from an old carseat
52. Make a cardboard pirate ship
53. Play doctor and take care of a stuffed animal’s broken arm/leg
54. Make a money bank
55. Make ice cream in a bag
56. Zoom (gently) around the house on a wheeled toy (we love our bumblebee wheely bug #afflink)
57. Get a birdfeeder and go birdwatching up close
58. Get out pipe cleaners and thread them through a strainer/colander
59. Get a subscription to the Animal Trackers Club
60. Make a lava lamp
61. Make DIY seed paper (for growing seeds)
62. Play Move and Groove, a movement-based dice game (get Move and Groove on Amazon #afflink)
63. Make your own homemade marble runs
64. Make Stone Soup (and read the book, of course)
65. Play with straws (7 ways!)
66. Sew something together
67. Get busy coloring (90 free coloring pages for kids)
68. Pretend to be super heroes (we got our cape at the Super Run!)
69. Go out to eat for a lunch “date”
70. Make your own geo board
71. Melt frozen hands (a salt and ice activity)
72. Play board games
73. Make glowing bounce balls
74. Make your own board game (check out my In A People House board game with printable)
75. Paint with flowers
76. Try animal yoga for kids
77. Grow romaine lettuce from kitchen scraps
78. Sneak around the house in “stealth mode”
79. Make a DIY Air Fort
80. Make a quick and easy photo memory game
81. Learn about chemical reactions using baking soda and vinegar
82. Order a waterproof cast cover for swimming on Amazon (#afflink) and get in the pool
83. Turn an old toddler bed into a sandbox
84. Play with a ball (catch, rolling the ball back and forth, bouncing it, etc)
85. Make a peace corner
86. Check out these 20 No-Prep Fine Motor Activites
87. Play with kinetic sand
88. Make a lip balm rocket
89. Have a wheelbarrow race (hold your child’s legs, let them walk on their arms)
90. Make a button snake (for practicing button skills)
91. Learn math with 100 creative, hands-on math activities for kids
92. Work in the garden together
93. Try some stretching exercises
94. Go for a car ride and let your kid choose which way to turn (e.g. “left or straight?”)
95. Learn about bubble science, make your own bubble solution and bubble blower
96. Make fizzing sidewalk paint
97. Make a rubber band powered car
98. Go on a photo scavenger hunt
99. Give your child a piggyback ride
100. Make a shape stretchie for creative movement
101. Have tickle time (or if you need something more calming… try snuggle time)

Phew!  We made it.

Did you start skimming the list? Or give up, deciding to bookmark this (or pin it) for later?  I don’t blame you.  I needed a break after getting this list put together for you!

If you have any other ideas you’d like to add to the list, I’d love to hear from you.  Have you ever been in a cast?  What was the worst part?  Did this list get you excited?  Share your thoughts and ideas in the comments below!

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