Keep kids physically active by dancing with them. Clear furniture from the center of the room and play some children's music. Dance with them around the room, making silly facial expressions and movements to get them laughing. To change things up, play a game of "freeze dance" by pausing the music, causing the kids to freeze in place for a few seconds before pressing play again. If the weather permits, have races outside, play tag or start a game of hide and seek outdoors. The extra physical activity may help to tire them out for bed without much of an argument.
Work together to make a large collage of your favorite things. Help the kids choose pictures and words from the magazines to cut out. Talk about your favorite pictures and ask the kids to help you choose some of your own to cut out. Paste the cut-outs onto poster board together, using glue sticks. Help the kids make cards for their parents using some decorative paper, crayons and stickers. Print out coloring pages of their favorite cartoon characters and allow the kids to color them.
Play games to entertain the kids and keep everyone socializing and engaged in a group activity. Bring along a few board games and play them with the kids or play games like "I Spy" without a board. To play "I Spy," find an object in the room -- such as an apple -- and say "I spy something (name the color of the object)." Have the kids guess what it is that you spied. Take turns doing this so everyone gets a chance to guess and spy. Play a scavenger hunt. Ask the kids to find a short list of things throughout the home and bring them to a central location, like the dining room table. If the kids are not yet reading, give each child a verbal instruction of one thing to find at a time. When they bring the object to the central location, give them a new item to find.
Depending on the ages of the children, several educational activities can make good use of your time. Ask early readers to read you simple books. Help them with the difficult words. Show letters to pre-readers and ask them to identify each. As the kids identify the letters, have them write them on a sheet of paper to practice handwriting. Show colors to toddlers and ask them to identify them. Talk about animals, what sounds they make and what type of foods they eat. Parents will love the idea of their children getting some intellectual stimulation while they are being cared for.