There are many enjoyable and fun indoor activities for kids while they are stuck at home, from stirring to settling and from easy to challenging. To help your kids let out a little energy, why not you dance or do some yoga together? For their motor skills and intellectual development, opt for reading books, using educational apps or playing sensory games. Finally, to have some fun while passing time, you can just watch a TV show or movie. For more cool ideas, check out our guide.
Read Out Loud
Reading is not only one of the most fun and engaging indoor kids activities but also beneficial for their development. It helps to exercise their brain, improve concentration and spark imagination. Moreover, to make it more fun and useful, you can read out loud with your kids. This will greatly contribute to their literacy and verbal skills as well as artistry and sociability.
Board Games - Indoor Activities
Board games are one of the most popular indoor activities for kids as well as their parents. Although they are sometimes considered a bit old-fashioned, they will arguably never lose their relevance. Besides, there are so many of them, that you will certainly find an option to match everyone’s interests.
DIY Your Own Masterpieces
Promote your children’s creativity by engaging them in DIY projects. This will also help to unleash their talents as well as improve fine motor skills. Painting, papier mache, plasticine modeling or perler beads design – there is a wide range of options to choose from.
Apps
It is okay to let your kids use their or even your smartphone provided they do it to the good. That is to say, they not only surf social networks but also educate themselves and learn something useful. Luckily, there are plenty of apps that allow them to do so.
Kids Yoga - Indoor Activities
Yoga is one of those fun indoor activities that are beneficial for both adults and children. Thus, why don’t you try to do it together? To make it more entertaining, you can mimic different poses of animals and play or sing your kids’ favorite songs.
Bake And Decorate - Indoor Activities
Did you know that the most delicious food is the one you cooked yourself? For that reason, baking some easy yet delicious pastry with your kids can become a really fun game to play indoors. You can even hold a competition for the most creative or beautiful decoration for the dessert.
Leave Out A Jigsaw Puzzle - Indoor Activities
One of the best things about puzzles is that they can be done whenever one has a spare minute. So, it is a good idea to leave it out in plain view so that every member of the family could make their contribution when passing by.
Sensory Games
Sensory games are one of those fun indoor activities for kids that help to develop sensory integration in them. It means that their brain will learn to receive and process sensory information that allows us to do everyday things. You have quite a lot of options here too. Sensory indoor kids activities can be clean or messy, scented or even edible, but most importantly ensure they are fun and creative.
Movies And TV Shows - Indoor Activities
Allowing your children to watch their favorite movies or TV shows does not make you any less parent. However, take care to limit their screen time so that this indoor fun will be harmless. Thus, binge-watching is not accepted. Instead, try to have some quality time with them and choose only must-watch movies and sites like 123movies will help you with that.
Indoor Obstacle Course
No matter how old your kid is, building an obstacle course around them always makes one of their favorite indoor kid activities. Just make sure the location is safe for your kid so that there are no sharp corners or furniture legs to hit or trip over.
No-cost And Zero-equipment Ideas For Active Games For Kids
Follow The Leader
While there are many things to do with kids indoors, this game can be especially fun to play when you can get several children engaged. It is also a great way to encourage them to follow your actions.
What you need:
- Simple activities ideas
- Space where you can play
What to do:
- Choose various topics for your game, such as gestures, expressions or physical activity.
- Pick out the leader. This can be you or every one of your kids.
- The task of the players is to copy the leader’s actions, be it dancing, jumping or laughing.
Tips:
It is highly advisable to play this game if you want your kids to do some physical activity while they are stuck at home.
Freeze
If you have just been playing one of stirring indoor games for kids, “Freeze” is a great way to settle them down a little.
What you need:
- Your favorite music
- Space where you can play
What to do:
- Ask the kids and other players to dance while the music is playing.
- Once you pause it, they should freeze keeping the posture they were at the time.
Tips:
To bring the competitive spirit and some challenge to the game, tell the kids a particular pose to freeze in.
Simon Says
Another staple of classic fun indoor games for kids and parents is Simon Says. One of the best things about it is that it does not require any equipment – just your imagination and a positive mood.
What you need:
- Different actions ideas
- Space where you can play
What to do:
- Give your children instructions to do the actions you say only if your phrase begins with “Simon says…”.
- If they do not hear the phrase, then they should not do what you say. The one who breaks this rule is out.
- The person who follows accurately all Simon’s commands becomes the winner and the new Simon.
Tips:
You can trick the kids to add a challenge and competition to the game.
Pictionary
Are you looking for a fun game that will add up to educational and developing games at your disposal? Pictionary would be the one! The main goal here is to draw an image of a particular word so that the player guesses it correctly.
What You Need
- A board or a sheet of paper
- A marker or a pen
What to do
- Put down some words on smaller sheets of paper and place them into a bowl.
- Take one piece out, read the word written on it, and try to depict it precisely on the board.
Tips
If there are more than two players, you can divide them into groups and make them compete against each other. The group which guesses most words – wins.
Hide and seek
This is not only a popular game but also the one that both adults and children can enjoy tremendously too.
What you need
A house at your disposal
What to do
- Pick a seeker in the first place, “Rock, paper, scissors’ comes in more than helpful here;
- Let the seeker count to 20 while you hide;
- The first person found becomes the next seeker;
Tips
If you choose to play in the dark, make sure that you babyproof the house first.
Duck, Duck, Goose (or Duck, Duck, Grey Duck for us Minnesotans!)
When you are playing with preschool kids, it may seem that the number of available indoor game options is limited. That is why we have something fun and exciting to offer!
What you need
- You need a vacant room;
- The minimum of 6 kids should take part in the game;
What to do
- Choose the Goose in the first place;
- Let the Goose walk around the circle tapping other kids on their heads;
- Once the Goose shouts “Goose!” when tapping someone, he or she needs to run around the circle and take a free spot.
- If the new Goose catches the old one, the old Goose continues the game. If not – the new one begins it.
Tips
The more participant in the game – the more exciting it will be.
Musical Chairs
It is a fun and active game for those who like to dance, and we are more than sure that all the kids do.
What you need
- The minimum of 4 players;
- One person to spot the music;
- Three chairs, or more, depending upon the number of players, but you need to be always one chair short.
What to do
- Turn on the music and let the kids move around the chairs till the music plays;
- When the music stops everyone needs to sit on the chair;
- The person left without a chair ends the game together with one chair;
- The winner is the last person to sit on the remaining chair
Tips
In case there are not enough chairs to fit the number of participants, you can use colored boards taped to the ground. The person who steps with both feet on the board – wins.
The Floor is Lava
Another super exciting and super easy indoor game is the Floor is Lava. If you do not know how to play it – you have come to the right place!
What you need
Your family gathered in the living room
What to do
- When anyone yells that the floor is lave, you need to step on anything but the floor;
- The one who doesn’t – dies.
Tips
You can variate the game by saying that anything else is lave, the chair, the sofa, the bed, the fridge, etc.
Now that you have our top list of the most fun indoor activities you can do with your kids, we are pretty sure that you will not have any difficulty keeping them busy. As you can tell, there are interesting and engaging games that will get everyone involved, from little ones to grown-ups. Hence, whether to choose one of them or play every single one is up to you. Either way, you will have a good laugh and a great time.
FAQ: Indoor Activities
What are some rainy day activities for kids?
You can buy some activity magazines for your kids. There are different activities in them like games, bedtime stories, coloring pages, educational material such as practicing writing and math. One magazine can keep your kids entertained for a whole week.
Another option is playing tennis except using balloon instead of a ball, you can also DIY tennis rackets by taking two paper plates and taping wooden spoons or spatulas to them.
How to keep kids entertained during a rainy day?
If kids feel a bit boring after dinner, you can do biscuit decorating activity together. Just lay out some digestive biscuits, Nutella or icing and some sprinkles in front of them. Get them to spread the Nutella on the digestive biscuits and then decorate them. This could be a great dessert for them.
- Indoor games and sports are a variety of structured forms of play or competitive physical activity, typically carried out either in the home or in specially constructed indoor Source
- Board games are traditionally a subset of tabletop games that involve counters or pieces moved or placed on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Source
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