indoor activities for kids

Stuck indoors? Keeping kids inside and entertained on a sick day or because of the weather can be challenging. Armed with a list of creative and engaging indoor activities for kids, any parent can ward off cabin fever before it appears. You’ll find tons of ideas for indoor activities for kids that don’t take long to set up. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to keep kids engaged; some of these items are everyday household items, or you’ll find them in the dollar store. Other ideas, like the board games and card games, are an investment in hours and hours of play for years and years.

Board Games And Indoor Games Kids Love

You’re never too old or too young for a classic game like Monopoly. There are lots of ideas to keep kids entertained for hours and hours; it’s time to take out the cards or game boards for some healthy family competition and entertainment. Unusual weather patterns won’t keep the kids away from family game days. 

Fun Board Games For Kids

a hand with colorful marbles

Best Indoor Game Ideas For Indoor Activities

  • Play Marbles
  • Play Hangman
  • Play Hot Potato
  • Play Tic-Tac-Toe
  • Play I Spy
  • Play Would You Rather
  • Play Simon Says
  • Play Freeze Dance

Balloon Games Indoor Activities For Kids

Children love playing with balloons, and some of these activities for kids will strengthen hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills while getting rid of excess energies. Balloons make great games; you don’t have to wait for a birthday party to try out new ideas and have fun with balloons.

Don’t Touch The Ground

The balloon game is one of the classic games kids love; the rules are straightforward, and it’s lots of fun. Hit the balloon in the air and keep it in the air; the balloon is not allowed to touch the ground. 

Add a couple of balloons or tie one hand behind their back to create a more challenging experience for older kids. Another variation is holding a stuffed animal and hitting the balloon with the stuffed animal. 

adorable preteen boy blowing up a purple balloon great activity for a rainy day

Penguin Waddle Balloon Games

The penguin waddle is a fun activity for kids that works well for parties or rainy day activities. Holding a balloon between the legs, kids need to move across the room or to a finishing line without dropping the balloon. 

Older kids can form pairs holding the balloon between their hips and compete with other teams to reach the finish line first. 

Balloon Blow For Younger Kids

A kid blows a balloon while bear crawling from the start to the finish line. They aren’t allowed to touch the balloon, and the crawling motion strengthens their upper body muscles and core strengths. A fun way to entertain active youngsters when bad weather keeps them indoors. 

Balloon Tennis

Balloon tennis is a simple activity that requires concentration and patience. Kids need to balance the balloon on the back of a hand for as long as possible. You can also use a tennis racket or paddle or make a paddle with a paper plate and oversized popsicle stick.

Balloon Hockey

Use hockey sticks, kid’s golf clubs, or cardboard tubes of wrapping paper to hit the balloon. The balloon is the ball, and a laundry basket is perfect as the net representing the goal post. If you don’t have two laundry baskets, you can use a cardboard box. 

Transforming Outdoor Activities To Indoor Activities For Kids

You can keep kids busy and prevent cabin fever by transforming outdoor activities into indoor games activities for kids. Often parents struggle to have kids play outdoor games. Except when the kids are stuck inside because of a rain cloud, they conjure up all these fun things they love playing outdoors. Give them the green light to let loose that built-up energy with these fun activities for kids.

Bringing The Outdoors Indoors For Rainy Day Activities

Playground Indoor Activities For Kids

Fun Activities For Indoor Sports Games

  • Indoor trampoline
  • Indoor basket hoops 
  • Hula-hoop competition
  • Indoor bowling using plastic bottle bowling pins and a bouncy ball or basketball
  • Turn classic exercises like sit-ups and jumping jacks into a fitness competition.
  • Indoor fishing with a fishing pole, paper clip for a hook, and catch gummy fish and gummy worms. 
  • Sock skating
  • Animal races where kids compete, hopping like a bunny, waddling like a duck, or jumping like a frog.
  • Wrestling matches parents vs. kids
  • Catch a ping pong ball with a paper cup
  • Play Hopscotch with painter’s tape

Best Ideas For STEM Science Kids Indoor Activities

One of the best ways to keep kids entertained indoors is simple science experiments. The list of items needed for the fun projects are everyday items, and you don’t need to be a scientist to introduce your kids to the wonders of science. 

STEM Science Experiment For A Rainy Day

Amazing Ideas For Special Holidays

Great Ideas For Gardening Indoor Activities For Kids

  • Indoor terrariums kits for a rainy day
  • Inspire a love for nature with ants, bugs, and butterfly gardens
  • Start an indoor herb or vegetable garden with scraps
  • Plant different seeds in the indoor vegetable garden and have a competition in which seeds sprout first
  • Take care of house plants
  • Make a bird feeder using pipe cleaners

Arts and Crafts Indoor Activities for Kids

Have an arts and crafts indoor activities box ready for those days when the children are cooped up inside. Place the container in front of them and watch how creative ideas flow. Their imagination transforms different colors paper, glue glitter stickers, pompoms, tissue paper, a roll of paper, craft paper, and colored pencils into unique masterpieces. Here are some ideas to get the creative juices flowing.

Arts And Crafts

  • Rock tumbling grit kits for jewelry making 
  • Create an art space for creative fun. Provide your little one with sheets of paper and plenty of room for art supplies. Cover the table with newspaper sheets for easier cleaning afterward. 
  • Make bookmarks
  • Make paper bag puppets
  • Button art
  • Learn origami
  • Make sponge stamps
  • Make paper airplanes
  • Make a toilet paper roll
  • Play with rubber stamps
  • Paint a recycled jar 
  • Use dot markers
  • Learn how to fold the material to determine the eventual tie-dye pattern
  • Make jewelry from string, bottle tops, beads, noodles, and shells
  • Decorate a matchbox to store tiny things like a button, a paper clip or a LEGO piece, or a bead
  • Make and decorate the house with cut out snowflakes 
  • Make collages from pictures in magazines
  • Paint a T-shirt

Writing And Drawing Indoor Activities For Kids

  • Write in a journal
  • Write a story 
  • Create drawings for your story
  • Create a cartoon story
  • Creative writing prompts for fun writing activities for kids
  • Write a play and assign parts for the whole family 
  • Draw a self-portrait
  • Color in a coloring book
  • Write a letter to a favorite relative or friend

Sensory Activity For Kids

Best Ideas For Music And Dance Indoor Activities For Kids

Music and dancing are great indoor activities on a rainy day. Most kids love music, and dancing is fun irrelevant of the child’s age.

  • Have a dance party or dance competition. A dance party keeps kids busy and rids them of excess energy.
  • Play an instrument
  • Learn to play a musical instrument
  • Learn new dance steps
  •  Have the worst dancer competitions
  • Play musical statues using your favorite playlist
  • Make music instruments using rubber bands, toilet paper rolls, baking pans, wooden spoons, and other household items.

More Ideas For Kids Indoor Activities On On Rainy Days

  • Optical illusions for problem-solving skills
  • Make popcorn and watch a movie
  • Pillow fight
  • Obstacle course for toy vehicles

Imaginative and Pretend-Play Indoor Activities For Kids

  • Discover fascinating things under the magnifying glass.
  • Dress up in store-bought costumes or use what you have. Make newspaper costumes with tape and crayons, or rummage through your cupboards.
  • Wear a fancy outfit for a tea party with stuffed animals and siblings.
  • Build a castle with cardboard boxes for great adventures.
  • Make a superhero costume.
  • Set up a fashion show.
  • Take out the LEGO pieces and build something new.

Water Indoor Activities for Kids

  • Indoor water tables for toddlers
  • Play with water in a bin or large container
  • Float and sink experiment
  • Transferring water with eyedroppers
  • Sailboat races in a pan of water. Make the sailboats with a foam base, a sheet of paper for sails, and a toothpick.

Educational Indoor Activities For Kids

  • Learn a new language
  • Learn to sew
  • Learn to knit
  • Learn about a country
  • Learn about an animal
  • Make storytime during the day and read a short story to your kids.
  • Go to the library or stock your shelves with books for kids to read on rainy days. 
  • Listen to audiobooks
  • Learn a new hobby
  • Learn life skills by helping with chores in the home
  • Learning coding skills
  • Learn more Minecraft secrets

We love hearing from you. Which ideas do your kids enjoy the most on rainy days and sick days?

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