37+ Fun Indoor Activities For Kids Stuck at Home
Are your kids driving you crazy during the quarantine? “mom I’m bored” is the most dreaded word you don’t want to hear from the kids these days.
Probably, you’re working from home because of coronavirus shut down, schools are closed for an extended period of time and the kids are stuck at home.
Also, sometimes because of weather on a rainy day or a snow day toddlers and kids are stuck inside. As a parent, it is not that easy every day to come up with new ideas and fun indoor games to keep them busy. You must have a list of indoor activities for kids in your arsenal for such days.
It’s really challenging to occupy kids indoors in a screen-free environment. And that’s why I’m going to share a list of fun indoor activities and creative games ideas that you can DIY using supplies you already had at home.
The fact of the matter is that you don’t need to entertain the kids as they themselves are capable to do so. You just need to motivate them with ideas and supplies they need to try those activities.
What type of indoor activities do kids love?
There is a fair chance that your kids would not like many of those indoor activities that you suggest. So the activities must fall under these criteria to be loved by kids:
- It must be interesting and with a fun experience.
- It should be simple and easy to set up.
- It requires minimum supplies and using items at home.
- Keep them engaged for a long time.
These boredom-busting activities can make a big difference
- It helps to propagate good habits in kids.
- It helps in teaching life skills – the value of money, doing daily chores, cooking, and simple math.
- It boosts their creativity with origami, painting, art, and crafts.
- It helps them find entertainment beyond electronics with screen-free indoor activities.
- It improves their gross motor skills.
- It develops their problem-solving skills and thinking out of the box solutions.
- It promotes education and learning with fun activities.
Let’s dive into the list….. Don’t forget to bookmark this list of things to do when schools are closed.
Fun Games and Creative Play Ideas
1. Treasure hunt – A very simple game yet great for problem-solving skills. Hiding valuable things like chocolates, candies, gift, and toys inside the house and write clues on a treasure map, let the kids find them based on the clues.
2. Hide and seek – An indoor hide and seek can engage kids for hours as there are plenty of places to hide – behind the curtains, under the bed, or table
3. Create a maze or race track on the floor – A masking tape or painter’s tape can be used to create a maze or race track on the floor. Similarly, they can draw hopscotch on the floor.
4. Mini golf – Create your own mini golf using a cardboard box.
5. Video chat with friends and classmates – It’s true, we want our kids to engage in screen-free activities, but this one is different because during lockdown when schools are closed for long.
It is the best way to interact with friends online. It decreases the feeling of isolation through storytelling, puzzles, and other interesting activities on the video call.
6. Hula hoop games
7. Painters tape games and activities – When I think of indoor games, the first thing that came to my mind is painter’s tape because it is so versatile that you can create n number of games using the floor, and corridor with painter’s tape.
You can make a race track or roadway, make hopscotch, make an obstacle course, jump box, line activities, make a maze, make a mosaic sidewalk pattern and the list is endless. Try it!
Tutorials:
8. Learn cooking & baking – If kids are bored during the lockdown, the best way to utilize this time is to recreate your favorite restaurant at home. In this way kids would learn basic cooking and baking lessons, and help their mom for dinner. Isn’t it great!
9. Doing chores – Every kid should know how to do certain daily tasks of life. Doing dishes, sweeping, vacuuming, doing laundry, and cooking are some important life skills. Learning these small life skills during a snow or rainy day can prepare children for their adult life.
Here is a fun way to beat the boredom, play a practical monopoly game with kids. Make a list of chores the kids will do and they get a monetary reward on completion of each task.
They can buy TV time or game time with that money. This is a very creative way to teach kids how to earn money and propagate good habits of doing their chores.
10. Balloon games – Balloons are always fun to play with and there are lots of interesting balloon games kids can play indoors. Here are some fun balloon games, try them!
Here are a few more balloon games:
Indoor Activities For Toddlers
It’s always a good idea to make learning a fun activity for toddlers. Focus on easy activities such as painting, coloring, paper crafts, and games that they can do themselves.
You can create DIY home activities for toddlers using household items like toilet paper rolls, plastic eggs, paper, straws, ping pong balls, and so on.
At this age, toddlers want to explore their world through touch, visuals, sound, and feelings. These activities help them to develop their body and mind. Try some of these indoor activities for toddlers.
1. Contact paper window craft – This is a very colorful craft toddlers would love to make indoors. This stained glass craft is very easy to make using tissue paper, glue, and tape. Learn how.
2. Coloring eggs – Coloring eggs are so much fun for kids because it is easy, and there are so many ways to color them. Colored eggs look so beautiful and can be used for home decorations. Learn different ways to color eggs.
3. Laundry basket skee ball – The best part of this game is, it is very simple to set up and safe to play indoor without breaking anything. You need some plastic pit balls, a box, and a laundry basket. Learn how to make this game work.
4. Easy DIY paper toy – Make this interesting fun toy to kill the boredom. You just need some colorful paper, a rope, and some origami folds to make the toy. Learn from the video tutorial.
5. Paper caterpillar race using a straw – Try this super easy paper caterpillar race with toddlers. I’m sure your kids would love this fun activity.
6. Ping Pong ball Playdough Straw Maze activity – Make a colorful maze using playdough on a table and start rolling the ping pong ball through a straw into the path. Get the full tutorial.
7. Paper towel roll marble run – A simple but fun activity, make a marble run on a wall using paper towel rolls and toilet paper rolls, and fix them with tape.
8. Make DIY movable hand – A simple and creative craft for indoor play
9. DIY walking feet – A fun play activity for toddlers, I’m sure this DIY will bring a smile to your kid’s face. It is super easy to make in no time. Watch the tutorial.
Gross Motor Activities
1. Bigfoot game – I’m sure you must have watched the bigfoot movies and my kids love that bigfoot. A fun way to recreate it is to play the bigfoot game. It can be played indoors and outdoor perfect for summers. Here is the tutorial.
2. Indoor hopscotch – A masking tape or painters tape can be used to create an indoor hopscotch
3. The Hands and Feet Game – A fun hand and feet coordination game where each person jumps into the box and tries to complete the path. Learn the game with this video.
4. Easy Hallway laser maze – The kids can recreate a scene from a sci-fi movie where they are trying to escape a hallway without touching the laser. Make a zig-zag pattern in the hallway using decorative crepe paper and tape them to walls.
5. Toilet roll bowling – Create a super easy indoor game by placing toilet rolls one over the other forming a pyramid shape. Roll the ball from a distance and try to smack down all the toilet rolls in one go.
Origami Paper Crafts and Puzzles
1. Infinity cube origami – Initially when you see this infinity cube, it looks complicated but when you follow the exact steps it can be a fun project for kids. Learn step by step from the video.
2. Paper chain python – This simple paper craft looks amazing when you use the colored paper pattern. If you don’t have the printable template, you can use simple paper or draw the pattern by hand. Here is the tutorial.
3. Shape puzzle matching game – Puzzles are the best way to teach toddlers. Recognize the colors and match them with the shape by putting them in the empty spaces of the cardboard. This project is very easy to make using cardboard and colored paper.
4. Emoji puzzles – Guess the name of the country puzzle using the emoji icons.
5. Indoor fairy garden – If your kids love the fascinating world of fairies and like to make a miniature garden then try it indoors.
6. Colorful butterfly craft – Gorgeous easy-to-make paper craft for kids. Learn here
Education and Learning Activities
1. Learn math with a blocks game – A simple blocks game can help to develop problem-solving skills in kids. They can learn to add and count with blocks while adding the numbers on the two-deck cards.
2. Paper towel roll pom pom challenge – A very simple game that combines math and balancing skills. You have to roll the pom pom through all the tunnels according to their numbers by simply tilting the container. Learn the game.
3. Learn dividing with baking – Here we are trying to bake some alien cookies. Each ingredient needs to be divided based on the number of candy eyes, i.e. how many spoons of ingredients needed are divided by candy eyes. Example 1 candy eye = 2 spoons of ingredients.
4. Animal tape rescue – This is a fun toddler activity. The idea is very simple, take a flat tray, some tiny animal toys, and tape. Stick the animals with the tape on the tray. The goal is to remove the tapes and rescue all the animals. Learn more.
5. Smashing eggshells activity – Smashing eggshells with a cute hammer is so much fun for toddlers. Learn how to play.
6. Marshmallow and toothpick building challenge – Make building structures using mini marshmallows and toothpicks. This activity helps in developing hand and eye coordination, fine motor skills, and problem-solving skills. The best part is kids can even eat them.
7. Roll & cross math games – Make a giant dice using a tissue box, on a separate paper write the numbers from 1-6 that appear on the dice. How to play? roll the dice and every time a number came, cross out the matching number written on the paper. Find more about the game.
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