14 Fun Indoor Kids Activities
Looking to escape the heat or cold with some fun indoor kids activities? When you pair bad weather with kids on the loose, you can have quite a dilemma on your hands! Here are some fun, unique, and educational activities to try with your youngsters that don’t require you to leave the safety of the indoors!
Cooking
Kids love to help in the kitchen! Beyond classics like baking cookies, there are so many meals and snacks that kids can join in on. Ask them for help in making sandwiches (cut them in fun shapes), making a fruit salad, or putting the peanut butter on their celery. Consider hosting an inside ice cream social for the kids and their friends! Get some summer learning done while you’re at it – help kids practice measuring, fractions, and reading labels while they help with food preparation. Maybe you can even convince them to help clean up!
Many families are investing in kid-friendly kitchen tools – things like knives and peelers. Check out our favorite set here.
Take a Museum Trip
Shuttle the kids from one indoor location to another! Many museums have activities and interactive exhibits just for kids and families to enjoy. Pack a lunch so you don’t have to pay museum food court prices. Take a few hours to experience something new inside instead of melting/freezing outside. Plus! Most museums are free!
Create a Craft Museum
If leaving the house isn’t in the cards for you today, you can create a fun museum experience from home! Give kids craft supplies like paper, glue, scissors, pipe cleaners, cotton balls, googly eyes, etc. Tell them the goal: to turn your living room into a museum, and tell them that they’ll need to come up with titles and descriptions for their masterpieces. Display everything on the wall, and have everyone walk around and admire the artwork.
Go to the Library
Again, go from one indoor spot to another! Many libraries have summer reading programs that reward kids for reading as many books as possible. This is a great chance to get some education and socialization over break. Enjoy free story times, craft sessions, and puppet shows whenever you can! Libraries often also host a special event every once in a while that you can keep an eye out for. You can normally find a kids calendar on your local libraries website, or posted on their bulletin board.
Indoor Trampoline Park
While this one could be pricey, this is hands down one of the coolest ways to entertain a group of kids! Many locations offer open jump sessions, but also nights that are just for families. To save a buck or two, check coupon sites for promotions since these are often popular locations to visit during breaks. Burning energy, adventure, and lots of social time – sounds like a great indoor activity to me!
Host an At-Home Spa
This activity might not appeal to every kid, but you can definitely try it on the youngsters in your life! Have your kids help you look around the house for items you might need – nail polish, foot tub, lotion, etc. If you want to take this to the next step, get out the makeup too! Plan for a whole at-home makeover. Super easy and a great photo opportunity!
Board and Card Game
Games can be particularly fun indoor activities for any time of the year! Look for games that give everyone a chance to play. You might think about staying away from one player video games so that you can have some great interactions with the children while they play. We have compiled a list of the most fun board games for you and your family to try. We also have dice games, two-player ps5 games, and dart games.
Create an Indoor Campsite
This can be the coolest way to camp, literally! Create enough space in your house to setup your tent (or build a fort) and get out your pillows and sleeping bags. Pack your picnic lunch (or dinner) to eat by the tent, and warm your hands by the fireplace (or the fake fireplace you put on the TV). If you’re up to it, you could even roast some marshmallows on a gas stove in the kitchen if you have one! Create “constellations” for the kids to find with some ceiling glow stars.
Build a Yarn Maze
Get out at the yarn and get ready to have your kids entertained for hours. Take the yarn and wrap it around banisters, doorknobs, chair legs, door frames, basically anywhere you can wrap it safely. Yarn zigzagged across hallways makes great “laser beams”. Watch the youngsters climb around this yarn maze and have a great time!
You can take this a step further by incorporating pillows and cardboard boxes to make stepping stones and tunnels. Play an elite game of the floor is lava as you go about your indoor obstacle course!
Roll up the yarn as you go so that you can reuse it for other projects! Bonus activity: make it a scavenger hunt with something cool attached to the end of the yarn!
Indoor Slides
This one takes a little pre-planning and work, but it could be totally worth it to entertain the kids! Get large refrigerator-sized cardboard boxes and cut them to cover all the stairwells in the house. Slide from floor to floor for as long as possible! Make sure to test it out first, have lots of squishy pillows at the bottom, and establish rules (only one slider at a time, must go down in a box, no running starts, etc).
Volunteer
Take the kids to a place where your family can volunteer together! A few examples: many food pantries need help sorting and stocking, libraries need help re-shelving books, nursing homes need people to host activities, and so on. Look for opportunities that have educational and social value. Think of the great lessons for kids to learn while in service of others. You can find local volunteer activities on the website or app JustServe.org.
Sensory Bin
Create a cheap, easy, fun sensory bin to have your toddlers entertained for hours! Start by designating a spot for it over hardwood or tile floor. You’ll need several small plastic bins (you can pull these from their toy shelves, get some from the dollar store, or buy these). You can set them up on a table, or just place them on the floor. What goes in the bins is up to you – but make sure to provide plenty of textures and toys. You can use water, rice, shaving cream, oatmeal, LEGOs, sand, cotton balls, and more! Make sure to also have some tools on-hand for the kiddos to interact with the sensory items like cups, shovels, and rakes (bring out the beach toys).
Local Recreation Center
Most suburban neighborhoods and cities these days can find family fun at the recreation center/gym nearby. They often offer kids classes, kid-friendly pool/water play area, rock walls, a ropes course, basketball court, pickleball, racquetball, and more! There’s definitely options for younger and older kids alike, and tired-out kids make for great bedtimes. If you don’t want to go often enough to justify a subscription, buy day passes instead!
Even when weather is scorching hot, freezing cold, or a rainy day, there are a plethora of exciting and new activities to try with your youngsters. Stay safe and have a great break!
Make a Movie or Music Video
There are lots of fun apps out there that allow you to film and edit movies or music videos. Kids love to be filmed, and this kind of creative outlet makes for a great time-consumer and learning experience. If they prefer a music video, they’ll get to work together to choose a song and come up with dance moves/poses for the different shots. If they wish to direct a movie, they’ll have to come up with a storyline, costumes, set, and lines. If you don’t want to take multiple trips to the store, make sure to tell your kids from the get-go that their materials are limited to what’s already in the house. And be prepared for lots of indoor fun!
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