Indoor Activities and Games for Kids

Activities and Games - We have put together a huge list of fun indoor activities and games to play with your kids!

Games:

For little kids classic games such as "Simon says," "What's the time Mr Wolf" "hide-and-seek" can keep their attention. These games require little conversation, so great to play inside.

Board Games

For older children, board games are a great way to keep them engaged. There are lots of simple games that children as young as kindergarten can enjoy. Classic games includes chess, checkers, Connect Four, Battleship. Group games like Twister and Snakes and Ladders. Older children might enjoy strategy board games such as Monopoly, Life or other games like Who wants to be a Millionaire, Deal or No Deal, Family Fued.

Card Games:

Card games are also a great indoor game. Our favourites for small children are fish and snap.  For older children google how to play games such as old maid or canasta.  As an alternative, some children enjoy specialty trading card games such as Uno, Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh!

Computer/IPad and Video Games:

Many parents and caregivers might be hesitant to encourage children to sit in front of a screen, but a number of computer games are educational and build skills. Websites such as FunBrain.com and PBSkids.org offer games that help kids work on subjects like language, math, logic and science. Not every video game is created equal, so do your research if the quality of the education matters to you. Check out our blog on great IPad apps for kids.

Things to do:

• Head to your local indoor play centre,  shopping centre, library, cinema  or the local bowling ally.  These are all great places to visit in rainy weather.  There is usually lots to do!
• Watch a movie with the kids. Let them choose one on Netflix or other streaming service.
• Have a tea party or indoor picnic
• Build a rainy day box, full of craft bits and pieces
• Have a fashion parade, include the teddies!
• Make some finger paints and get painting
• Rock painting is another great indoor activity
• Straw painting.. combine straws, food colouring and dishwashing detergent!
• Marble painting…combine marbles, paint and a container
• Make your own play dough and get creative
• Play indoor bowling tin cans from the pantry and a ball
• Enjoy a bubble bath and splash in the water
• Fill the tub with toys instead of water, this can be fun
• Try some indoor fort building. Use some old sheets or table cloths and turn your lounge room into a castle
• Try Skating in the house
• Make a sock puppet and host a puppet show!
• Have fun on the computer together
• Make homemade musical instruments
• Make potato prints in paint
• Make paper planes and fly them around the house
• Play “What’s the time Mr Wolf!”
• Build a castle from blocks or a tower of lego
• Toy hunt: hide toys around the house, close the curtains and search for them with a torch
• Write an email or a letter to someone special
• Head outside and jump in the puddles
• Blow up some balloons
• Cook some piklets, cupcakes or cookies
• Get out pens and paper and draw
• Make necklaces from pasta, food colouring and string
• Play “Hide and Seek”
• Use old cardboard boxes to make cities, shop fronts and car garages
• Make roads on the carpet with masking tape and play cars
• Create a collage by cutting and pasting from magazines, junkmail or newspapers
• Make a mud pie kitchen!
• Do puzzles together
• Play music and dance!
• Read books
• Write and create a book!
• Make a bingo board - with colours, numbers or letters!
• Go outside and watch the rain and talk about it.. take some tins and catch the rain and listen to the different sounds
• Get stuck into the colouring books
• Make your own pizzas
• Get out the camera and take funny pictures
• Play shop!
• Set up a doctors or vets with the first aid box
• Make some masks from paper plates or cardboard
• Make some monster men from toilet rolls
• Make gingerbread people and decorate them
• Show them their baby books- fill them in!
• Make some phone calls with your Wide Bay Kids
• Play indoor hopscotch
• Play hairdresser
• Do some yoga with your Wide Bay Kid
• Play restaurants
• Host a teddy bear picnic or birthday party for a teddy
• Make some papermache
• Dye some rice and then play with it
• Play “Musical statues”
• Play red light, green light
• Make a time capsule and burry it
• Let them just play whatever they want to!
• Paint canvas shoes
• Tie Dye a t-shirt or pair of socks
• Make a friendship bracelet
• Try some cross stitch
• Create a diamond art project
• Sew up a bag 
• Play Charades

Activities:

Make a fun car ramp
All you need for this activity is a small shoe box and some tape. Take the box and put it upside down. Then take the lid and flatten out one of the short ends. Next tape that edge to the corner of the box. Then let your toddler roll a ball or car down the slide. If you have more boxes you can make a whole bunch of slides to play with! Supplies Needed - shoe box, - tape, - balls or toys. Tips/Suggestions: - Talk about how different things go down faster than others, and how some things roll and other slide.

Cereal Box Sidewalk!

Make something fun for your toddler to toddle on! Use a bunch of empty cereal boxes and cut them open. Then cut the top and bottom flaps off. Lay them down on the floor in a line and let your toddler crawl, toddler, or walk on top of them! As he is walks, talk about the colour he is standing on or, or what object he is, You can point out some letters too! Supplies Needed-empty cereal boxes - tape (if desired, you can tape the cardboard down on the floor so that they don’t move while your toddler walks on them. Tips/Suggestions- Let your toddler help to line up the boxes on the floor. Ask him if you should put the orange one down next to the blue one. - Help your toddler jump the “cracks” but be sure that they don’t slip.

Egg Carton Bus!

All you need for this activity is an egg carton. Cut the carton at the hinge. Then put the top part under the bottom. This will let it slide on the floor. Next find some people to put in the bus (fisher price little people fit perfectly). Then let the games begin.......start off by telling your littlie that the people are going for a ride! When the bus is full let your toddler push the bus around the floor. You can even sit across from each other and push the bus back and forth to each other. Or sit on the other side of the room with a few little people, and ask your toddler to put the bus over to you so that the little people can get on the bus! Supplies Needed - Egg carton, small toys Tips/Suggestions- If you don’t have any little people, you can make some with construction paper, or use some other small toys to transport on the bus/truck.

Toddlers Bean Bag Toss Game

Use a pair of socks stuffed with rice and tied in a knot. Then find a couple of shoe boxes and cut out a circle at one end about 8cm in diameter from the top of the shoe box , or big enough for the bean bags to fit in.  Put the boxes at different ends of the room and try to toss the bean bags in the holes! Then let your toddler help you find all the bags and do it all over again! Be sure to cheer when you get one in! 🙂 Supplies Needed- – Socks, rice shoe boxes – scissors. Tips/Suggestions- use a rubbish bin or various containers instead of a shoe box.

Indoor Wall Garden

Print out some flowers, grass, and garden creatures from the internet and cut out.  Grab some cardboard and let your toddler create a garden use, glue, sticky tape for blue tack to hold in place.  Supplies Needed- Printer, Paper, cardboard- tape, glue or blue tac. Tips/Suggestions- Use whatever kind of cardboard you have, open up some cereal boxes and use the inside.  This is a great opportunity to review the colors of the flowers and other objects.

Make a Tree House! (on the wall)

Grab some cardboard and attach it to the wall with some blue tac.  Then find a small box, some tape and some construction paper. Take your small box and cut some small windows or doors on the sides. (big enough to fit your toddler’s little people).  Then tape it to the wall.   Next take some brown paper (or cardboard) and make some branches to put on, below and around the box on the wall.  Next cut up some green paper to make leaves, let your toddler put the leaves all around the box “house”. Now its play time, let your toddler have some fun with his little people in the house, maybe pretend they are in the forest! Supplies Needed- small box (empty sandwich bag box works great!) - scissors - brown and green construction paper - tape - little people play toys. Tips/Suggestions- Print out leaves and cut out instead of making them. Have your toddler let the little people pretend to climb up the wall “tree”, to get into the house! Or put a ladder up! - Ask your toddler if he/she can fit into the tree house?

Create a Toddler City

Make a city on your rug with some tape and blocks. Take some tape and put it on the floor or rug in a grid pattern,  like city streets. Next grab your blocks and put them along the streets for the buildings. Then take some little people or small cars and have them walk or drive on the streets. Be sure to have a library to go to, a grocery store, and some office buildings. Then fun and pretending to visit these places. Talk about the color of the buildings, or the cars, or if the buildings are big, tall or small, or short. It’s YOUR city! Supplies Needed- masking tape - blocks - cars - imagination! Tips/Suggestions - You can let your toddler help to build the city and decide where to put the “library” building, and what color it should be and what other buildings you should have.

Mail a big hug

Have your child lie on the floor with arms out to the side. Then get some toilet paper and measure from hand to hand, and tear off. Next trace your toddler’s hands on some colored construction paper, cut out, and tape to the ends . Fold it up and send in an envelope to a special someone far away with a message for them to wrap the hands around them for a special hug!! Supplies Needed - toilet paper, tape/stapler, construction paper.

Laundry Basket Shopping

Save some boxes and containers from your pantry after they are empty. Take the empty boxes of crackers, cereal, or raisins and put them all over the room. Put them on the couches, tables and bookcases. Then let your toddler push an empty laundry basket around the room and do the shopping! For the younger shoppers, the laundry basket will help balance. Talk about the different kinds of food and the pictures on the boxes. Supplies Needed-
- Saved up boxes for food, or plastic play food - Laundry basket (or box) Tips/Suggestions - Print out money and you can be the cashier.

Let us know in the comments below if you have some more ideas for rainy day activities and games.

For more ideas head to Activities for Kids page