Indoor Activity Ideas
There are always times when we have to be inside the house, especially when the weather is less than ideal. As moms, dads, and caregivers, we all understand that kids with energy trapped inside can lead to chaos and inevitable disaster. We are bringing you an epic list of indoor games and activities that will get your kids up and moving, even on the gloomiest of days! These activities and fresh ideas will not only fight boredom in your house, but will also challenge your kids’ minds and muscles – strengthening their bodies and releasing all that pent-up energy!
Looking for Outdoor Activity Ideas instead? Look no further!
Freeze Dance
Who doesn’t like a good dance party? Shaking it off to a few favorite jams is a surefire way to get your kids off the couch. To brush up on listening skills, try freeze dance. The rules are simple: dance when the music plays and when the designated DJ stops the music, everyone freezes in place.
Red-Light, Green-Light, Purple Light?!
Kids go crazy for Red-Light, Green-Light every single time! We suggest adding in a few different colored lights as the game goes on, to keep it interesting, active, and fresh. Yellow Light: Slow crawl on the ground. Orange Light: Hop like a frog. Blue Light: Jump to touch the sky. Purple Light: Do a silly dance.
Activity Dice
We love these fun, interactive games where you assign a get-up-and-move task to each side of a cube/dice. Kids simply roll the ‘dice’ to see what activity they need to perform. You can create different themes like animal movements (think “run like a cheetah”, or “hop like a frog”) or go for classic exercises (jumping jacks, sit-ups, or planks) and scale them appropriately for your child’s age and ability. Kids really love these simple yet silly games, and you can easily change them up with new tasks to keep it fresh. You can even create a second ‘dice’ that has different lengths of time on each side - then kids can roll the two dice together to get an activity and length of time to do it! Example would be rolling ‘jumping jacks’ for ‘45 seconds.’
Balloon Volleyball
You can make a simple net by tying a piece of yarn from one chair to another. Then, blow up a balloon and start practicing those serving skills! Change things up a bit by having kids kick or head-bump the balloon over to the other side.
Book-Worm Workout
Story time doesn’t have to be just a bedtime ritual! Pick a book that has a word that’s often repeated. For example, choose the word “hat” if you’re reading The Cat in the Hat. Every time the word comes up in the story, get your kid to do a jumping jack, twirl, push-up, or another active motion.
Go on a Hunt
It's easy to rig up an indoor finding game! You could come up with a scavenger hunt-style list of items your child has to find all over the house, or put together a series of clues that lead to one big prize at the end.
Make a Sensory Bin
Fill a bin with rice or sand and hide some little trinkets in there, plus throw in a few toys or kitchen utensils, and you have yourself an instant hit with the little ones. Kids can scoop and pour the rice or dig through to find the prizes you've hidden. Just be warned that you'll probably have to vacuum or sweep after - but if the weather is nice, you can always take this outside.
Hallway Soccer
You don’t need a backyard to play a game of soccer. Start by setting up a net on opposite ends of the hallway by placing some masking or Painters tape on the floor. After dividing into teams, grab a small plastic ball and let the fun begin.
Cup Bowling
Bust out those Solo Cups and let kids stack them in different formations - on the ground and vertically - before they go bowling! You can even place down strips of Painters tape to mark the ‘edges’ and a ‘start line’ for your kids. Kids will love getting to re-stack their cups and they can keep track of how many they knock down each time - the first to knock down twenty cups can win!
Marble Toe Race
Find two large bowls, fill the first bowl with water and place some marbles inside. Ask your little kids to pick up the marbles and place them in another bowl by using only their feet! The first one who can get all the marbles in the other bowl wins. If you don’t want to get your floors wet, lay towels on the floor, or skip the water component entirely!
Crab Carry
When bad weather has you dreaming of sunnier times on the beach, play crab carry! Teach your little one how to walk like a crab by placing their palms and feet to the floor while raising their stomach up to face the sky. Staying in that pose, let them see how long they can balance something, like a bean bag, on their belly. Crab races are also another fun option!
Make Activity Stations
Indoor activity stations are great and the possibilities are truly endless! Make simple signs and each ‘area’ can have an activity: jumping jacks, crawling through tape/rope, planking, etc. Set a timer, then have kids rotate through the stations.
Set Up A Maze
Turn the hall into a “laser” maze with yarn, streamers, or Painters/masking tape. Zig-zag the yarn from varying heights and challenge your kids to get across without touching the ‘laser’.
Yoga JENGA
Use a pencil to write down a yoga move on each JENGA block. Set up the tower and play the game as usual, but every time a block is pulled out, every player has to do that specific yoga move. If the tower falls, do a plank for 30 seconds!
Sticky Note Wall Bop
Attach 26 sticky notes to the back of a door (or a wall) and write a different letter on each one (in random order). Make a “start” line a few feet away from the door, and have your child stand behind it with a soft ball, bean bag, stuffed animal, or pair of rolled up socks. Instruct them to throw their object to try and hit the “A” or the “T”. Players with more advanced aim and spelling skills can try and hit all the letters in specific words (to make it even tougher, if they miss one of the letters, have them start all over again). Alternatively, write different point values on each sticky and give your child 10 throws. For each target they hit, mark down the number of points. At the end of the round, tally up to crown a winner (or if playing solo, have them try and beat their previous score). Make sure your kids are retrieving their throwing object themselves - running and bending down to pick it up over and over again is all part of the exercise!
Ping Pong Ball Catch
Get out those plastic red Solo cups and a few ping pong balls (or any small object that will fit in the cup) and have your kids toss the ball to a partner and try and catch it in the cup. Start out close together and then keep taking a step backwards to increase the challenge. For a single-player, they can simply throw the ball in the air and try and catch it.
Hula Hoop
As long as you make sure that you’re not too close to furniture or breakables, hula-hooping is a great indoor activity that helps strengthen your child’s core muscles. If you’re looking to switch things up a bit, try hula-hooping while walking backward, or spin the hoop around your ankle or arm. Kids can try rolling it back and forth between two people, or see if kids can put some backspin on it and make it return to themselves. For little ones, put it on the floor and practice jumping in/out or side-to-side!
Alligator Alley
One of our favorite go-to inside games of all time. Simply scatter some “islands” or “boats” across the floor (use pillows, stuffed animals, books, etc) and then have your kids jump from one to the next without falling into the “water” and risk being eaten by a hungry alligator. Bonus points if Mom or Dad plays said hungry alligator and chomps after them when they stumble!
Cotton-Ball Crawl
Make a pile of cotton balls on the floor in 1 room and place an empty bowl on the floor in another room. Set a timer for 4 minutes. Players take turns moving the cotton balls into the bowl by carrying them on a spoon while crawling on their hands and knees, or just walking for younger kids. If a player moves all the cotton balls into the bowl within 4 minutes, challenge them to do it in 3 minutes. The feather-weight cotton balls make it easy to fly off if they don’t balance it just right! Encourage a race or just allow each child to do their own thing and see how many cotton balls they can move from one side of the room to the other.
Get Help With Household Chores
Open up your cleaning closet and have your child pick their favorite tool. The Swiffer always seems to be a highly coveted item, and having them work their push/pull muscles while cleaning the house is a winning combination for all. Make the chores feel fun with upbeat music and be sure to join in to get them done as a family.
Make Screen Time an Active Time
When going to play outside isn’t an option, your children can play interactive video games that require physical activity such as tennis, bowling, or baseball. You also can use dance videos and active video games for some physically-active television time.
Obstacle Course
This tried-and-true idea is always a huge hit with kids, and can be made different every time so it never gets old. Make sure to create an engaging course that includes a variety of motions (jumping, crawling, balancing, etc.) and uses a large area. Have your kids help make the course (which is half the fun) using some of these creative ideas: Hula hoops to jump through; Line of tape to balance on; Couch cushions to hop between; Table to crawl under; Blanket over 2 chairs to crab walk through; Tupperware containers to hurdle over; Stuffed animals to roll over; and Plastic cups to run around! We love that obstacle courses are great for kids of all ages to participate in – the younger tots enjoy just being able to complete all the obstacles, while older kids can race against each other or the clock.
Scavenger Hunts
ABC Hunt: Have your kids go around the house with a basket, collecting items that start with each letter of the alphabet (A for apple, B for Barbie, C for Crayon, etc) – give them a checklist to mark off each one as they go. Time them so they run!
Lego Color Hunt: You have to try this one, it is a kid-favorite and super easy to execute. Select 4 pieces of colored construction paper and then collect 10 Lego pieces that match each one (ie. 10 yellow Lego pieces for a yellow piece of paper). Now hide all of the Lego pieces in one room/area of your house and lay out the colored paper on a table or the floor nearby. Start the clock and have your kid(s) start hunting. Once they’ve found a Lego, they need to return it to the piece of paper that matches in color. See how long it takes them to find them all (tell them there’s 10 of each color so they can count to see if they’re missing any themselves), and then re-hide so they can try and get a lower time.
Paint Chip Color Hunt: Pick up some brightly colored paint chips from your local hardware store and ask your kids to find items that match each color as closely as possible (again, keep a timer going so they quicken their pace). Don’t have paint chips? Use colored construction paper instead!
Flash Light Scavenger Hunt: If you have a room that can get sufficiently dark by turning off the lights and closing the blinds, send your kids on a ‘Flash Light Scavenger Hunt’ where they have to find certain hidden items in the dark using a flashlight. Kids go crazy for this one!
Tape Games
A simple roll of low-tack Painter’s tape will be your new best friend once you try these genius ideas that get kids exerting their energy in all sorts of creative ways!
Tape Shape Game: Use tape to put a variety of shapes, letters and/or numbers on your floor. Have your child stand on their favorite one then give them instructions to follow that will lead them to their next destination (for example: “bear crawl to the square”, “hop like a Frog to the T”, “Run to the rectangle”). We love that this game keeps your child moving, but also helps them learn their shapes, letters, and numbers!
Tape Lines: Make 5–10 separate lines of tape, each about a foot apart, on your floor or carpet. Label the first one the “start” line and then give your kids simple instructions and ideas. 1) Long Jump - See how many lines they can jump over. Have them try and beat their best score each time. Experiment with arm swinging vs. arms behind their backs. 2) Run ‘n’ Jump: Let them take a running start and see if they can jump even further! 3) Long Jump Backwards: Increase the difficulty by performing the tasks jumping backwards. 4) Hop: How far can they jump on one leg? 5) Reach ‘n’ Stretch: How far can their leg reach with one foot on the “start” line?
Create a Race-Car Track: Use your Painter’s tape to make a huge road system for your kids’ cars. Think outside the box and have the track scale furniture and other obstacles (just make sure it’s something you don’t mind toy vehicles being “driven” over). The key to making it active is to make it large-scale, so they are engaging their core muscles while crawling all over.
Hopscotch: Make a simple hopscotch “board” and your kids will think it’s just the coolest thing since it is inside!
Number Squares: Make a large square with your tape and then divide it into 9 or more small squares, marking random numbers in each one. Now ask your child to perform a specific movement to get to the next number like “jump to 9”, “zoom to 3”, “slither to 7”.
