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105 Indoor Activities for Children

The #Coronavirus. It’s affecting every walk of life and now that it’s been announced that schools are to be closed, many of us will be screaming for help to keep the mini me’s occupied. Of course, there is a wealth of resources online to help, paid and free. Detailed schedules to help you through the days, weeks, maybe months? But as we know, every child is different and the way they learn also differs. I am not a qualified educator, so I can’t comment on academia, however I believe there needs to be a balance between work and play. It is universally agreed that learning through play is the best way for young children to learn. So here, I’m sharing a list of tried and tested boredom buster indoor activities that require minimal equipment and you will most likely have at home already. Hopefully, these will inspire you too. Have a great day, week, month…

105 indoor activities for children

Create

Things to make
  • Make paper airplanes/boats and have a race
  • Make suncatchers
  • Make playdough
  • Make salt dough
  • Make moon sand
  • Make slime
  • Make mud
  • Make rainbow rice
  • Make bookmarks
  • Make a time capsule
  • Make a cardboard fort/castle/city
  • Make costumes
  • Make musical instruments – rice and bean shakers, tin can drums
  • Make music
  • Create shoebox houses
  • Create a book
  • Make a collage with magazine cutouts or old photos
  • Make a scrapbook
  • Make sock puppets
  • Make a bird feeder
  • Design your own t-shirt with fabric paint/pens
  • Create bead bracelets and necklaces
  • Make gummy bears/jelly
  • Freeze some fruit lollies
Painting
  • Paint rocks
  • Paint leaves
  • Finger painting
  • Vegetable painting
  • Window painting
  • Colouring in
  • Find a big cardboard box to sit in and draw/colour
  • Make paint/chalk ice
  • Draw one another/self portrait
  • Create art with buttons/pompoms/beads/dried pasta etc

Activities

  • Build a fort with pillows and blankets
  • Have a pillow fight
  • Make shadow puppets
  • Put together a puppet show
  • Put on a show
  • Indoor camping
  • Set up a home cinema
  • Have a Lego/Duplo/Magformers building competition
  • Dress one another up
  • Roleplay
  • Have a mini mani/pedi
  • Do yoga
  • Bake cookies/cakes/muffins
  • Decorate cupcakes
  • Make pizza from scratch
  • Have a tea party
  • Have a dance-off
  • Create a hopscotch with masking tape
  • Create a masking tape racing track/city
  • Clean/tidy-up together
  • Water play – add some bubbles and bath toys
  • Face paint
  • Write cards/letters to friends, families and neighbours
  • Hula hoop competition
  • Create an indoor obstacle course
  • Animal races – hop like a bunny, slither like a snake, waddle like a duck etc
  • Have a sing-off
  • Bean bag toss
  • Plant some seeds/flowers/plants
  • Make a movie
  • Cardboard tube marble run
  • Plastic bottle bowling
  • Homemade sensory bin and have fun digging for bits and pieces
  • Sumo wrestling
  • Play with kinetic sand
  • Play with water beads
  • Cook together
  • Freeze small toys in ice for excavation

Games

  • Play board games
  • Simon Says
  • Bingo
  • Hide and Seek
  • Card games – Rummy, Snap, Go Fish etc
  • Puzzles
  • Scavenger Hunt
  • Musical statues/chairs
  • Skittles
  • Balloon Ping Pong/Hockey
  • Follow the Leader
  • I Spy
  • 21 Questions
  • Pictionary
  • Charades
  • Red Light, Green Light
  • Leap frog
  • Would you rather?
  • Mystery bag game
  • Memory Game – “I went to the park and saw…”
  • The lava game
  • Twister
  • Create your own game

Learning and educational

  • Read books in silent and out loud
  • Explore science and experiments – Baking soda and coloured vinegar experiment, float or sink, tornado in a jar etc
  • Learn something new – a language, an instrument, sewing, chess etc
  • Learn to draw
  • Sudoku
  • Brainteasers
  • Learn dinosaur names
  • Learn about countries and cities
  • Write a story
  • Take virtual museum/city tours

With #CloseTheSchools in full force now, I hope this indoor activities list will be useful to you and your family. We usually pick 1-3 activities from this list and mix it with maths/science/phonics to make up our day. What’s important is to enjoy this time together and make special memories that will last a lifetime. Remember, “The days are long but the years are short“. We WILL overcome this deadly virus together. Stay strong, stay healthy and hang in there. We got this!

Thanks for reading and until next time…

Love, MsMamaBean x

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