20 Practical Indoor Activities for Kids

Winter with young kids usually means lots of time spent indoors, and a greater need to get their energy out in constructive ways. With my kids I prefer indoor activities that are fun and educational, but require little effort to prepare. Often the simple activities can be the most fun anyway! Following are some that have become our very favorites.

1. Music Jam/Dance Party: Play toy instruments or turn on music and have a dance party. Try out using scarves, ribbons, etc. to encourage different styles of dance.
2. Laundry Basket Ball: Grab a laundry basket and fill it with balls (soft Nerf/ plastic type). Flip the basket over so the balls go all around the room and have the kids see how fast they can grab them and put them back in the basket.
3. Hide and Seek Toys: Play hide and seek with stuffed animals or small toys. Pick a room and have one child help hide the toys around the room. Then have the other kids find them all. My son also likes playing traditional hide and seek.
4. Toy Bowling: Get blocks, stacking cups, etc. and stack them up. Then bowl them over with a soft ball.
5. Bake Together: Make a fun snack, meal, or treat together. 
6. Blanket Rides: Have them pile on a blanket and drag them around the house. They can also put their dolls or stuffed animals on a blanket and pull them around themselves.
7. Painting: Kids love water color painting or finger painting. If your child is young and tries to eat paint, try painting with pudding instead- it's edible!
8. Puzzles and Board Games: Have a family game night. You might get tired of playing Cooties too many times, but many kids as young as 4-5 can start to learn the concepts of games such as Sorry or Uno.
9. Play Dress up: Get out a box of dress-ups or create one with old clothes and shoes. This is one of my girls favorite activities.
10. Story Time: Read a book together, have a puppet show and tell stories together. My kids love their new finger puppets.
11. Noodle or O-Shaped Cereal Jewelry: With some string and colored noodles or O shaped cereal kids can learn fine motor skills and creativity.
12. Sorting Activity: Gather small, different-colored objects and pieces of colored construction paper to sort out items by color. This can also be a snack time activity with a fruit salad, colored Goldfish crackers, fruit snacks, M & M's, or Skittles.
13. Art Table: Tape coloring sheets or butcher paper on a train table or coffee table to make a big coloring space for the kids. A larger coloring space will give them more room to create. My kids at age 3-4 also enjoy cutting scratch paper with safety scissors.
14. Play Dough or Moon Sand can be fun for older toddlers to use their creativity to mold shapes. We also want to try this 2-Ingredient Cloud Dough sometime on The Realistic Mama.
15. Sensory Table: Fill a water table, sand box, or bin with rice or other items for a fun fine-motor, explorative activity.
    
16. Bath Crayons: For a new art canvas, give the kids bath crayons they can use to draw on the walls of the bathtub.
17. Car Races: Get out a bunch of medium size cars and race them across the floor or down a hallway.
18. Old Box + Crayons: Give the kids large boxes they can color. My kids loved coloring in their boxes all last month when my husband brought them home from work. They even gathered their favorite toys inside and another day put them together to make a fort.
19. Masking Tape Maze: Create a maze on the floor of the kids room with masking tape for a fun car track.
20. Finger Paint: Grab some finger paint and paper and let the kids create their own artwork. For an added level of fun, give them toy cars to make tracks in the paint or put paper and paint with marbles in a shoe box to shake.