When the weather keeps your kids indoors, it can be difficult for them to keep them entertained and engaged. Luckily, despite the rain, there are plenty of creative, active, and sensory indoor activities for kids to meet a variety of needs and interests.
Whether your child is creative, explores his senses, or likes to be active, there’s something for everyone. So when you’re bunkering in your Evanston apartment, a new home in Huntsville, or a rental home in Missouri City, here are the perfect indoor activities to try out when designed to be fun and exciting for kids of all ages.
Active indoor activities for kids
One of the best benefits of being outdoors is positive freedom. While freedom is limited indoors, you can operate inside the home. While more planning is needed, indoors are still a great place to run your child’s energy into the wild.
The Autism Lab, which offers parents’ help for children with autism, says, “One activity that everyone thinks will love is climbing indoors at one of Austin’s several climbing gyms. In preparation for a trip to the Clock Sliding Center, the crew performs all sorts of fun indoor stretches and exercises. From simple yoga poses, jump up and down, letting their arms hang and flapping wings.”
Andy Murphy, host of the Secure Family Podcast, recommends an alternative to the traditional sport of Balleoon Bolleyball. Andy explains: “A fun way to spend a rainy afternoon with kindergarteners is to play a game of balloon volleyball. All you need is a balloon that your parents inflate.
The goal is to tap balloons throughout the house without touching the floor. (Of course, you are allowed to bounce off the walls and furniture.) This is a great way to teach your young ones an understanding of gravity and physics while moving up and moving. Play music in the game and have a more enjoyable experience. This can be played for up to 15 minutes by 1-4 people. ”
Parent Stogether’s McKenna shares two indoor activities to help children release energy. She said, “Create homemade obstacle courses. Kids can race each other or challenge themselves to beat their best time! Some ideas for obstacles are:
The basket toss station uses laundry bins and rolled socks. Upside down the plastic cup in the crawl zone zigzag pattern. Pillows and sofa cushions are stacked and climbed. Create a balance beam, hopscott board, or X to easily protect the painter’s tape on the floor to mark where the kids need to stop and do five jump jacks. It acts as a “laser beam” that children are craving, back and forth, back and forth across the hallway, with tape strings or ribbons back and forth at all different angles.
Secondly, as a parent’s favorite: have a dance-off… because who doesn’t want to see an adult in their lives? Upload some of your favorite bright songs and unleash them! You can also make it a game by copying each other’s movements, mimicking different animals in dances, creating routines to do together, or trying to come up with the most creative dance moves possible. ”
Jenn Warren of the Dinkum Tribe, the Neurodiergent Family Travel and Lifestyle blog, writes about a new take on hide and seek. Jen said: “All you need for this activity is a few of the kids’ favorite toys and stuffed animals, tapes and strings (optional). Children aged 4-10 love it because they become heroes, and adults love it because the setup is a cinch!
Take one toy/plucked animal from each child and have them go to the designated waiting spot. Hide the toy (tie if necessary) or tape the toy onto something (door, wall). Call the kids and give them a general location for missing toys (which room or floor). Their job is to find and “save” toys.
Repeat the activities as you wish, hide more toys each time, or create more “dangerous” situations each time. Our boys usually play for 15-30 minutes after they are ready for new activities. ”
Sensory activities
Other great indoor activities for kids include sensory activities. Sensory-friendly activities are a great way to attract children who are sensitive or need additional sensory support. Activities in this field will help children experience a variety of textures, sounds and sensations in a safe and exciting environment.
Apollo’s behavior is recommended to create sensory bindings. They suggest the following steps: “Buy ingredients such as rice, beans, exercise sand, or water beads in a large container. Add scoops, small toys and theme items to promote imaginative play and development of great athletic skills. Easy to set up and entertain your kids for more than 30 minutes!”
Autism Parenting Magazine focuses on providing engaging and sensory activities to meet a variety of learning styles and developmental needs, suggesting the creation of a texture book. They say, “Children with special needs, such as those with autism, may enjoy exploring different textures. They spend the afternoon and create a texture book by going to a scavenger hunt throughout the house, finding items with a variety of textures, such as sandpaper, tissue paper, aluminum foil, cotton, felt, and more, and attaching each to a different page in the scrapbook.
This activity helps children to increase their creativity while also improving their senses awareness. The duration of the project can last 30-45 minutes, and it’s a medium setup and takes about 10-15 minutes to find the ingredients you need. ”
Shirra Baston from Get The Outsid introduces classic games to help children build their senses. Shirra wrote: One player will find something in nature and provide up to three explanatory clues (color, size, texture). Perfect for a 10-15 minute play session where children build vocabulary and observation skills while engaging them from inside and outside. Older kids? Challenge them to dig deeper into the descriptors! ”
Mind Journal, a mental and emotional wellness platform, suggests “mystery box adventure.” They explain it as follows: The children reach out, feel the object and try to guess what it is without looking. Items related to specific themes (animals, kitchen tools, nature) can be made educational. All you need is a box and various household objects. It is a sensory play that encourages curiosity and critical thinking. ”
Creative play and crafts
The Babysitting Course, a course focused on preparing teens to take on a major responsibility in parenting, says, “Pipe Cleaner Flowers are a fun and easy craft that allows children to create their own bright, colorful, handmade flower bunches! You’ll need a pipe cleaner (green + favorite color!), pencils, scissors, a small pot or mug, and something to hold the flowers in place (styrofoam, pebbles/stones, dried rice, playing dough).
To make them, place a green pipe cleaner on top of the pencil (make sure there are some hints lined up) and form a stem. Next, choose a different color and wrap it around the top of the green stem to make flower petals. Slide it out of the pencil and it’s free – there’s flowers! Continue until the whole bunch is complete, then place it in a mug or small pot filled with styrofoam, pebbles/stones, dry rice, or play to get taller. This craft is perfect for kids over 5 years old, but small ones may need a hand that will help you twist the pipe cleaner and trim the stems. ”
Minds Journal writes about two types of indoor activities for indoor fun. First, there’s the “puzzle relay.” They said, “How it works: Set up a big puzzle and divide the kids into teams. Each team races in order and arranges the pieces correctly before tagging the next player. The first team that completed the puzzle wins. The material needed is a jigsaw puzzle puzzle (more complex, the better), which produces a high energy of 5 minutes, making it perfect for teamwork and problem solving.”
Next is the “Shadow Drawing Challenge.” Set the toy in front of the light source to cast an interesting shadow on the paper. Children trace the shadows and then become what they like – transforming simple contours into creative art. With paper, small toys, flashlights, lamps and crayons/markers, the setup lasts for about 5 minutes, perfect for creativity and fine motor skills. ”
Shirra Baston of Get The Cidhs The Outside Add, “Weather Watchers (ages 4-12)” activity, “creating a simple weather journal where children observe and record their daily conditions through the window. This five-minute daily activity requires only a notebook or a printable template, building science skills and becoming more attractive as patterns emerge over time.”
Therefore, even if you’re stuck indoors, there are always great indoor activities for kids to enjoy. In the event of rain, there is no need to place a damper on the day. Instead, it will be a spontaneous day that turns your home into a fun playground.
