Fun Indoor Activities for Kids
When the weather’s gloomy or you just need a cozy day inside, these 21 engaging fun indoor activities for kids will spark creativity, movement, and family fun—all while keeping things clutter-free and calm. Perfect for preschoolers to tweens!
Be sure to check out the 21 Indoor Activities for Toddlers post, too for more indoor fun!! You can’t go wrong with having fun ideas!
Sometimes, you just can’t get outside, and this is where this list of fun comes into play! Every idea can be done easily, or even altered for the big kids!
Why These Activities Rock
- Movement-friendly: Tire them out without roughhousing.
- Low prep, high impact: Minimal materials, maximum fun.
- Flexible for all ages: Seamlessly tweak difficulty.
- Perfect for screens off days: Creative, interactive, and memorable.
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Fun Indoor Activities for Kids
Here are some great indoor activities for kids for the days when they can’t be outside.
🎨 1. Build a Living Room Fort
Use blankets, pillows, and chairs to create a cozy hideaway. Add fairy lights and storytime for extra magic.
🍽 2. Indoor Picnic or Tea Party
Lay down a blanket, prepare snacks or mini sandwiches, and enjoy a pretend (or real!) picnic with stuffed animals.
🏃 3. Mini Obstacle Course
Arrange cushions, hoops, and boxes for kids to climb over, crawl under, and zig‑zag through for a DIY obstacle course. Add a timer for extra motivation!
🎶 4. Musical Freeze Dance
Blast their favorite tunes, dance freely, and freeze on “stop.” Great for burning energy and giggles.
🤹 5. Balloon Keep-Up
Keep one (or more) balloons afloat—no hands allowed! Use forearms, knees, or a paddle for extra challenge.
🧩 6. Scavenger Hunt
Create a clue‑based treasure hunt using household items. Tailor clues to age (pictures for little ones, riddles for older kids).
🧠 7. Simon Says (or “Captain Says”)
A classic for a reason! Promote listening and playful action with twisty commands and silly moves.
🤸 8. Indoor Hopscotch
Use painter’s tape on the floor for hopscotch grids—easy to set up and remove.
🏒 9. Sock Hockey or Balloon Tennis
Use rolled socks or balloons and flip‑flops or spatulas as paddles—no risk of broken items!
🕵️ 10. Super Sleuth Challenge
Use magnifying glasses to hunt for “treasures”: hidden prints, mystery objects, or nature bits.
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🧁 11. Mini Baking or Snack Station
Bake simple cookies or assemble trail mix—great for sensory play and fine motor coordination.
✂️ 12. Craft Corner
Set up crafts: play dough, collage kits, coloring pages, or simple origami—easy cleanup, big smiles.
🎭 13. Living Room Talent Show
Kids perform songs, puppet shows, or jokes. Record them or present homemade “awards.”
📚 14. Storytelling Relay
Start a story, and each person adds a sentence. Watch it twist into something hilarious!
🎬 15. Stop-Motion Mini-Movie
Use toys, phone apps, and creativity to make a quick stop‑motion film. Perfect for imagination and tech fun.
🧪 16. DIY Science Experiment
Try simple experiments: vinegar‑baking soda volcano, rainbow milk, or homemade slime.
📷 17. Indoor Photo Booth
Create a themed backdrop with paper props. Snap silly photos and print a few keepsakes.
🚗 18. Toy Car Garage or Train Station
Design a cityscape with cardboard boxes, tape, and road signs. Add toy cars or trains for hours of play.
🧶 19. Yarn Obstacle Maze
Stretch yarn between furniture to create a maze. Kids crawl or step through without touching “laser” lines.
🏀 20. Indoor “Basketball”
Use a soft ball and a laundry basket. Try increasing distances for more challenge.
🎁 21. Minute-to-Win-It Games
Quick challenges like marshmallow stacking, chopstick transfers, or balloon balancing—fun, fast-paced, and adjustable.
Pretend Play Activities
Print and let the kids explore with imaginative learning fun!
FAQ: Your Indoor Play Questions Answered
Improvise! Use socks for balls, paper for crafts, boxes for forts—creative reuse is key.
Activities range from quick 5-minute bursts (like Freeze Dance) to longer 20–30-minute projects (like mini baking or craft corners).
Simplify clues for scavenger hunts, use sensory bins, or tune crafts to their developmental stage.
Absolutely! Turn relay races into team events, or make a family talent show with judging—lots of ways to scale up.
As you can see, there are tons of ideas for indoor fun! Which do you think the kids will want to start with first?
Such great ideas, i look forward to doing some of these with my kids! Thank you for sharing, now following you
Sheena @ http://thekeeperofcheerios.blogspot.com
Thanks bunches! It is so funny to me that I wrote this for rainy summer afternoons but it is so perfect for cold winter days now. 🙂 I hope your kiddos have a blast playing some of these games 🙂
Lots of good ideas and your pinable image is AWESOME!
I G+, pinned, and stumbled it =)
I featured this at TGIF this week (http://www.123homeschool4me.com/2013/08/tgif-linky-party-87.html), pinned, and stumbled it!
Thanks for sharing your creativity with the rest of us! I hope you’ll pop over and link up again today!
Have a GREAT weekend,
Beth =)
OMG! Thanks bunches, Beth! 🙂 I am glad you find the ideas useful.
My kids love playing grocery store! We have a cheap kitchen set that we got from IKEA and they could play with it for hours. They also like Play-Doh (homemade!) and playing with bubbles (in the summer). 🙂
These are some great ideas! My kids have been saying how bored they are, and it’s too hot to go outside!
Thank you for the great addition to Pin It Tuesday! I will have to keep this post in mind when my little dude gets older 🙂
Lovely ideas!
We do a lot of this stuff already. But I’m always looking for new ideas to keep my daughter occupied during summer break! Thanks for posting!
Great resource list. Thank you!
These are fabulous ideas to entertain the little ones. Lets face it the weather sometimes is not condusive to taking the kids out and it can get pretty boring staying indoors all day.