With our kids at home over the Easter, we decided to gather a few recommendations of fun things to do indoors with your little ones. Depending on their age and energy levels you can easily adjust the activities to suit their needs.
1. Build a cave or den
There is probably not a single child between 1 and 10 who doesn’t like to build and play in dens or caves. The easiest way to create a stable den is through using a blanket or bed sheet and cover a table or some other furniture moved together. You can create quite a spacious den using four chairs arranged in a square with the blanket placed over the back rests. Add few cushions added into the cave and your kids will have a great time for sure.
2. Celebrate with a birthday party for your child's favourite toy
It could be anything from just a pretend tea party to a big party with music, balloons, treats and party games (think Musical Statues, Pass the Parcel and Simon Says).
3. Play with rice
Take a messy play tray or a washing up bowl. Fill it with any uncooked rice and pop in several things to help your kids to become rice-panning-experts: Spoons, bowls, cups, balls, toys - anything you can think of really. The kids love it; it’s like messy play without the mess.
4. Treasure hunt indoors
Create a map of your home and hide small items around it. Mark each piece of hidden treasure on the map. Explain the map to your little ones and offer your support for the hunting game in case they need it. If your kids are older, you can use word cards describing a place where you have hidden an item.
5. Water fun
If you can stand the risk of a few water drops here and there you can put a thick towel on the floor and place a bowl or a messy play tray filled with water on it. The kids will have endless fun while giving their toys a bath or experiencing thrillingly imaginative pirate, fishing, or swimming adventures.
6. Draw life size
Stick a load of A4 sheets of paper together (or if you have a big paper roll even better!) and place it on the floor. Encourage the kids to lie down on it and outline their body with a pen. From this moment on there is no way to stop the kids getting creative: colour in, add accessories to the figures like stickers or stamps, design clothes with old material offcuts or other things you might find in the art drawer.
7. Kids Gym
Transform your living room into a kid’s gym and create some fun and age-appropriate sports stations. You can put a trail of paper sheets on the floor which the kids have to walk over without touching anything else but the paper. Time jumping on the spot, which can be made more difficult for older kids (maybe they must spin around while jumping).
Any other kind of gymnastic exercise which is performed only with their own body weight is great. To make it more competitive you can use the stopwatch to time the duration of each exercise. But make sure to stick to age-appropriate durations. It’s about the fun and switching back and forth between the stations rather than aiming for the next world record.
8. Finger paint some animals
Have some fun by finger painting some animals. Why not try to create a full zoo of handprint and finger-painted animals - use different body parts to create different animals!
9. Make a roadway
Play mats are great fun for kids. They give them a great setting to get imaginative with their toys. But what if you created your own one? You could grab some tape and make roads all over the carpet. Think about how they will connect, where they will lead to, and what sights you might need to add along the way.
10. Rock painting
Make a dash outside to the garden and grab some rocks if you can. Dry them off and practice painting them or decorating them with markers.
11. Time for paper mâché
Making 3D art is great fun. Inflate a balloon, grab some newspaper and a PVA glue/water mix, and get creating!
12. Balloons
Who doesn’t love a balloon party? There are lots of games to be played and science experiments to embark on!
13. Hide and Seek
A classic indoor game that kids love, and we all know how to play, only problem here is running out of new hiding places.
14. Indoor fashion show
Get your favourite clothes, dress ups or even parents or siblings’ clothes out and strike a pose, create a catwalk in your kitchen or front room.
15. Create your own TV show
You could use your own toys, puppets and even film your debut episode, it could be the next Netflix exclusive.
