Are you stuck inside because of bad weather or poor air quality?
We've all had those days where we look at our kids and think:
How will I keep these kids entertained for the next 12 hours?
Getty Images Signature via Canva
Before you run whimpering to hide your head under a pillow (we've all been there too!) check out our list of 150 ideas for easy, indoor fun on those days you're stuck at home!
30
| - Plan and prepare a meal
- Have a family movie night, complete with popcorn
- Organize a living room campout
- Create a collage
- Make English muffin pizzas
- Construct a marble run with toilet paper tubes
- Set up a Domino run
- Bake cake box cookies
- Host a sleepover
- Play hot potato (with bean bags or balls!)
|
- Write and illustrate a comic book
- Craft a poem
- Laugh over Mad Libs (or make up your own!)
- Fold origami
- Complete a puzzle
- Create a sock puppet
- Make homemade ice cream sandwiches with cookies
- Learn a magic trick
- Play charades
- Play balloon badminton, using a craft stick and paper plate as your "racquet."
| 40
|
50
| - Write a letter to a friend or relative
- Play "I Spy"
- Learn sign language
- Play a board game
- Make a treasure map to find hidden treasure
- Look for geometric shapes in the house and yard
- Create a robot out of cans and other recycled materials
- Color
- Host a tea party
- Puzzle over a word search
|
 Detry26 | Canva
|
- Play "Would You Rather" ("Would you rather do _____ or _____?")
- Make cookies and deliver to neighbors
- Battle with foam dart guns
- Write a story with words cut from magazines and glued to paper
- Create shadow puppets on a wall
- Play tic-tac-toe
- Camp in the backyard
- Organize an outside movie night
- Jump rope
- Play hopscotch
| 60
|
70
| - Plan a picnic
- Master the hula hoop
- Play with bubbles
- Organize a game of hide and seek
- Watch the sunset
- Stargaze
- Make a time capsule and bury it
- Run through the sprinkler
- Create a slippery water slide with a roll of plastic
- Host a DIY backyard camp with friends
|
- Make slime
- Create art with stickers and stamps
- Play classic games like red light, green light; Simon says; or tag
- Get creative with a cardboard box
- Use marshmallows and toothpicks to build things
- Dye noodles and make necklaces
- Tie-dye a T-shirt
- Trace your body onto a large sheet of paper and color it in
- Make paper bag puppets and have a puppet show
- Play hangman
| 80
|
90
| - Organize a lemonade stand
- Play in a sandbox made from a child's pool
- Climb a tree
- Try to catch bugs or butterflies
- Make mudpies
- Study shadows at different times of the day
- Have a neighborhood parade with bikes, scooters, and skates
- Plant a garden
- Make a backyard obstacle course
- Make a bowling game with 2-liter plastic bottles as the pins
|
- Read a book
- Play freeze dance
- Have a staring contest
- Discover a new podcast.
- Try charades, Simon Says, musical chairs, hide-and-seek, or red light, green light.
- Get moving: we love Cosmic Kids Yoga, Brain Busters or GoNoodle.
- Build a fort: Haul blankets, sheets, chairs, boxes, or whatever else you have on hand to create an epic fort — often the most fun is in the creation!
- 25 Journal Prompts
- Hold a scavenger hunt: Set up a scavenger hunt around the house for little kids. If your kids are older, have them set up hunts for each other.
- Make cleaning a game
| 100
|
- Turn your kitchen into a competition. See who can come up with the most creative recipe using ingredients you currently have.
- Host a movie marathon.
- Task each family member with trying a new recipe
- Start meal planning.
- Transform your living room into a lab with these at-home STEAM activities.
- Make slime.
- Bake a treat
- Take a nap (you wish)
- Make music with pots
- Finding your gratitude: 30 days of writing prompts
| 120
|
130
| - Hold a LEGO challenge: Grab a few small buckets or food storage containers and scoop up a random assortment for each person. Set a timer and start building!
- Water play: Throw the kids into the bathtub with a few toys or things from around the house that they don't usually use in the water. It will make the experience all new!
- Volume up! at-home activities that will bring music to your ears
- Look at old photos
- Make your own board game
- Have a tea party
Walk like animals - Build pretzel log cabins
- Do yoga
- Let the kids take pictures for a change
|
150
| - Read
- Play solitaire
- Have a pillow fight
- Build a blanket fort
- Make paper airplanes
- Have a dance party
- Paint rocks
- Make frozen fruit pops
- Make modeling dough
- Make bird feeder treats or dog biscuits
|
Sign up today for our weekly Macaroni KID Wilmington-New Castle newsletter so you never miss a thing!
Renae Gonzalez is the publisher of Macaroni KID Brentwood, Calif.
Kara Murphy is the publisher of Macaroni Kid Erie, Pa.
