indoor fun for kids

10 Ideas for Indoor Fun for Kids

As I stood looking out the sliding glass door into a sea of white, I couldn’t believe my eyes. The weather service called for a foot and half of snow. Three feet of snow already covered the ground from the two blizzards from the past month. The snowdrifts were halfway up our windows. We were snowed in completely. I felt like we would never see our grass again.

During the early days of the winter and that first snowstorm, it may have been fun to hunker down, but after a while, being inside can feel like a prison. Cabin fever sets in. Have you watched all of your movies and played all of your games? Are your kids bouncing off the walls with energy? There are some fun and creative inside activities your children will remember forever. Here are 10 ideas for indoor fun for kids that will help them get out some energy and create memories.

1. Sleeping Bag Wrestling

Clear out the coffee table in your living room. Then have your kids put sleeping bags over their heads and wrestle each other. You’ll need to be the referee to make sure no one gets hurt and that everyone can breathe. Add music to make it more fun. You can even be the announcer and do pro-wrestling intros.

2. Four Corners

Sit down in the center of the room and assign a number to each corner of the room. The person in the middle is blindfolded while everyone on the outside chooses a corner of the room to stand in as quietly as they can. The person in the middle then chooses a corner. Everyone in that corner is out. The game continues until there is one person left and he/she is the winner.

3. Stuffed Animal Grab

Clear out space in your living room. Take a cheap/old stuffed animal—one no one is emotionally attached to—and put it in the middle of the room. Assign each family member a numerical value and sit on their knees on different sides of the stuffed animal. Everyone should move as far away from the animal as they can while also being the same distance. Call out two numbers and the goal is for them to get the stuffed animal back to their area. Do multiple rounds and start calling out more numbers than two at a time. In the end, the stuffed animal gets ripped apart.

4. Sardines

Take advantage of the lack of sunlight. This is reverse hide-and-seek in the dark. Close all of your blinds and the drapes. Try to get your house as dark as possible. Start with everyone outside and send in one person to hide. Then everyone else goes in to find the hider. When someone finds the hider they simply sit down next to them. The loser is the last person to find the group.

5. Pillow Joust

Create space and put pillows on the floor for a soft landing. Parents get on all fours as horses. Kids ride the horses and lock their feet under the parents’ bodies if they can. The kids are armed with a pillow and attempt to knock off their competitor. Riders are not allowed to put their feet on the ground or they’re out.

6. Name That Tune

Pretend like your kids are on a game show. Play songs for them to guess. They could be tunes from their favorite TV shows. However, just like a game show, in order to answer, they have to buzz in. Have your kids put pots on their heads. Give them wooden spoons or ladles. If they know the song in order to chime in they have to tap the pot on their head with the spoon. When someone answers correctly, their competitors have to eat really sour candy. This also happens when someone answers incorrectly.

7. Waste Paper Shootout

This is like the 3-point competition during NBA All-Star Weekend. Take two buckets, waste paper baskets, or large bowls and put them in front of your kids at a certain distance. Each kid has his or her own designated bucket. Give them a stack of paper. They have to take the paper, crumple it, and shoot as many sheets as they can in one minute. Play music to make it more fun.

8. Learn a Dance

Go on Youtube and find a popular dance. Learn it as a family. Don’t worry if you aren’t a good dancer. That isn’t the point. Have your kids help you and laugh together. If you are a good dancer, help teach them.

9. Leg Wrestling

This is like arm wrestling, but with legs. Have your kids lay on the ground with their heads on opposite sides and their hips even. Have each one lift the leg that is closest to the other person to a ninety-degree angle. Then have them cross their legs with each other. When you say go they try to pull the other person’s leg to the ground on their side.

10. Inch Worm Race

Have two of your kids stand with their arms to their sides. Take saran wrap and wrap them all the way to their shoulders. Then carefully lower them to the floor face down.  Be very careful—we don’t want any broken noses. Place two small bowls of applesauce at the other end of the room. When you say go, they have to inch-worm across the room, eat the apple sauce, and then inch-worm back.

Want a bonus? Try this treasure hunt. Want an activity that exercises the brain more than the body? Use these 300 riddles with your kids. Want more ideas? Here are 20.

Sound off: What are some other fun indoor activities we can add to this list?

Check out the All Pro Dad Team discuss ways to have free fun with your kids in this podcast.

Huddle up with your kids and ask them which activity sounds like the most fun.