It doesn’t take too many cold days for the boredom to creep in and your go-to activities to stop holding your kid’s attention.
Here are 10 no-prep indoor games or activities to try to break up the boredom on those wintery and cold days:
Sock Steal Game
The object of the game is to be the last one left with a sock on your foot. Set this game up by putting each player’s socks on the ball of their feet so half of the sock is dangling off their toes. Start spreading out around the room. Everyone either sits and scoots or crawls around and tries to grab socks off the other player’s feet. The last person with a sock left wins.
The Floor is Lava or Obstacle Course
This can be as simple or as intricate as you’d like. Using pillows, blankets, couch cushions, or furniture, build a path around a section of the house. Avoid the floor, and you’re playing the floor is lava. Or pick different movements for different sections to create an obstacle course. This one is great practice for position words: over, under, between, above, and below. As well as practice remembering multi-step directions: first crawl under the coffee table, next hop over the pillows, then crab walk over the blanket.
Scavenger Hunt
Depending on your child’s age, they can be involved in the hiding and creation of the clues. For littles, create clues that lead them around the house to find items. You could hide some stuffed animals in a few rooms around the house and create clues that lead to each room to collect them all. Older kids can write a series of clues that eventually lead to a final location and prize or item.
Music Games
Dance parties are a great way to get wiggles out. Freeze dance is a fun way to add a little more structure. An adult or a child could be in charge of pausing the music for the freezes. Finish the lyric is another fun music game. Play a song that your child likes and then pause the music and see if they can finish the line of the song. To make this trickier, use a YouTube karaoke video and play blind karaoke, where they don’t look at the lyrics and see if they can sing along at the right time without seeing the words. If your kiddos are creative, they can make up a dance to their favorite song. Or explore line dance tutorials like the Cha Cha Slide or YouTube channels like GoNoodle or Danny Go.
Collage Art
Head to your recycling bin and source materials (magazines, cereal boxes or snack packages) of different colors to cut or rip into pieces to create a collage. You could let your child’s imagination run wild or draw a template to fill in, or print out a simple coloring page to fill in. Some ideas include: flowers, animals, a beach scene, your house, your pets, or something abstract with shades of a particular color.
Mini Chopped
If your kiddos enjoy helping in the kitchen, this is perfect for them. This one is inspired by the TV show Chopped. Present them with a mystery snack item and ask them to add items to create a snack. For example, a piece of bread and see what they chose to top it with. Or a base like goldfish or nuts that could become a trail mix. Again, this can be as simple or as intricate as you’d like. The goal could be to create fun flavor combinations, mix foods that you wouldn’t expect to taste good together but do, or focus on the presentation. If you have pretzel sticks and marshmallows or fruit snacks, challenge your kiddos to build a structure to snack on.
Potion Mixing
Lay down some towels on the floor, take this one to the bathtub, or pull up a stool or chair to the sink. In different containers, add food coloring to water to give them different colors to mix. If you do red, blue, and yellow, it can become a primary and secondary color activity. Give your child some empty containers and let them experiment with pouring and combining colors.
Board Games
This is the perfect time to bring out a game that hasn’t been played in a while. Or try a new card game. As long as your child is old enough that the pieces aren’t a choking hazard, board games that are above their age range can still be fun. Rolling dice and moving around the board to collect money and place the houses is a simple way to make Monopoly fun for younger kids. Simplifying the rules or letting them create their own way of playing with the pieces is a great option for open-ended play. If they like puzzles, challenge them to complete it without the picture on the box. Or combine a puzzle with the scavenger hunt idea and hide pieces to a floor puzzle around the house, or smaller pieces in baggies or plastic eggs if you happen to remember where they’re stored.
Story Writing
The options here are endless. They can write and illustrate a true story or create characters. You could read a book and use the characters to create a story. Or ask Siri or Google for a random setting or character and use that to start a story. You can have one person start a story with one sentence, then continue around in a circle, adding to the story one sentence at a time per person. Any of these can be done aloud with littles or written if they are able.
Learn to ______:
Utilize the endless tutorials online and try out a new skill. Juggling is fun and easy to practice with rolled-up socks. Magic or card tricks are great for something to learn quickly. Drawing or painting tutorials can occupy 5 minutes or much longer if you prefer. Watch a video of how to count in another language or try a sign language tutorial on a particular theme like colors, foods, or their favorite sport.
I hope you’ve found something fun to try with your kiddos and make some fun memories during the colder months. Let us know in the comments which no-prep indoor game you think your kiddos would love to try this winter.
