Whether it’s a rainy or winter day or for when cabin fever strikes, fun indoor games are your best bet as outdoor activities are merely stopped and kids will get bored being stuck at home.
When your kids are addicted to the couch , watching T.V and other gadgets and not in a mood to get active, try these fun indoor games and activities for kids of all ages. They will leap out of the couch and request for more ground games because these games are intriguing and excellent energy burners. On top of that, you can add all these to your indoor birthday game ideas list.
While busy moms fear such days , especially if you are working from home, some consider this to be a chance to spend quality time with their children. But keeping your children engaged at home is a strenuous task.
You had a ton of memories right in your childhood playing some of these indoor games and battling with your siblings and friends . So why don’t you make an extra effort to teach your kids the same so that they can cherish their childhood as well.
This list is chock- full of fun and boredom buster activities that you and your high energy kids are going to love!
Gross motor activities for kids – Tape Games
Tape is an extraordinary tool to use for indoor games and activities. Kids of all age groups enjoy playing around with tape.
There’s something mysterious about this modest, simple to store and clingy material as it can be used for numerous purposes. Be it for fixing anything, wrapping gifts or can be utilized for some incredible gross motor and coordination exercises for toddlers and preschoolers in particular.
Nowadays, it comes in a wide range of attractive designs and colors to keep our kids intrigued and entertained!
Jumping Tape game
Tape jumping is an interesting indoor game for kids without a doubt.
How to play:
- Make 6–8 lines on the floor, approximately a foot separated. You can numbered them if you want to.
- Name the first line as start line and afterward give your children basic guidelines.
- Ask your kid to jump and see what number of lines they can bounce over.
- Motivate them to try harder and check whether they can jump considerably further each time.
I’m sure this straightforward game will easily engage the kids for extended hours than you think.
Tip:
- Give your kids some rewards or food of their choice as treats , when they come up with their best score.
- If you numbered the lines, ask your kids to count the numbers as they move forward. This can be a great learning activity for toddlers.
Tape Road
You will require tape, ride-on toys , toy cars that your kids simply love and some creative mind for doing this interesting activity. Kids will adore driving the toy vehicles here and there through the DIY tape road.
How to play:
- Make streets out of the tape.
- Add parking slots, road barriers ,intersections and crossing.
This will ensure that kids will have extra fun and some energy will be surely burned off as they pretend and play around the tape road track.
You can also check Hands On As We Grow for some elaborated fun ideas.
Peeling Tape
Peeling tape is a simple yet an effective boredom buster activity for babies and toddler . It urges them to utilize and build up their pincer grasp and develop hand-eye coordination.
How to play:
- Make some strips of tape and place it on a perfect surface, for example window, wall, high chair, table top and the floor.
- You can create it in different shapes. Experiment with short lines, criss cross or even draw simple images.
- Ask your kids to peel off the tape. Winner will be the one who peels the whole bit of tape off the quickest!
Our take on peeling tape:
Are you a good storyteller?? Then, try our version of this game and your kids will adore this as much mine do ( thank me later ) . Our 2 year old one plays this activity as an animal rescue game.
I narrate her rescue stories in which I include her favorite characters from classic tales like The Jungle book, The lion king and she has to play the role of a rescuer .
We place tiny toy animals on some surfaces and tape them securely . She takes the animals out by stripping off the tape as fast as she can.
My little one is really fond of this super simple game and it keeps her engaged for 30 minutes at least.
Tip :
- You can also make letters and numbers with tapes and repeat the activity.
- Depending on the age group you can customize it accordingly . If your kids have started learning words, you can write their names or any simple words with tape and ask them to peel off each letter.
- Use colored sticks and tape to step up this game to the next level for babies .Tape the colored sticks to a flat surface and ask your kid to take the sticks out by peeling the tape off. They will be delighted to play with colorful , eye catchy craft sticks.
Tape Tic-Tac-Toe
Tic tac toe tape is an excellent gross motor and critical thinking indoor game for kids.
How to play:
- First, make a big tac-toe classic board that’s 3 squares by 3 squares on the floor with tape. Don’t bother much, if it’s not completely even.
- Since we are playing it as a gross motor activity, kids have to move around and keep engaging their bodies.
- Kids can stretch , twist and move their body to make use of different body parts – hands, feet and head . But keep in mind , put just one body part in each square. Have a ton of fun!
Tip:
- Kids can also play tape tic tac toe using 3 objects of one shading and 3 of another shading.
- The first one to place all three of his or her objects in a row, if it is horizontal, vertical, or diagonal, will win!
Tape Balance beam
Develop your kid’s gross motor skills and static, dynamic balance by making a tape balance beam. It’s a great activity to engage their core muscles and increase their muscle strength.
How to play:
- Place a long piece of tape on the floor to make a basic balance beam.
- Instruct your kids to place one foot in front of the other as they move forward, rather than sliding their feet along tape.
- Supervise if their feet remain safely on the beam and they are maintaining the balance .
Our take on balance tape beam :
When my baby was around 1-2 years old, I used to keep her favorite toy or fruit (funny me) at the end of the balance beam to encourage her to move forward and grab the toy / fruit as early as she could . This activity helped her a lot during her early walking stage.
Tip :
- For older ones, place a pillow on their head and ask them try not to drop it while balancing on the tape beam.
- Create a long path to follow throughout the house by adding zig zags or cross patterns for some added challenge.
- You can play around a little bit with the shape of a balancing beam for extra fun , for example, make a square, rectangle, heart or even their favorite cartoon character.
Balloon Games For Kids
Want to keep your kids busy at an indoor birthday party or a family/ friends gathering?
Balloon games will be your best friend then ! No matter how old your child is , colorful balloons can bring instant smile to their face.
Balloons indoor games don’t generally need lots of preparations, you can merely set up any balloon gross motor activity using the items readily available in the house.
Warning : Always remember to closely monitor your kids during balloon play as it still causes a choking hazard!
Balloon in a cup
Balloon in a cup is comparatively simple to execute indoor game, making it ideal for all ages to play.
How to play:
- Arrange some paper cups on a table.
- Ask your kids to blow balloons up.
- Release the air towards the cups to push the cups off of a table.
- Repeat the game till all the cups knocked off the table.
Balloon Treasure Hunt
Match the Balloon is a treasure hunt indoor game suitable for toddlers and young kids. You will need basic items like buttons and balloons in a variety of attractive colors . Button color should match the color of balloons.
How to play:
- Inflate all the balloons and hide them in the different corners of the house.
- Place all the buttons in a tray and let the kids come and pick up some random buttons.
- Ask them to find a balloon that exactly matches with the button color.
Tip :
- You can blow up the balloons and place buttons, shells, pom-poms , colored rice or googly eyes as treasure items in them. Secure it tightly.
- Repeat the above instructions and play.
- The one who gets the most number of treasure items wins!
Balloon Surprise Pop
This balloon surprise popping game for kids can make any party a huge success. You will need lots of balloons, some colorful paper ,sharp objects like toothpicks and give away treats or special gifts for this fun indoor game.
How to play:
- Write down the name of give away gifts or treats on some bit of paper.
- Blow some balloons up and put one random piece of paper in each balloon and tie it up firmly.
- To increase their curiosity , don’t fill in each balloon with chit paper , leave some empty.
- Arrange all the balloons in a room carefully.
- Ask the kids to go to the room and pop the balloons with some sharp objects one by one.
- Ask them to read aloud what is written on their paper and give away the prize to respective winners.
Bath time fun with balloons
It is an incredible sensory and indoor water activity for the kids .
How to play:
- Fill about 15- 20 small balloons with some amount of water and tie a knot. The balloons already have a bit of air in them so as to help make them float in the bathtub.
- Let the kids play around in the water with floating balloons. They will enjoy jumping , squeezing, making some shapes by pressing in the middle of a balloon or so.
Tip:
- Add some balls to the water pool for making it more interesting.
- Ready for a surprise balloon water activity ? Add water colors while filling up water in the balloon . When the balloon pops up accidentally, kids can have extra fun playing with this surprise element- water colors.
Catching balloon with funnel
Catching balloons with funnel is a super fun and entertaining game for preschoolers and above age group kids. You can continue this game till your kids are exhausted and completely burned off that extra energy.
How to play:
- Blow up balloons and give every kid a funnel and they have to hold it in their mouth.
- Let them toss the balloons in the air and catch the balloons in their funnel and repeat the steps.
- All you have to notice is that kids can’t use their free hands to adjust the balloon or funnel.
Balloon ball pit
A balloon ball pit can be specially arranged for your tiny birthday party guests. Fill an inflatable tub with lots of colorful balloons and balls for an easy favorite party spot .
Fine Motor Skills Activities
Understood.org defined fine motor skills as
“Fine motor skills are the ability to make movements using the small muscles in our hands and wrists.”
Fine motor skills have to be developed in kids before they learn how to write, so as to have appropriate hand – pencil coordination.
Indoor Vertical Bowling
Stacking cups is an ideal activity for motor skills and mental development. Here is a fun indoor game for kids with easily accessible things. You only need some paper cups and balls.
You’re simply constrained by the quantity of cups in your stock. Fortunately, they’re modest and regularly recyclable.
How to play:
- Build any shape by simply stacking overturned paper cups. It can be a triangle setup ,vertical towers or stacked pyramid.
- Let your kid do the building part . It is a time consuming process and cups will fall quite often. But they will develop motor skills in the process.
- Ask your kids to bowl and knock them down.
- You can even set up a scoreboard to put a score for every cup that gets knocked down.
- Practice till they hit the entire paper cups building in one go.
Tip:
- If your kid is a toddler , you can make him/her count the number of cups in each row.
- For older ones, perform basic or complex arithmetic operations as they bowled down the paper cup stack.
Tossing a ball into a cup
To play this fun indoor game, you need some pin balls, paper cups and choke.
How to play:
- Place the paper cups on a table or the floor at an equal distance.
- Using a choke, mark a start line on the floor maintaining at least 2-3 ft distance from where you place the cups.
- Each kid has to stand at the start line and target the cups.
- If the player tosses the ball into every paper cup within the time limit, they win.
Tip:
- You can use coins instead of pin balls to toss.
- You can replace paper cups with some cardboard boxes. But make a hole in the center of boxes.
Marble and Spoon Race
Marble and spoon race is a super fun balancing game for toddlers and upwards. You need marble, spoon, choke or tape for this simple indoor game race. Children can build up their focus level and persistence through this activity.
How to play:
- Mark a start and finish line with choke or tape.
- Kids have to hold the spoon with marble on the top in their mouth throughout the game.
- Hands are not supposed to be used in order to adjust either the spoon or marble .
- If the marble falls off, encourage kids to start all over again each time.
- The one who reaches the finish line is the winner!
Tip:
- You can try lemons or shells instead of marbles .
- Give your kid a smaller lemon and spoon.
- If they cannot hold the full lemon then try cutting it into half so that they can balance it well.
Play Dough Ideas
When your toddler stops putting everything in the mouth, it’s time to introduce play dough activities as part of their indoor games!
It is significant for their fine motor skills as well as innovative play! Possibilities to play with play dough are limitless. You can even use homemade play dough as a safer option if you still feel your toddler will put it in the mouth.
Our take on Play Dough with animal toys
My daughter was truly amused by adding small animal toys and buttons to play dough. She likes to play it as a hide and seek game. She hides the animals and buttons in the play dough and afterward takes them back.
You can get more inspiration from Artfulparent as they have a roundup list of 39 play dough activities for toddler.
Treasure hunt games
Treasure hunt indoor games are still a hit among all kids age group and it is an effective boredom buster activity. This is an outstanding team building game which helps them develop problem solving skills , creative thinking and flexibility.
Kids can try classic treasure hunt games or scavenger hunt.
Classic treasure hunt
Alphabet hunt, Read the clues , follow my voice are some of the classic treasure hunt games. Follow The Spruce to get some ideas.
Scavenger treasure hunt
Kitchen scavengers , backyard scavengers , laundry room scavengers are quite popular among kids. You can check out Idtech for 30 cool scavenger treasure hunt ideas.
Educational games
Despite the subject, regardless of whether your kid loves it or not, educational games can assist you with imparting an interest for learning in your kid. Here are some suggestions of educational games for kids who gets bored very easy.
Quiz games
There is no age barrier for quiz games. It can be fun filled or merely educational based depending on your child’s age group. Quiz games will support kids to boost their self esteem and confidence.
For older ones, quizzes help distinguish between what they already know and what they don’t. The understudies at that point have a superior thought of how well they are getting a handle on the subjects, ideally rousing them to concentrate more and helping them distribute their examination time adequately by concentrating on the subject that despite needs more practice.
Quiz game topics can be anything from Animal, noun, pronoun, general knowledge ,geography, science and so on.
Our take on quiz games
We play quiz games almost everyday as my little one is thoroughly entertained by this effortless learning activity.
Some of the sample questions I tend to ask her:
- Where do your grandparents live ?
- Can you tell me what shape this is?
- How many legs does a dog have ?
- What’s your favorite color?
- What is the name of the bear in The Jungle Book ?
- What letter is this?
- On which holiday do you go trick-or-treating?
- Can you name this color?
- Can you pick up the biggest toy from this?
- What number is this?
- Which Disney movie is Princess Elsa in?
- How many fingers do you have?
- What is your favorite toy?
Alphabet Lacing Beads
Threading with alphabet beads is an impressive indoor game and learning activity for progressing fine motor development in toddlers and preschoolers. You can choose any chunky and vibrant colored alphabet blocks as they are the best fit for preschoolers to lace.
Use them to teach elementary letters of alphabets, spelling of their names and words. You will need alphabet beads , tray and threading lace or pipe cleaners.
How to play:
- Tell them any random word.
- Kid has to pick the right letters of alphabets from the beads tray.
- Lace the beads onto threading lace or pipe cleaners in correct order.
- They can twist and convert it into any shape and tie them at the ends.
Tip:
- Use numbers or any craft beads instead of alphabet beads and kids can even make a jewelry out of it for a different experience.
- Putting one end of the pipe cleaner/ lace into a play dough increases the stability even more.
This learning activity helps in increasing the fine motor pincer grasp while manipulating the beads with fingers. Also ,builds hand muscles and dexterity which are imperative for a proper pencil grasp.
Alphabet Q-tip Painting
Painting with q-tips is a distinctive activity which is not only helpful for developing fine motor skills, but also learning skills. Q-tip dot painting is the best-loved activity of my toddler! Have you tried it before?
Toddlers and preschoolers can learn names or letters by q-tip painting along the lines of the letters.
10 More Indoor Games for Kids | Games for Party
Puzzles
At the point when you can’t step out, get a couple of puzzles that your kids can take a shot at throughout the day. You can make your own puzzles or use a store-bought variety . Puzzles are excellent indoor games for kids.
- Check out Teachmama for getting new ways to play with puzzles.
- Check out Little Bins for Little Hands has easy to play preschool puzzle indoor games.
I hope you and your kids love these fun and boredom buster indoor games and activities. These will also help to beat the cabin fever during the winter! What are your favorite lists of indoor games and activities that your kids really enjoy? I would love to go through your list , share your list in the comment section below !