100+ Indoor Activities for Kids: The Ultimate Guide

We have put together a giant list of indoor activities for kids that is perfect for:

• Stay-at-home days
• Rainy days
• Snowy days
• Quarantine days
• School closures
• Bad weather days

When our kids are stuck inside with pent up energy, we need all the help we can get! In addition to activities that will challenge their minds, we have added fun ways to develop important gross and fine motor skills.  

In addition to these are board game and card game ideas as well as video recommendations for kids’ exercises and art lessons.

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Gross Motor Skills Kids Activities

Gross motor skills help your child gain strength and confidence in his/her body while helping them get physical activity.

These gross motor skills develop their ability to do more complex skills in the future, such as playing a sport on a team.  Also, it will wear them out, so they’ll be ready for bed at night!

These are some gross motor skills activities:

• Dancing!  Dance to head, shoulders, knees, and toes or Wheels on the Bus.  Jack Hartmann has a fantastic YouTube channel with tons of fun videos that will burn a lot of energy!    Also, check out this Move to Learn YouTube channel for more fun movement videos your kids can dance along to!
• The floor is lava or quicksand game. My kids love this game!  This never gets old.  Learn more about the Floor is Lava game from handsonaswegrow.com.
• Blow up balloons and play “hockey” with a fly swatter!  So fun! Also, check out these other indoor balloon games!
• Paper plate ice skating.  Pass out plain, white paper plates and have the kids “skate” around the house.  Also, you can mop the floors! Have the kids stand on a rag (one for each foot), and “skate” around the room to dry the floor.  A fun way to get the floors clean!!

Activities For Kids That Gets Them Moving

• Flashlight scavenger hunt. Depending on the time of year, hide various objects throughout the house. Turn off the lights and have a flashlight scavenger hunt!  
• Line up some books or use a long board if you have one. Have the kids practice walking and balancing on the “balance beam.”  Great for learning balance and coordination!
• Create an indoor obstacle course!  Here are some excellent ideas for this!  Indoor obstacle course
• Surprise your kids by designing this laser maze with just a few items!  This article shows you step-by-step how to make a laser maze.  DIY Indoor Hallway Laser Maze
• There are lots of jumping jacks in this fun version of Whip Nae Nae Elementary cardio workout!  Whip Nae Nae Elementary Workout
• Look around YouTube for other exercise videos.  Here is a great one on a beginner class for kids’ karate!  How to Learn Karate at Home for Kids

Fine Motor Skills Activities For Kids

Fine motor skills are just as important as gross motor skills. Fine motor skills involve using the small muscles that control your hand, fingers, and thumb.

In addition, developing fine motor skills help your children learn important tasks like:

• Feeding themselves
• Grasping their toys
• Buttoning and zipping clothes
• Writing
• Drawing

These are some fine motor skills activities to try:

• Cut out shapes from magazines. Glue them onto shape templates.  I love this idea as it involves critical thinking. It also develops hand-eye coordination and other fine motor skills.  Check out this idea in an article on funlearningforkids.com.  Magazine shape hunt
• Cut Playdough with scissors. Also, check out these other Play-doh activities!
• Cut alphabet letters out of cereal boxes. Help them arrange the letters to spell their names.
• I love this idea from frugalfun4boys.com. Make an alphabet book out of construction paper and staple them together.  Next, have them put one letter of the alphabet on each page. Then have your child search through catalogs or magazines for items that begin with that letter.  Finally, have them cut out the photo and paste it to the appropriate page.  
• Bring out the coloring books and crayons.
• Stencil kits are a lot of fun too! Spirograph and Stencils are perfect for developing fine motor skills.
• Spirograph is an oldie but goodie! 

More Fine Motor Activity Ideas

• Stack and unstack plastic cups to make pyramids. Also, you could go “bowling” afterward and knock them down with a ball!
• Although it will make a mess, let babies pull out tissues from a tissue box.   It will keep them busy while building those fine motor skills.  : )))
• Pom pom sorting.  This is a great activity to keep the kids busy and develop fine motor skills!  Here is a great way to do it from busytoddler.com.  Pom Pom sorting
• So many fun things to do with pipe cleaners!  Check out some of these ideas from onelittleproject.com.  Pipe cleaner crafts
• Here are some fun craft ideas from the lowly toilet paper roll!  Toilet Paper Roll Crafts
• Sort buttons.  I have the best memories of playing with my mom and grandma’s button boxes! I love these button activities you can do with your preschoolers! Of course, keep the buttons away from little ones that might put them in their mouth!

Musical Instruments, Paper Airplanes, Edible Sensory Activities & More

• This article had some clever homemade musical instruments that kids can make.  I can foresee us doing this in the very near future!  Homemade musical instruments
• Here are some creative crafts to do with egg cartons!  Your child can transform them into homemade decorations, games, and much more. In addition, they’ll learn important lessons about recycling, developing their creativity, and gaining fine motor skills. Egg Carton Crafts
• Arts and crafts using construction paper.  These ideas will help build scissors, fine motor, and color recognition skills. It will also help them learn to follow instructions. Choose a few from this list.  Construction Paper Crafts For Kids

List of Indoor Games, “Oldies But Goodies”

We are always on the lookout for fun games and learning activities that will reduce screen time and at the same time get the kid’s brains thinking and their bodies moving!

Educational Board Games

• Think Fun Zingo is a popular and best-selling game that develops critical skills. It is perfect for pre-readers and early readers ages four and up. This game also builds language and matching skills in preschool kids through play.
• Jumbo Play Dice can be used for manipulative math activities, giant Yahtzee games, and stacking skills. Also, they float well in the pool!
• The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game is a fun educational board game that reinforces color learning and developing matching skills. You will also learn strategic thinking, learning to take turns, hand-eye coordination, and fine motor skills.
• Hi Ho! Cherry-O Board Game is a classic counting game for ages three and up.

Educational Card Games

These are a good mix of card games for preschool and older, school-aged kids. In addition to these, a simple deck of cards can provide hours of fun. Check out the links below.

• Toddler Flash Cards This is a set of 101 first words double-sided flash cards.
• Guess in 10 Animal Planet Card Game
• Spontuneous  This game is so much fun for the whole family!   Anyone who knows a few songs will excel at Spontuneous!  It’s sure to become your next family game night favorite!
• Guess in 10 States of America
• 52 Essential Conversations: The Life Skills Card Game for Children 100+ thought-provoking prompts & fun questions consisting of 52 cards.   The prompts and questions build competencies in self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, responsible decision-making, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Building Toys That Help Develop Fine Motor Skills

I suppose when we were kids, we didn’t realize we were building fine motor skills when we played with our blocks, legos, building blocks, and Lincoln Logs; however, we sure had a lot of fun!!  We keep ours in boxes and pull them out for a rainy day or family night games!

• Lincoln Logs is a classic game that all ages will love. It is excellent for strengthening hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, problem-solving skills, spatial awareness, and imagination!
• Legos For Toddlers
• Lego Classic Building Toys (484 Pieces)  Your child can use their imagination to bring to life any building toy they can imagine.  This will also foster playtime and build creativity in the process.
• Magnetic Building Tiles are a stem-approved 3D magnetic tile set that helps your child develop important math, science, and tactile skills. 
• TinkerToy Preschool Building Set is a fun set that contains 200 brightly colored pieces.  It will showcase your child’s engineering talents as they build houses, bicycles, castles, friendly creatures, and much more.
• Jenga Wooden Blocks is a fun, challenging game is that is an excellent game for the whole family.

Puzzles

We love floor puzzles around our house, however, any type of puzzle is amazing for child development.  Also, puzzles can aid in helping concentration, shape recognition, developing fine motor skills, spatial awareness, hand-eye coordination, and problem-solving skills.

• Solar System Floor Puzzle by Melissa & Doug.  This beautiful floor puzzle includes 48 extra-thick cardboard pieces that are easy for children to put together.
• Ravensburger Disney: Finding Dory is a 100-piece jigsaw puzzle for kids. So cute!
• Melissa & Doug Busy Barn Shaped Floor Puzzle is a 32 piece puzzle that features beautiful original artwork that depicts a realistic barn with a horse, a cow, ducks, pigs, and more.
• Ravensburger Unicorns 150 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle is absolutely adorable!100-piece32-piece

Free Indoor Activities for Kids (or Almost Free)

• Make a fort using pillows, blankets, and a bedsheet!  Forts are lots of fun and can keep kids busy for hours! Also, don’t forget to make a fort under the kitchen table!
• My children also love to line up our kitchen table chairs and play “train” with all of their dolls and stuffed animals.  In the meantime, close your eyes to the mess and let them go with their imaginations!
• Help your kids come up with ideas for plays.  Our children loved doing scenes from “The King and I.”  This is so much fun and creates the best memories. It also helps them develop their imagination and get along well with others.
• Here are some great fun science experiment ideas for all ages.  Easy science experiments
• Try a kid’s yoga video.  There are a lot of them on YouTube. However, I liked the simplicity of this one. And you can see other kids going through the movements.  Kids yoga
• Try making rubbery goop!  It’s a lot like Play-Doh but is smooth and slightly stretchy.  Also, It’s a great sensory activity for kids!  Here’s a good recipe for this.  Homemade rubbery goop recipe
• Bake or cook together in the kitchen. Kids love to help and can become a great help to you in the kitchen over time! Also, before kids realize washing dishes is work, they think it’s fun to wash dishes in the sink!?

More Indoor Activities for Kids

• Here are some arts and crafts activities using cotton balls! Cotton ball craft activities
• These are super fun experiments with baking soda!  Baking soda experiments
• Read Harry Potter or Chronicles of Narnia out loud to your kids or use an audiobook! This would be a good winding down activity to look forward to at the end of the day.
• Here are 10 card games for kids to play with one simple deck of cards.  Deck of Card Games
• Build a tall tower with this marshmallow and toothpick building challenge.  Marshmallow and Toothpick Building Challenge

Finally, as your day winds down and it’s time for a movie, here is a great list of family-friendly movies to work through. How many of these has your family seen?

In addition, I included this movie list, The 100 Movies Your Children Need to See Before They Grow Up because It’s a Wonderful Life was first on the list. This is my favorite movie of all time that we watch as a family.

I hope you enjoyed looking through this list of indoor activities for kids.  Also, please comment below if you have tried any of these or have some of your own to contribute!

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