CHILDREN: 140 Indoor Activities for Hours of Entertainment

There are so many reasons why we may need to stay indoors with our children, whether it be wet weather, a cosy weekend, illness or the current pandemic of Coronavirus. The idea of staying indoors with children for a prolonged period of time can be quite a daunting prospect, but in an aim to help parents I have put together 140 ideas for indoor activities. These will keep you busy for hours, days, if not weeks and can easily be combined with more educational activities too. There are opportunities to practice fine motor skills, be creative, learn new skills and simply have fun, which is really important for children, but especially with the current concerns, unknowns and changes.

To make it easier to search, and so that you can cater the activities to your child's interests, I have split the indoor activities up into different categories. Some days I just don't fancy messy crafts, so I'll choose something from the games or quiet time categories. I have found that having all of the activities in one place makes planning ahead quicker for each day. Also, there are activities for a range of ages from babies/toddlers all the way to the end of primary school with the aim of catering for families with a range of ages.

140 Indoor Activities for Children

Crafts

1.  Ice-Cream Potato Stamping - very similar to the activity linked, but instead of making party bags you can fill large sheets of paper or make some bunting ready for summer.

2. Personalised Canvas Painting

3. Egg Carton Flowers 

4. Felt Biscuit Play Set 

5. Personalised Wooden Name Blocks 

6. Leaf Puppet People 

7. Felt Cloud and Star Bunting

8. Paint a Family Portrait 

9. Play Food for Pennies 

10. Glass Painting 

11. 36 Ideas for Hand and Footprint Art  

12. Making Tape Painting 

13. Floral Hoop

14. Ice-Cream Pom Pom Bunting 

15. Felt Vegetable Garden

16. Painted Seagrass Basket 

17. Pom Pom Hair Accessories

18. Story Telling Character Sticks

19. Floral Number or Letter

20. Handprint Leggings

21. Make Paper Aeroplanes

22. Salt Painting 

23. Sponge Stamping

24. Salt Dough

25. Finger Painting 

26. Make Your Own Bookmarks 

27. Make Friendship Bracelets 

28. Pet Rocks

29. Make a Bird Feeder

30. Decorate a T-Shirt with Fabric Pens

31. Sock Puppets 

32. Make a Scrapbook

33. Put together a Time Capsule 

34. Paint Leaves 

35. Button Art

36. Colour in a Colouring Book

37. Make a Cardboard Castle

38. Tissue Box Monsters 

39. Toilet Roll Butterfly

40. Stamp with Vegetables and Fruit

Games

1. Play I Spy

2. Play Board Games

3. Hide and Seek

4. Bingo

5. Charades

6. Musical Chairs

7. Card Games

8. Musical Statues 

9. Make Your Own Game Up

10. Do a Puzzle

11. Keep the Balloon Up

12. Dominos 

13. Indoor Scavenger Hunt 

14. Noughts and Crosses 

15. Memorise the Tray Game

16. Snap

17. Happy Families 

Quiet Time

1. Decorating Biscuits

2. Apps on a Tablet

3. Read a Book

4. Teddy Bear's Picnic

5. Drawing

6. Learn to Draw a New Animal

7. Learn to Knit

8. Learn a New Card Game

9. Watch a Movie

10. Listen to Music

11. Do Cosmic Yoga on YouTube

12. Learn to Sew

13. Write a Story

Activities 

1. Make Playdoh

2. Make Rainbow Rice

3. Build a Den

4. Make Slime

5. Put on a Fashion Show

6. Have a Dance Party

7. Put on a Show

8. Make a Treasure Hunt

9. Build an Obstacle Course

10. Make Ice-Cream in a Bag

11. Have a Disco Bath

12. Make Faces on Pizzas 

13. Sort through Toys and Clothes ready to Donate to Charity 

14. Build something with Lego

15. Indoor Bowling

16. Give Dolls/Cars/Toys a Bath

17. Write a Journal 

18. Set up a Restaurant

19. Have an Indoor Living Room Picnic

20. Build a Tower with Blocks
21. Invent a Phonic Game
22. Go on a Shape Hunt
23. Word Hunt

Baking

1. Banana and Peanut Butter Muffins 

2. No Refined Sugar Gingerbread Men  

3. Lemon Drizzle Muffins

4. Hot Chocolate Brownie Ice-Cream Sandwich

5. No Added Sugar Banana and Oat Scones 

6. Spice Caramel Feather Cake7. Carrot, Apple and Raisin Breakfast Cookies 

8. No Added Sugar Peanut Butter Granola

9. Broccoli, Tomato and Cheese Savoury Muffins 

10. Three Ingredient Banana and Oat Bites

11. Peach and Almond Tart 

12. Spring Pea Dip with Parmesan Crisps 

13. Three Ingredient Peanut Butter Bites

14. Nutella Swirled Shortbread 

15. Three Ingredient Nutella Brownies

16. Wholemeal Cheese and Marmite Scones 

17. White Chocolate Eton Mess Cake

18. Carrot and Thyme Savoury Flapjacks 19. Completely Edible Flowerpots 

20. Ginger Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies

21. No Refined Sugar Baby-Friendly Cake 

22. Churros with Sea Salt and Lime Chocolate Sauce

23. Mandarin and Ginger Dark Chocolate Molten Mug Cake 24. Sweet Potato Brownies

25. Slow Cooker Cinnamon Buns with Cream Cheese Frosting 

26. Ice-Cream Biscuits 

27. Nutella and Roasted Hazelnut Chocolate Cake 

28. Nutella Flapjacks 

29. Banana and Apple Loaf Cake 

30. No Refined Sugar Berry Chia Seed Jam

31. Apple and Apricot Flapjack

32. Flower and Raspberry Chocolate Bark 

33. Oven Baked Falafel

34. Rainbow Cupcakes in a Jar 

35. Peach and Raspberry Dutch Pancakes

36. Honey Glazed Pineapple with Coconut Yogurt and Lime 

37. Baby-Friendly Crispy Banana Easter Nests

  38. Mango and Coconut Pancakes 

39.

40. Jamaican Porridge

  41. Mini Egg Fridge Cake

42. Spiced Quorn and Potato Traybake 

43. Three Ingredient Mango and Strawberry Ice Lollies

44. Pea and Mint Soup

45. Sweet Potato and Mushroom Enchiladas 

46. Giant Chocolate Chip Sharing Cookie

47. Blueberry and Oat Bars

What are your favourite activities to do indoors?

Feel free to leave a comment - I love reading every single one :)

Helen x