Indoor fun for kids: 11 indoor activities for pre-schoolers
It’s raining outside and we’re stuck in the house under the 48-hour sickness rule despite everyone being back to full health. The Bears can’t go back to school yet until those 48 hours are passed so we’re on day three of these four walls. The novelty has worn off and cabin fever has set it. So, what do you do with two perfectly healthy and therefore hyperactive pre-schoolers when it hasn’t stopping raining for almost a week now? Here are a few of our go to activities when it comes to indoor fun for kids.
BAKE
Baking is always a great one for us. Not only can they help add all the ingredients into a bowl and then mix it together, but the real fun is when they spend a serious amount of time decorating our creations. For the reason, we always keep icing sugar in the house and a few pots of cake decorations ready to use.
COLOUR & DRAW
This one sounds a little obvious, but you can mix it up a little if they’ve already gotten bored of colouring. Make a game out of it and challenge them to colour a picture only using three colours. Build them a colour by number key where you write a number in all the spaces and allocate them a colour. Or simply just colour in with them, each of you taking a page side by side like we used to as kids.
This one kind of comes under a similar umbrella to colouring but with a little more creativity. Drawing can be a great way to engage with little ones and you can literally get lost for hours with nothing more than some paper and pencils. If – like me – your drawing skills aren’t up to scratch I can’t recommend this How to Draw Really Cute Animals book enough. I bought it months ago when Darcie started demanding more and more pictures outside of my skill range and I’ve used it weekly since then! Easy to copy and / or trace it’s been fun to use together.
READ
Reading is always a big favourite in our house even if it does become exhausting for mummy. Each of us takes a book to read but we do more than simply read it if there is a little energy to be used up. We act out scenes, make funny voices to match them, draw pictures and even create crafts around our favourite stories. Books can be a great way to capture the imaginations of our little ones. Paper Dolls and Ten Little Dinosaurs are recent favourites of ours.
DRESS UP & PUT ON A SHOW
Taking reading one step further, why not get dressed up and put on a show. A fancy dress box can be hours of fun and doesn’t have to be complicated, some of your old clothes, hats and scarfs can be just as much fun sometimes. Getting dressed up and acting out stories can be great fun on a rainy day stuck indoors. Or even let them try on their own clothes and have a little fashion show.
CUT OUT
Darcie loves using her scissors and it’s a skill that we’re starting to work on with Henry seeing as he’ll be starting pre-school in September. To give little one’s practice at their scissor skills give them a magazine you no long want and let them cut out their favourite pictures. this one comes with a warning though, as if your little ones are anything like Darcie, then the pictures will end up stuck around their room!
SORT OUT
Believe it or not, having a good sort out of their toys will usually become a great game for pre-schoolers. Ask them to choose what they want to keep and what they want to give away to other little boys and girls. It’s amazing what toys they haven’t looked at for months will suddenly become favourites again and will be played with for hours. You may even get to donate a few too. Obviously, a real sort out will need to wait until they are not around if you have any hope to get rid of anything substantial, but this becomes a great rainy day activity.
SALT DOUGH
We always keep a stash of salt in the house ready to use for salt dough if this need arises. You could make salt dough gifts, salt dough fossils or even some decorations. Yes, I know it’s only June, but these make great seasonal gifts for family members.
MAKE CARDS
This is another one to have up your sleeve. Handmade cards for little ones are always a winner, so look at the diary and see whose birthdays are coming up. Line up some paper / cards along with pens, pencils, glue and things they can stick on such as sequins and buttons and let their creativity flow.
BUILD A DEN
Is there anything much better than a den when you’re looking for some indoor fun for kids? We are lucky to have a HUGE kitchen table and a few blankets clipped on around the sides work wonders! They build up the inside with pillows and a large volume of toys always seem to end up joining them in there. This one has added benefit for me, as I can take up position at the other end of the table and get a little work done. In fact, that’s exactly where I’m writing this right now………
LISTEN TO MUSIC
When in doubt pop on some music and dance around the room. It’s impressive how this will never fail to put a smile on everyone’s face, including mine. However, if you get tired or need something low key, think about some headphones.
We bought the kids some headphones last month in preparation for an overseas flight last month and they love them. As in LOVE them. Not really wanting to give them any additional reasons to demand YouTube, I dug out our old iPods. After a quick check of the random music which was on there – everything from Dolly Parton to The Lonely Island if you’re interested – off they went with their ‘new’ (to them) iPods and they’ve had a great time with them ever since.
BUTTONS
Yep, buttons!! If you’ve not yet discovered the joy of a button jar with your kids, then it’s time to dig some out. Not only are they fun to play with, but they are educational too. Practice shape identification, colour matching, sequencing, draw round them, stack them up, and even glue them to things in your crafts activities. Buttons can be a versatile piece of kit in your rainy-day activity arsenal for some indoor fun for kids. Handy tip for you…. if you’re throwing away any old clothes which are past saving and too worn for the charity shop, make sure you save the buttons from them first!
There we have it – indoor fun for kids ideas to keep little ones happy indoors on a rainy day or – like us – you’re stuck under the 48-hour quarantine!
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