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It may be raining and pouring, but your kids don’t have to be snoring. When the weather is bad, there’s nothing for it: It’s going to be an inside day. But that doesn’t mean your kids can’t stay entertained! These fun indoor activities for kids will help you avoid the sentence that all parents dread: the pouty “I’m bored” that means whining is imminent.
There’s nothing wrong with an indoor movie day, but you also want to find a way to engage your kids that doesn’t just involve screen time. But that’s easier said than done indoors — especially when you’re busy. Luckily, we have a ton of ideas for inside activities for kids that make great boredom-busters. As a bonus, most of them are easy on the wallet, too! Engage their creativity with a craft for kids like making modeling dough, or harness their sense of humor for a comedy show. Bad weather days will fly by with how much they’re having.
Put on a Play
If you have a budding writer or actor, encourage them to put on a play! They can write a simple plot, play dress up for the costumes and spend the day rehearsing to put on a performance for you.
Tell Riddles
Using a book or a list of the best riddles for kids, take turns guessing these tricky brain teasers. It encourages logic and critical thinking skills and gives young minds a great workout.
Have a Paper Airplane Competition
Try different ways to fold paper airplanes and see which one flies the furthest. Or, cut holes out of some cardboard to make targets to try to fly through!
Preserve Memories With a Scrapbook
Scrapbooking is a fun and creative way to preserve family photos and all the fun times you’ve had together. Use supplies like glue dots, 3D stickers, decorative paper and more to start a scrapbook together that you'll look at for years to come.
Make a Movie
With cameras on everybody’s phone, it’s become easier than ever to make homemade movies. Your child can make a documentary of family life or act out scenes with stuffed animals. Simple editing software can combine short clips to make the movie.
Create a Craft Museum
Pull out the paints, crayons, markers, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and any other DIY materials you have around the house. Let their imaginations run wild, or encourage them to try one of these crafts for kids. At the end, hang them on the wall like they are in a museum and invite “visitors” (family members) to come see the show.
Make Homemade Modeling Dough
This easy recipe for modeling dough is simple enough that the kids can help you make it! At the end, you have fun and colorful playdough-like dough that can be used to make shapes and sculptures, great for working on self-expression and spatial reasoning.
Host a Comedy Show
Practicing a comedy set together can help with public speaking, as well as practicing timing, clear speech and self-confidence. Using a book or the best jokes for kids, create a set of five jokes and have them put on a show.
Do a Learning Activity
These fun, hands-on learning activities for kids will entertain your child while being educational. They can also help your child practice concepts in reading, math, and more. It's a win-win!
Go on a Hunt
Hide a prize in the house and write a series of clues that lead to it. Or, make a list of household items to find and see who can find them all first. These creative scavenger hunt themes will give you plenty of inspiration to build your own!
Make a Friendship Bracelet
You might not have made a friendship bracelet since your summer camp days, but the craft is back and hotter than ever. Break out those embroidery threads and teach your kids the art of making stripes, chevrons and spiral staircases. You can get a kit that'll help you make intricate patterns or just do it the old-fashioned way.
RELATED: Fun Friendship Bracelet Patterns
Build a Rube Goldberg Machine
Gather the dominoes, marbles, LEGO bricks and other construction toys and challenge their STEM skills by building a (simple) Rube Goldberg machine. Tinkerlab has tips for what materials to use, stunts to try and how to get started. (Their biggest tip? Figure out what you want to happen at the end first, from popping a balloon to ringing a bell.) It's best to keep your homemade machine simple, but it's always fun to get inspiration from really elaborate ones: Check out OK Go's "This Too Shall Pass" video, the breakfast-making machine in the beginning of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure or the videos from @RubeGoldbergTV for ideas.
Do a Science Experiment
You can do a ton of at-home science experiments with very little prep and set-up, often with items you can just grab from around the house. For example, if you sit a "cloud" of shaving cream on top of a jar of water, then add drops of blue water one at a time, when the "cloud" becomes saturated, you get blue rain — and the water cycle in a jar. The Good Housekeeping Amazing Science book offers even more at-home ideas.
RELATED: At-Home Science Experiments for Kids
Host an Open Mic Night
It doesn't matter if you have an official karaoke machine or not. All that matters is you can hit the high notes when it counts. So, what's your go-to, belt-it-out-to-the-rafters song?
Bake and Decorate
Indoor days are the perfect time to try and get creative in the kitchen. Whip up some kind of make-your-own dessert bar by putting out toppings (frosting, sprinkles, M&Ms, etc.) that kids can add to either a cupcake or ice cream sundae.
RELATED: Best Fall Cupcakes
Break out the Board Games
It's the oldest idea in the book, but if you really want some screen-free family time, old-fashioned board games still do the trick. Get your competitive spirit up and get ready to play.
RELATED: Best Board Games
Make a Sensory Bin
Fill a bin with rice and other treasures, plus a few toys, and you have yourself an instant hit with the little ones. Kids can scoop and pour the rice or dig through to find the prizes you've hidden (in this example, they had fake bugs, a magnifying glass, and tweezers to "collect" them). Just be warned that you'll probably have to vacuum after.
RELATED: Best DIY Sensory Bin Ideas
Movies and TV Shows
If you're worried about screen time, movies and TV shows are always a last resort. But if you're stuck indoors for an extended period of time, at some point you're going to want to get something accomplished. Make every second of screen time count by making sure you're choosing the best kids' TV shows and movies available.
Start an Indoor Garden
You don't even need empty planters to get the garden growing — an old egg carton will do the trick at first. To make it more of a STEM activity, give kids journals so they can take notes on what they've planted and keep track of their garden's progress. They can even draw the heights of their seedlings as they grow. Bonus: Plant basil seeds or other herbs, and you'll have delicious ingredients for a cooking project. (Tip: If you don't want to go the DIY route, Creativity for Kids offers kits for growing sunflowers or a pizza garden that have all the materials you need.)
Indoor Obstacle Course
This activity is great for young ones working on their gross motor coordination or older ones who might need to get some energy out. Set up an obstacle course in as many rooms of the house as you dare.
Cardboard boxes can transform into tunnels to crawl through. You can tie strings around furniture and pretend that they're laser beams that kids have to step over or crawl under. (Pool noodles also work.) And you can use indoor stepping stones, pillows or cushions and invoke The Floor Is Lava rules. See who in the family has the fastest time getting through the obstacles, and then see if anyone can break the record.
Marisa (she/her) has covered all things parenting, from the postpartum period through the empty nest, for Good Housekeeping since 2018; previously, she wrote about parents and families at Parents and Working Mother. She lives with her toy-collecting husband and daughter in Brooklyn, where she can be found helping out her team at bar trivia or posting about movies on Twitter and Bluesky.
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