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Indoor Games Rainy Day Activities  


Whether it’s cold and rainy outside or you just want to have some indoor fun. Here are a several things to do with kids indoors. Make sure to visit our indoor places to go section when you’re feeling up to venturing outside.

Younger Kids and Toddlers

Kitchen Fun

Let your child play with a variety of textures.

  • Pour rice into a bowl and let your child play with it dry, and then let your child add some water for a sticky mess, and to see how the texture changes. Put out a cookie sheet and let them pretend to make dinner for everyone.
  • Flour- add enough water to make a thick paste, you can also add food coloring.
  • Sugar- You can use sugar like you would sand, let your child draw in it, with a finger or fork
  • Make Play Dough. Start with 1 ½ cups of flour, slowly add 1/4 cup of water, 1/2 cup salt, and 1/4 cup vegetable oil. Also you can add food coloring to the water for some variety.
  • Bake and decorate a few deserts – see the Cooking With Kids section of the website for more kitchen fun.

Active Fun

  • Lay out an old blanket and put out painting supplies.
  • Fill a tub with water and put some rubber ducks in it and get a strainer and have your toddler go fishing.
  • After playing the above game give them a wash cloth and let them wash their toys
  • Put on music and dance, don’t forget to pull out those moves that were popular when you were young, there’s nothing like seeing a toddler do the running man, or cabbage patch.
  • Bring out fancy dress up clothes and have an old fashioned tea party.
  • Put a bunch of different textured toys in a sleeping bag and let them reach in and try and guess what they are touching.
  • I Spy can be fun to learn colors.
  • Save a big box next time you order something and then make it into anything you can imagine.
  • Puzzles.
  • Hide and Seek with a toy.
  • Put a blanket on a smooth floor and pull them around. I think this is a favorite for every young kid. If only we were small enough to still take part in this ride.
  • Sock basketball –gather some socks (preferably clean) and the laundry basket and have a ball. Kids love when you shake the socks out over their heads afterwards. This would work with tiny blow up balls as well.
  • Follow the Leader.
  • Duck, Duck, Goose.
  • Bring some outdoor toys indoors. (tricycle, little slide)
  • Play with blocks, see who can make the biggest tower without knocking it over.
  • Play in the Bathtub- Make sure to visit the Bath Time Fun section of our site.
  • Make music with kitchen items.
  • When they are really little you can pull kids around in a laundry basket.
  • Any imagination game- I always come up with different scenes my toddler has to act out, I might yell out, “You’re in the ocean now and there is a dolphin coming by…jump and ride it to the shore” or “You’re in the desert…what animal are you?”

Older Kids

  • Scavenger Hunt- Make a list of easy words or pictures and have your child search around the house for them.
  • Make an obstacle course.
  • Make up your own games or combination of moves, (ex. spin around 3 times touch your head and jump…) see who can copy the longest without missing a step.
  • If you have more than one child, have a talent show.
  • Karaoke.
  • Put up a tent without stakes and go camping inside.
  • Make a tent out of blankets and pillows in the house.
  • Have a picnic on the floor.
  • Movie night. Grab a movie for the family and pop some popcorn, and get your favorite snacks and sit back and relax and enjoy the movie. Don’t forget to play the alphabet game during the previews and try and find each letter of the alphabet before the movie starts.
  • Bring out the board games.
  • Exercise or practice gymnastics together.
  • Blow up a balloon and play volleyball with it.
  • Hide toys and play colder-hotter.
  • Card Games.
  • Hide and Seek.
  • Indoor basketball– Use any type of ball you feel safe with and either a tall laundry basket or clean trash can.
  • Hot potato with a soft toy or ball.
  • Red Light Green Light.
  • Paper Airplanes.
  • Simon Says.
  • Bowling- Put some empty soda bottles, or cereal boxes up and get a ball and your set.
  • Puzzles.
  • Bean bag toss- Use socks and a piece of hard cardboard from a shipping box with holes propped up.
  • Jenga.
  • Start a story and go around the room and have the next person continue.
  • Put the mattress on the ground and bounce away.
  • Mini Football, use a rolled up piece of tissue and use straws to blow it towards your opponents goal.
  • Twister.
  • Bring out Legos and build something huge.
  • Read.