Preview: Huge list of indoor activities for kids and families to cure cabin fever!
Kids showing signs of cabin fever? Need a bunch of fun and easy crafts, games, and creative ideas for indoor activities at home? This list of things to do will keep toddlers, preschoolers, school-age children, and even adults busy for hours!
Whether you are looking for rainy day activities, snow day activities, sick day activities, or just some bonding ideas for families, this ultimate list of indoor activities will be so much fun you will forget you’re stuck in the house!
75 Indoor Activities for Families
Being stuck in the house can be painful. Constant whining, mindless snacking, camping out in front of the television.. and even the kids get bored 😉
All kidding aside, cabin fever is real. When I know we are going to be stuck in the house, I sort of panic.
Since we finally got our toys organized, there should be more than enough to keep the kids busy. But we moms know that is NEVER the case. No matter how many toys and games our kids have, they can’t seem to find anything to do.
During the summer, I got so tired of hearing “I’m bored” that I created a list of 15 “old-school” outdoor games. I even printed the list, laminated it, and hung it on the porch.
Whenever ever they were “bored” they could check the list for ideas. It was so successful that I came up with 15 MORE old-school outdoor games!
Since this winter has been one for the record books, I thought it might help to have a big master list of kids activities to play in the house.
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What indoor activities can families do when they’re stuck inside?
SO many different things! Being stuck in the house can be a great excuse for some family bonding time. Games, crafts, cooking, contests…
I pulled together a huge list of 75 different indoor activities that families can do while you’re stuck in the house.
There are lots of categories of activities to please any different interns. Most can be done as a family while some activities might be done alone. They are also caring degrees of difficulty. Pick one or pick a few!
Check out the list below or get a pretty, printable version below. You can hang it on the wall so you have something to point to when the kids say “I’m bored”!
75 Indoor Activities for Families
Get the free printable list of 75 things for kids or families to do inside!
Different activities may interest different groups of children. Always consider age appropriateness (is that a word?!) for each activity. Since these are intended to be family activities, parental supervision is assumed.
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Master list of 75 indoor activities for kids (and families!)
- Make Chocolate chip cookies from scratch
- Build a puzzle
- Make hot cocoa
- Do the hokey pokey
- Make paper roll necklaces
- MYO play dough
- Make popcorn and add fun flavor (Buffalo Ranch popcorn)
- Mani/pedi/facials
- Have a crossword puzzle race
- Play a board game
- Play a family racing game on your gaming system
- Create a drive-in movie (use trays or muffin tins to serve snacks!)
- Build a block tower
- Pillow fight!
- Make yogurt paint
- Color (free Coco movie coloring pages)
- Make up a secret handshake
- Use chore sticks and play a cleaning game (it’s worth a try!)
- Make sock puppets
- Make surprise eggs
- Have a dance party!
- Play Mr. Potato head
- Do you wanna build a snowman?
- Read any book you (EPIC!)
- Paint kindness rocks
- Make an activity jar and pick an idea!
- Build LEGOS (have a contest who can build the tallest tower)
- Make Moon Dough
- Play trains/cars
- Play Twister
- Make paper bag footballs and play a mini-game
- Have an ice cream social
- Play dress-up
- Playing card games (crazy 8, go fish, etc)
- Create your own instruments for a family band!
- Make cupcakes and have decorating contest
- Hide and seek
- Adapt some outdoor games for inside (for example, Mother May I could possibly be played indoors too!)
- Duck duck goose
- Make a Finding Dory Craft
- Have a family talent show!
- Watch Trolls and make Troll hair cupcakes
- Take turn making animal sounds and others have to guess which animal you are
- Have a tea party
- Bowl inside with 12-ounce water bottles and a small play ball
- Charades
- Chutes and Ladders
- Play market (make paper money and pretend to sell toys or house items)
- Homemade derby race! Make your own cars and race them
- Make a pillow fort
- Use cardboard boxes to make a pirate ship and play pirates! Make pirate hats and eye patches out of paper and yarn.
- Act out your favorite cartoon character and have family members guess who you are
- Draw family portraits. Others have to guess who each person drew
- Play pretend restaurant. Take turns being customers/servers/cooks. Make checks out of paper. Use pretend food or uncooked noodles!
- Thumb wars
- Play musical chairs
- Have a karaoke contest!
- Make an obstacle course
- Create a scavenger hunt
- Pretend you are on a beach vacation in your living room. Grab beach towels and sunglasses. Pretend to take a boat ride and spot dolphins. Play I Spy at the beach
- Finger paint
- Make your own popsicles. Watch Frozen while you wait for them to freeze
- Look through old family photos. Make a family tree
- Play hangman on paper, a chalkboard, or a whiteboard
- Play hacky sack. Make a ball out of old socks, uncooked rice, and hot glue it closed.
- Write letters to grandma and send them the mail
- Act out nursery rhymes
- Build a house of cards
- Make story stones and take turns making up different stories using the same rocks
- Make a volcano using baking soda and vinegar. Try using a cored apple as the volcano
- Play “The floor is lava”. Try not to touch the floor for 30 minutes
- Blow up a balloon and see how long you can keep it in the air without touching anything (remember that episode of Friends where they tossed a ball without dropping it for hours?!)
- Have an indoor snowball fight (use balls of newspaper as snowballs. Stuff them in old socks and use hot glue to close if you don’t want to get ink on your hands!)
- Use painters tape (or track tape if you have some!) to make an indoors road system and play cars/trains
- Play tic tac toe!
Whew! Make it easy on yourself and grab the free printable list below!
How’s that for a few creative ideas of things to do at home? Will that keep your kids busy for a while?
Follow Living In Happy Place’s Kids Activities board on Pinterest for countless more activity ideas!
Next time school is out for a snow day, the kids are stuck inside on a rainy day, or someone is sick and you can’t go out, pull out this big list of indoor activities and turn your bad day into a family day!
75 Indoor Activities for Families
Get the free printable list of 75 things for kids or families to do indoors and doing the Happy Moms newsletter.
Janine Huldie says
This is a great list. And definitely pinned to refer back to as winter definitely comes with its own challenges in keeping kids from getting bored indoors. So, thank you for sharing your ideas here with us 🙂