You wanted to go out with your children to the playground, but suddenly a thunderstorm is approaching. Or something else is keeping you to stay at home. And you urgently need some ideas and tips for some indoor activities. How can you keep your loved ones busy. For that you find here around 66 ideas plus minus. Depending how you will count.
If you have more ideas go to the comment section at the end of this blog.
Karaoke
You don’t need a karaoke machine, On YouTube you can find today nearly every song as a karaoke version, even “Let it go” or “Glory Glory Man United”. If you have a Smart-TV you can even connect your mobile, tablet or computer and sing like a superstar. No microphone doesn’t matter a pen or banana will do the job.
Or you can use one of the free karaoke apps.
Watch TV or play with the tablet
One of the obvious and easiest options, but how long should your child watch?
From different children organizations like the German “Schauhin” they recommend:
- For children below 3 years: As less as possible, Toddlers discover the world around them better with their 6 sense and not over a display
- Age 3 to 5 year: up to 30 min. In a row as golden rule
- Age 6 to 9 year: up to 60 min. In a row
- Age 10 and older: Here a weekly or daily limit can be agreed on. 10 minutes per live of year per day or one hour per week.
Hair stylist
Sounds maybe a little bit challenging, but as long as you are the hair stylist it will work just fine. You will need:
- A good hair cutting scissors
- An thinning scissors
- A cape or thin towel
- Comp
- Distraction , depends how long your child has patience and is sitting still
The thinning scissors will thin out the hair and will cut only a part of a strand of hair. There is no big risk to make a major mistake. With the time you can try a layered haircut with the cutting scissors. Look out at YouTube sure you will find there some inspirations and tips to become a professional for your children.
Beauty day
Have a beauty day with your daughter.
Backing and Cooking
How about some easy bakings:
- Chocolate cookie
- Brownie
- Pound cake
- Cupcake
- Waffles
These are easy to make and who doesn’t love them when they are still warm?
For cooking it must not always involve heat:
- Fruit salad
- Raw food plate with some simple dips
- Fruit skewers
Or with a little more efforts:
- Chocolate skewers
- Chocolate fondue
- Mini pizza
- Toast Hawaii
- Pancake or crepes
Charade
You can play at home with your children
Or you record your child with your mobile phone and send it to your parents, parents in law or friends of your child and let them find out what your child describes.
Variant: You can also try to let your child to describe something in his own words and send it out and let other find out the riddle
Paper, cardboard, colors, glue, scissors and other materials
This can be already a list with over 100 ideas so for now we keep it simple.
Use toilet rolls and kitchen rolls:
- Wired telephone, you remember when you were young?
- Binoculars
- Create animals, like rabbits, bears or a whole zoo
- A mobile with airplanes or dragons
- A marble run
- Napkin rings
- A storage box for the little thinks your child loves to collect.
- Decorate a frame with a segment of the rolls.
- Colored chalk, for the time after the thunderstorm or whatever keeps you at home
Play dough
Playing with the play dough is always fun. Instead of using the finished one why not start from scratch?
- Make some play dough from scratch and colour it with different food colours
- Create some pictures with the colored play dough and stick them directly on a cabinet door or window.
Salt dough
This you can use for lasting decorations as they are after drying or paint them on another rainy day.
Clay
Clay is great for creativity. After drying paint them with acryl or all purpose color, if you can’t give them for burning. Here some ideas:
- Animals
- Bowls
- Cups
- Goblets
- The favorite figure of your child
Paper mache
This is a variant of the play dough and clay and it can last.
- Make a mask out of newspapers and wallpaper paste, after it dried out add some colors.
- Use a balloon and make a lantern or lamp shade for your child’s room.
- Create a figure, animal, tree or flower.
- Make a piggy bank
Paint and drawing
There are so many thinks your child can draw and paint or color.
- Paint and draw on paper
- Color stones with acrylic or all purpose paint.
- Color your windows with window colors
If you have some fabric color spice up some old or boring white T-Shirts
Meet Online
Make a video meeting with your child’s friends or your parents/parents in law. Today most services also have a free option like Skype, Zoom, Google Meeting etc.
Your parents and parents in law, your child aunts and uncles can also read a story for your child.
Writing
When you wrote the last time a letter or postcard?
- Write a letter
- Design your own paper/postcards for family and friends. They love to hear from you!
Postcards
When you create a postcard, you are not limited to paper or cardboard. How about a wooden one?
- Create seasonal postcards for christmas, eastern, chinese new year, a birthday or invitation card
Reading
Let your child read respectively, let him browse his favorite book. Or maybe you have somewhere hidden a new book for days like today.
Storytelling
One of the classics and if you have younger children they even will come and ask to read their favourite story.
- Create with your child/children a tapeworm story
- And you can create a storybook with them, which might be a nice gift for the grandparents.
Performances
This works obviously better if you have more children or you have a bunch of children at home.
First idea would be to let them prepare a show, from a magic box over costumes, old clothes and puppet theater your children can sing, dance, play a song or show the latest from the ballet class. Or if you have an audio play from your children they can re-enact it.
Part of the performance can be also to handcraft the entrance tickets or sell some sweats and ice cream before the performance and during the breaks. The sky’s the limit.
Some exercise
Stay the whole day, week or even longer at home need also some exercises. With a few simple tricks you can exhaust your children and maybe they will go tonight earlier to bed.
- Jump rope is fun, if you have the height and space at home.
- Playing ball or football at a “safe” place or with a balloon.
- Gymnastics
- Prepare a circuit training with some simple fun activities
- Running and dancing on a newspaper
- Trip to Jerusalem
- Play stop dance
Experiments
Discovering science and the thinks around us helping your child to develop skills in problem solving, strategic and analytical thinking,
- If your child has already an experiments box, why not doing something together else
- Create a soda vulkano – Put baking powder/soda in a glass or jar add some food coloring and pour in vinegar. Might be a little messy so use some protection or do it in the bath tube.
- Does it swim or sink? Prepare a transparent box with water and give your child different items to put in the water and ask him first if he thinks the item will swim or sink.
- Color mixing. Give your child different colors and let him mix them. Start with the 3 primary colors, yellow, blue and red on white plates and then let him mix secondary or even create a color wheel.
- Discover shape and volume, use different jars and glasses. Fits in a higher glas/jar really more water?
- Use fresh (different age would be great, see best before date) and cooked eggs. You can mark them first or gues which one is which. Put them in a glass bowl or transparent plastic box with water and see what happend. And make the turn test, turn the eggs around their own axel. Use your thumb and index finger. Stop the rotation of thee egg and see what happens.
Games
I’m sure you have a lot of them at home, so get them out and play with your child.
- Board game,
- Cards
- Puzzles
I would love to hear from your what you are doing with your children!
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