Spring has not been much fun in my neck of the woods. We have cold snowy days and grey skies along with days of rain and more rain. Time for indoor activities is still at hand. Here are some ideas to keep your little ones from climbing the walls.
- Go for a walk and explore how different things look when it’s raining or snowing.
- Make boats out of egg cartons or whatever Styrofoam you just happen to have laying around.
- Play Doh
- Have a coloring contest!
- Set up a fort in your living room and camp out with snacks and a movie.
- Tea party
- Indoor picnic
- Bake cookies
- Sit on comfy chairs or pillows with a bunch of books and read together.
- Put on a puppet show
- Play grocery store and let your little ones go shopping in the kitchen.
- Get out your Legos, MegaBloks, or wooden blocks and build a little city or see how can build the tallest tower.
- Clear out an area and tape down black construction paper on the floor and make street for your Hot Wheels.
- Tape down packing paper or large sheets of paper to your floor or wall and let the kids make giant murals. (Although I have to say this idea is hit or miss so unless you know your child will enjoy this you may not want to set it up.)
- Paint! You can paint old cardboard boxes if you want and make a little town inside your home or just paint on paper.
- Gather odds and ends in from your art supplies and make something crazy.
- Make puppets out of paper lunch bags or out of paper plates.
- Make instruments and march to the beat.
- Call it a cleaning day and give your children non chemical items to clean with such as dusters, brooms or rags. Race to see how can clean something the fastest. Make a race out of any cleaning project that is safe for your children and watch it get done! The novelty will wear off quickly but you may get a clean floor or kitchen out of it.
- Practice cutting and pasting. Just bring out the paper, paste and child safe scissors and they will be happy even with no rules or direction. However you may want to make it interesting by asking if they can cut a circle or in a wavy line, etc.
- Video games! Be still my heart did she just say “video games”? Yes, I did. If you have a Wii you can go bowling or play ping pong right in your living room. This will be a treat if you rarely allow video games.
- Board games. Depending on your child’s age playing board games is a nice way to pass the time.