Being cooped up indoors for days on end can make anyone restless, but especially young children. When it’s raining outside or simply too cold to run around outside and play, having some inside ideas of fun things to do will keep your kiddos HOPING for another day stuck inside with you!
1. Crafts!
Make a rainy day duck (see picture) or get educational with it and have your child spell his/her name with Cheerios! Paint rocks or even paint with water! Sometimes what may sound silly to us grown-ups is a new FUN thing for your child to do (plus it’s mess free, a win-win!)
2. Find Things to Get You Moving; Even Inside!
Go on a Safari hunt around your home using used up toilet paper or paper towel rolls to look through! You could even hide some of your child’s favorite animal toys around the house for them to find.
3. READ Books!
This is obviously a great thing to do each and every day with your children, but make it creative on a day stuck inside the house. Act out the story after you finish reading it, or dress up as one of the characters from the book!
4. Build a Fort!
My three little girls LOVE doing this and it’s free! Everyone has blankets at their home; just drape them over any couch, table, stools, that you may have and get to crawl under it!
5. Have a Dance Party!
It is easy to make this fun and get everyone involved, and maybe even get some exercise too! Close the curtains, turn on some fun lights, and get the music pumping! If you have toy instruments have the kids get those involved too!
6. Create a Nail Salon in Your Own Home!
Kids love to play make-believe, so call them Ma’am, make them “pay” for the pedicure you give them, and set up for table exactly like the salons they see on TV!
Being stuck inside is even hard for adults sometimes (trust me, I get it!), but one thing I have found that makes all the difference is a positive attitude! You’re children want to see YOU have fun just as much as they want to have fun themselves. So get down on your hands and knees and pretend to be that pony your five-year-old wants you to be so bad. Crawl in the fort WITH them. Yes, the dishes need to be done and the dryer just “dinged”, but even YOU will have a much more fun day if you get down there with your kids and PLAY!
So the next time you hear the phrase “Mmmoooommm, I’m bored!!!” Don’t go hide in the bathroom; you got this!
Samantha Cutler is a Mom of three beautiful girls and instructor at Swimtastic Omaha Southwest.
