Break out this list of fun indoor games to get your kids moving, learning, and exploring their creativity. During times spent indoors, the best way for kids to burn off any excess energy is by playing games and lots of them. If you want the youngsters to take a break from the screens, give them the gift of puzzles, memory games, and exciting activities that will challenge their minds and muscles. These fun games for kids are perfect for the indoors and super easy to do.
Problem Solving Games That Kids Will Enjoy
There are a variety of games and activities that will keep kids away from screens, help develop their thinking, all while keeping them entertained and their minds stimulated: brain games! Games that foster critical and creative thinking support their desire to learn and can also have lots of fun doing it. Here are some engaging problem solving games for kids that will give you and your family ideas and inspiration for hours on end.
Jigsaw Puzzles
Jigsaw puzzles are a fun way for children to develop their problem solving and cognitive skills. Plus, it’s something adults can find themselves getting into just as much as kids can. Check out our selection of custom photo puzzles, featuring engaging designs in high-quality, child-friendly formats. You can find puzzles that are suitable for all ages, from tiny toddlers to teenagers. With piece counts ranging from 12 – 1014, every small child can work their way up.
Board Games And Card Games
Dust off some of the old board games. Monopoly is a fun way to practice math skills, while also teaching kids ideas such as saving, spending, and other money-management concepts. Scrabble stretches vocabulary skills. Classic card games like Go Fish, Spoons, Crazy Eights are fun and simple ways to improve a child’s logical reasoning, number identification, arrangement, and color grouping abilities. Make your child’s card gaming experience more fun by creating their own set of personalized playing cards.
Memory Games
Brain boosting memory games help improve memory in a playful and entertaining way. Memory games help improve a child’s concentration, train visual memory, and boost focus and attention. There are many variations of memory games you can play at home. Our favorite is a simple matching card game since you can increase or decrease the complexity by changing the number of elements. Customize a matching card game that they’ll never forget. You can choose from a wide assortment of designs and add your favorite photos to maximize the fun. It’s cute, easy, fun, and stretches those brain muscles.
Scavenger Hunts
To get the creative juices flowing, prepare a home-based scavenger hunt for your kids to embark upon. Kids love finding hidden objects – especially when there’s a prize at the end. Hide treats and trinkets, and then write your clues on some slips of paper. Place the first clue somewhere easy to find, like inside your child’s snack or cereal bowl. Then leave as many clues as you like around the house, making a trail to find the final prize. Classic games such as “I spy with my little eye…,” Simon Says, and scavenger hunts are fun brain sharpening games that will help your children follow instructions and increase their spatial awareness.
Mad Libs
Mad Libs are a hilarious way for kids to brush up on their parts of speech. Children will be able to cement concepts such as nouns, verbs and adjectives, all while coming up with ridiculous stories related to certain themes. Problem solving games like Mad Libs help a child learn how to tell a story and build the kind of mental skills that will be required of all our kids when they are adults.
Marble Runs
Constructing a marble run is a great way for kids to build their motor skills and use problem solving to figure out ways to keep the marble from stopping in the middle of the track. Your kids will have tons of fun, enjoying a sense of accomplishment by completing a project.
Active Games To Get Kids Moving
Indoor Basketball
An over-the-door basketball hoop and miniature ball is an excellent way for kids to get some exercise while stuck indoors. These hoops come with a portable board, soft foam ball and are easy to mount in a bedroom, playroom or game space – wherever your kid prefers to dunk and swish. They can practice shooting or layups on their own, or enlist their siblings for games like Knockout and Horse. Indoor basketball is a great active boredom buster for days inside.
Dress Up Games
Most kids love to dress up because it gives them an opportunity to walk in other people’s shoes – imagining themselves as their parents, teachers, favorite superheroes, and more. This activity promotes creative and imaginative thinking. Children have vast, open imaginations. When they dress up, they root their imaginative stories in reality for a short while, giving them a chance to have fun and explore. Dress up games help kids release energy by moving around rather than staying in one place. If your kids love superheroes, these fun personalized kids capes can be easily customized and will keep your children occupied for hours.
DIY Obstacle Course
Running through obstacle courses are always fun games for kids, but building one together will be a huge hit with the whole family. They can be made differently every time, so it never gets old. To create an engaging course, be sure to include a variety of motions such as jumping, crawling, and balancing. Have your kids help you make the course by using some of these creative ideas:
- Couch cushions to hop between
- Boxes to hurdle over
- Hula hoops to jump through
- Cups laid out to run around
- Lines of tape to balance on
- Tables to crawl under
- Stuffed animals to roll over
Balloon Tennis
Balloon tennis is a less intense version of the real sport that will still tire out any players. Have your kids make rackets out of popsicle sticks taped to the back of a paper plate. Place two chairs a few feet apart in the middle of the room and tie a piece of string between them to represent the top of the net. Set your kids up on opposite sides of the net and start the rally by tossing a balloon into the mix. You can use a variety of scoring methods either based on real tennis rules or make up your own!
Portrait Session
Have everyone in the room sit for a hastily-drawn portrait with different painters. Start by picking up who’s going to draw first and who their subject will be. The drawer can tell their subject how and where to sit or what pose to make and can take requests for silly backdrops or items to add to the portrait. The key is drawing frantically, regardless of artistic skills. Go for something realistic or just plain silly.
Build A Fort
Building alternative worlds in the form of a pillow fort castle or cardboard amusement park are fun games for kids to get their bodies moving. Gather a few things from around the house, and you are all set. Here are different types of forts you and your kids can make at home:
- Cardboard forts: Gather a few large boxes and join them by using tape. Your kids can build it however they want and even take naps comfortably in it.
- Pillow forts: Kids will enjoy a fort made out of pillow because they are soft and fun to make. You can also use stacks of blankets and towels and some sturdy furniture to hold the fort.
- Teepee tents: Tents can easily be made with a sheet of cloth and a few sticks
- Blanket and furniture fort: Use an empty table and cover it completely with a large blanket or bed sheet. Fold the blanket up in the front to indicate the entrance to the fort.
You could also make a combination of pillow, blankets, and cardboard boxes forts. Add a nerf gun or two, and you and your kids have got the makings of an epic battle.
Wrapping Up
If stuck indoors, you and your kids can finally take on new opportunities that await! Encourage them to try something new if that has traditionally been a struggle. Whether it’s through one of the games for kids above, or something entirely different, try to embrace the scenario presented and challenge yourself and your kids to come out better, stronger, and smarter on the other side! Check out toys and games to discover even more fun activities to do indoors.
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