Kids need physical activity! Kids need to spend time outside! Yes, this is true, but they can, and will, only spend so much time outside when it feels like the frozen tundra.
Here are several inexpensive, screen-free, and simple ideas for those times that you’ve simply exhausted outdoor play in extreme temperatures.
Indoor Things To Do:
Art
- Grab some paint and paper! Use items from around your home as “paint brushes.” We have used potatoes, potato mashers, cups, balloons, plastic straws and rocks.
- Color coloring pages from free online sources.
- Make a collage! Cut out pictures from magazines and advertisements and make a collage. You can even pick a theme! A letter of the day, a family goal, a birthday wish list, etc.
- Combine your favorite book with an art activity. For example, we’ve read Eric Carle’s, Brown Bear Brown Bear, and created a picture using tissue paper. This is the type of art that was used in illustrating his books.
Sensory
5. Playdough! I know, but it’s SO MESSY! We use plastic pan lids to keep the play dough at bay.
Here’s a simple recipe: Combine 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of water, 2 tablespoons of cream of tartar, 1 tablespoon of oil, and a half cup of salt in a pan. Heat on low. Add food coloring to the mix, once well combined. Turn onto floured surface and knead to desired consistency.
6. Make slime!
7. Make sensory buckets! Place little toys in buckets of rice, cooked spaghetti, or sand.
8. Wash plastic toys (dinosaurs, baby dolls) with shaving cream.
Cooking/Baking
9. Make your favorite treat!
10. Let the kids help you make lunch!
11. Make 3D towers out of toothpicks and marshmallows or gumdrops.
12. Cook/bake something related to a book you’ve read. We’ve baked homemade pizza after reading Pete’s a Pizza, by William Steig.
Science
13. Our absolute household favorite science activity is watching the reaction between baking soda and vinegar. Think volcanoes!
14. Dancing raisins- Fill one clear drinking glass about half of the way with a clear carbonated beverage. Fill another glass half-way with tap water. Put some raisins in the glass of water. Watch them go to the bottom of the glass. Poor some more raisings into the glass of soda. Watch the raisins dance!
15. Do items sink or float?
16. How do plants absorb water? Put flowers in three or four cups of water. Use food coloring to dye each cup of water a different color. Wait several days to see if the flowers change colors.
Music
17. Get your Limbo on!
18. Play a few rounds of Freeze Dance.
19. Get out some pots and pans, and let the kids develop their own beats.
20. Make your own instruments out of paper plates, beans or rice, and tape.
21. Get your wiggles out playing a round of family musical chairs/pillows.
Physical Activities
22. Use blue painter’s tape to create games like obstacle courses and indoor hopscotch.
23. Relay races! You can have balloon, pillowcase, crab walk and cotton ball races down the hall.
24. Go on a scavenger hunt! Have the kids look for items of certain colors or letters.
25. Make tunnels out of cardboard boxes and pillows.
26. Make a pillow and blanket fort in your living room.
Nature
27. Bring the snow inside! Place it in a plastic container and play kitchen, paint it, melt it with salt, or drive in it with toy cars.
28. Paint rocks.
Besides chores and screen time, how do you keep your kids busy when it’s too cold to go outside? We’d love to hear from you! Share your ideas in the comments!
These are ideas are so fun but when you feel the need to get out of the house try some great Indoor Activities around Idaho Falls or check out some of the fun Toddler Times!
