Top 45+ Fun Indoor Activities for Kids Who Are Stuck Inside

Whether it's rainclouds, snowstorms, or the lack of get-out-and-go that keeps them inside, a day spent indoors doesn't have to be a wasted one. There are still plenty of ways they can engage their imaginations, unleash their creativity, and even get their energy out while indoors—and only a couple of them involve the dreaded word: screens.

Keep this list of the best indoor activities for kids in your back pocket for the next time an indoor day strikes, and you won't be caught off guard when they run up to you yelling, "I have nothing to do." From boredom-busting crafts to sleepover favorites to art projects, consider this a perfect menu of options for the next indoor day. As a bonus, most of them are easy on the wallet, too, and can be set up with items you already have around the house. Bad weather days will fly by with how much they’re having.

Get Creative With Boxes

If there's a pile of cardboard waiting to be broken down for the recycling, pull it out and turn it into a storefront, a puppet theater, a rocket ship—whatever the imagination desires! Kids will get a kick out of decorating the boxes with markers and any other art supplies around the house, and then it can serve as a backdrop for pretend play.

Learn About the Stars

Even if you can't get out to visit a real planetarium, now there are plenty of projectors that will display an accurate representation of the night sky right onto your walls. One of them, the Smithsonian's Planetarium Projector, even earned a previous Good Housekeeping Best Toy Award, with parent testers saying it really helped kids learn the names of planets, stars, and constellations. A kid-friendly at-home telescope might keep the learning going once skies clear.

Draw Out a Comic Book

Format some blank pages with comic book panels, and let them fill it in with their own fantastical ideas. They can come up with and design their own original characters, or make new stories with some of their favorites. There are even books that come with pre-printed panels, or kits that will turn a project into a bound book.

Learn a New Hobby

Studies show that cozy hobbies can be beneficial for mental health—at the very least, it couldn't hurt to try one. Learning to sew, knit, crochet, or cross-stitch keeps hands busy, quiets the mind, and sometimes offer a way in to a new social circle.

Go to a Children's Museum

Just because you have to spend the day indoors doesn't mean you can't get out of the house. Children's museums often have exhibits that lets kids learn in a hands-on way, mixing education and entertainment. You can visit the Association of Children's Museums to learn more.

Make Homemade Modeling Dough

The steps to make homemade modeling dough are so simple that kids can help you make it! At the end, you have fun and colorful compound that can be used to make shapes and sculptures, great for working on self-expression, spatial reasoning, and hand strength.

Do a Science Experiment

You can do a ton of at-home science experiments with very little prep and set-up, often with items you can just grab from around the house. For example, if you sit a "cloud" of shaving cream on top of a jar of water, then add drops of blue water one at a time, when the "cloud" becomes saturated, you get blue rain—and the water cycle in a jar. The Good Housekeeping Amazing Science book offers even more at-home ideas.

Preserve Memories With a Scrapbook

With phones attached to our cameras, we all take a million photos—and leave them in our camera roll. Get those family memories off of screens and somewhere they can be shared IRL by making a scrapbook. Kids can help decorate the pages with stickers, fancy paper, photo borders, and whatever else they can think of.

Tell Riddles

This is one sure to get their brains working overtime! When they try to work out riddle, they'll be sharpening their logic, critical thinking, and deductive reasoning skills (and they'll feel very smart when they find the answer).

Go on a Hunt

Hide a prize in the house and write a series of clues that lead to it. Or, make a list of household items to find and see who can find them all first. You can come up with a theme for the hunt, like the colors of the rainbow, to make it more interesting (and easier for kids to figure out).

Make a Movie

You don't need a special video camera to make home movies anymore—everyone has the equipment on their phones. Whether they're looking to make a documentary about family life, a fiction film with a cast of friends and family, or a stop-motion animated movie like the one Tim Burton makes, they can try their hand at filming on their phone and using simple editing software to stitch it together into a short movie.

Create a Craft Museum

Pull out the paints, crayons, markers, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and any other DIY materials you have around the house. At the end, hang them on the wall like they are in a museum and invite “visitors” (family members) to come see the show.

Do a Learning Activity

Taking on a fun, hands-on learning activity for kids is entertaining and educational at the same time. They can also help your child practice concepts in reading, math, social studies and more. It's a win-win!

Build a Rube Goldberg Machine

Gather the dominoes, marbles, LEGO bricks, and other construction toys and challenge their STEM skills by building a (simple) Rube Goldberg machine. Tinkerlab has tips for materials to use, stunts to try, and how to get started. (Their biggest tip? Figure out what you want to happen at the end first, from popping a balloon to ringing a bell.) It's best to keep your homemade machine simple, but it's always fun to get inspiration from really elaborate ones: Check out OK Go's "This Too Shall Pass" video or the breakfast-making machine in the beginning of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure for ideas.

Have a Paper Airplane Competition

Paper airplanes: They're not just for bored kids in class anymore. Kids can experiment with how different ways of folding airplanes affect their flight patterns. Then, they can put what they've learned to the test by cutting holes in cardboard to make targets to fly through.

Ask Questions

When you're all home inside together, it might be time to try having those big conversations we're often too busy to have. It's hard to get those rolling, but it often helps to start by asking questions. What are your hopes for the future? What do you want to know about your family history? What's your best talent, or something you wish you were better at? If you want to get the ball rolling, you can even start with sillier queries, like what superpower they would choose.

Host an Open Mic Night

It doesn't matter if you have an official karaoke machine or not. All that matters is you can hit the high notes when it counts. So, what's your go-to, belt-it-out-to-the-rafters song?

Put on a Play

Time for them to step into the spotlight! Kids can act out their favorite scenes from movies, TV shows, or musicals—or, if they're feeling truly ambitious, they can try writing a play or musical of their own. Depending on how creative they're feeling, they can also pull together costumes or make scenery.

Make a Friendship Bracelet

You might not have made a friendship bracelet since your summer camp days, but the craft is back and hotter than ever. Break out those embroidery threads and teach your kids the art of making stripes, chevrons, and spiral staircases. You can get a kit that'll help you make intricate patterns or just do it the old-fashioned way.

Start an Indoor Garden

You don't even need empty planters to get the garden growing—an old egg carton will do the trick at first. To make it more of a STEM activity, give kids journals so they can take notes on what they've planted and keep track of their garden's progress. They can even draw the heights of their seedlings as they grow. Bonus: Plant basil seeds or other herbs, and you'll have delicious ingredients for a cooking project.

Host a Comedy Show

Practicing a comedy set together can help with public speaking, as well as timing, clear speech, and self-confidence. Have kids create a set of their five favorite jokes and let them put on a show.

Bake and Decorate

Indoor days are the perfect time to try and get creative in the kitchen. Whip up some kind of make-your-own dessert bar by putting out toppings (frosting, sprinkles, M&Ms, etc.) that kids can add to either a cupcake or ice cream sundae.

Break out the Board Games

It's the oldest idea in the book, but if you really want some screen-free family time, old-fashioned board games still do the trick. Get your competitive spirit up and get ready to play.

Make a Sensory Bin

Fill a bin with rice and other treasures, plus a few toys, and you have yourself an instant hit with the little ones. Kids can scoop and pour the rice or dig through to find the prizes you've hidden (in this example, they had fake bugs, a magnifying glass, and tweezers to "collect" them). Just be warned that you'll probably have to vacuum after.

Watch Movies or TV Shows

If you're worried about screen time, movies and TV shows are always a last resort. But if you're stuck indoors for an extended period of time, at some point you're going to want to get something accomplished. Make every second of screen time count by making sure you're choosing the best kids' TV shows and movies available.

Top Your Own Pizza

Get everyone involved in dinner-making by setting out personal pizza dough for each member of the family. Everyone gets to add their own toppings! Bonus: You won't have kids turning up their noses and saying, "yuck" about the meal you've made.

Design an Indoor Obstacle Course

This activity is great for young ones working on their gross motor coordination or older ones who might need to get some energy out. Set up an obstacle course in as many rooms of the house as you dare. Cardboard boxes can transform into tunnels to crawl through. You can tie strings around furniture and pretend that they're laser beams that kids have to step over or crawl under. (Pool noodles also work.) And you can use indoor stepping stones, pillows or cushions and invoke The Floor Is Lava rules. See who in the family has the fastest time getting through the obstacles, and then see if anyone can break the record.

Play Pretend

Pretending the day away not only a method to fill an indoor afternoon—it's essential for kids to flex their imaginations.

"Play is important because it's a laboratory for children to learn, explore and process the world around them, which can feel so overwhelming," Rebecca Schrag Hershberg, a clinical psychologist and parenting coach at Little House Calls, said at a previous Good Housekeeping Parenting Summit. "It's a chance for them to experiment with relationships and concepts that they're curious about."

Pretend play, especially, helps kids with the development of self-control, self-regulation and social-emotional skills. So, set up an imaginary store, put out a pretend tea party, attend a fake school, transform into superheroes, act out your favorite fairy tales or enter into a new world of their own making. They'll be better off for it.

Bring the Outdoors In

Whether it's forts made of blankets and pillows or play tents, you can approximate the camping experience without having to deal with mosquitoes or mud. Don't forget to make s'mores!

Leave Out a Jigsaw Puzzle

Jigsaw puzzles are great because everyone can do them on their own schedules—just leave one out on the table, and the family can float by and try to fit in a few new pieces whenever they have a few minutes to spare. Plus, studies show that puzzles improve collaboration and cooperation skills.

Build a Best-Ever Blanket Fort

Then spend the day inside it reading, snoozing or having snacks. If you really want to take your structures to the next level, Crazy Forts is a set of rods and connectors that let you build higher, more intricate works of architecture. You can either use them for buildings of your own imagination, or use their guides to domes, castles and rockets. You just have to put your own sheets over the rods. It even glows in the dark!

Have a Dance Party

Hey, they need to move their little bodies even if they can't go to the playground. Choose a playlist together, blast the music, and let them shake the sillies out.

Go All-Out for Breakfast

Get the whole family in the kitchen, whipping up an all-you-can-eat brunch. If you're stumped for breakfast recipes, Good Housekeeping 123 Cook! has recipes that chefs as young as 4 can help make, including the beaver pancakes pictured here. In addition, it's got recipes for "Ooey-Gooey Cinnamon Rolls," "Challah If You Love French Toast," "Chocolate Chip Pum-Kid Bread," "Egg-stremely Cheesy Sammies," and many more.

Do a Yoga Session

Yoga is another indoor activity that gets the body moving. If you don't have your own favorite routine, Cosmic Kids Yoga on YouTube has "Yoga Adventures" that incorporate kids' favorite characters like Anna and Elsa from Frozen, Pokémon, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Harry Potter.

Have a Beauty Day

Take out your old makeup, nail polish, and hairbrushes, and "experiment" with a new style. If you really want a laugh, take a page from the internet and do it ... without looking! (Search for "blindfolded makeup challenge" for examples of the hilarious results.)

Clean Out a Closet

Or a storage room, or a toy chest, or anywhere else that clutter has been accumulating. They may balk at first, but on an indoor day, you'll have a captive audience—and then they just might get into it. Put out three boxes: one for items to keep, one for items to toss, and one for items to donate. In the end, they might feel good knowing that some of the stuff they don't use anymore will get a second life in a new home.

Attempt a Tricky Brain Teaser

Otherwise known as indoor activities that make kids go, "Hmmm." Put your heads together and try to untangle some of the most head-scratching problems that have made their way around the internet (like finding the mouse among the mushrooms).

Make a Time Capsule

Grab a box and have kids fill it with photos, drawings, memories, treasures, and musings—then find a place to stash it so it can be opened again in a year. (Remember to set a calendar alert that includes the details of where you placed it.) Kids can write about their favorite books, TV shows, and games and see if the answers match a year later. Or, they can write about their wishes, hopes, and goals and see if any of it came true. If you don't want to gather a whole box full of mementos, you can just have the kids write letters to themselves to be opened again a year later—it makes for a good New Year's tradition.

Read Out Loud

We think of reading as a solitary pursuit, but the truth is some kids never get too old to find pleasure in being read to. Whether it's the Runaway Bunny or Lord of the Rings, snuggle up on the couch together for a read-a-thon.

Or Just Listen

If you don't have the time to read out loud to your own kids, let someone else do it for you with a great audiobook. This year, Pippi Longstocking, Graciela in the Abyss, and The Weridies: Maybe This Is a Bit Too Weird charmed testers enough to be named winners of Good Housekeeping's Kids' Book Awards.

Write an Old-Fashioned Letter

The art of letter-writing is a dying one, but you can keep it going a little longer by encouraging your kids to send a message to a loved one. (Little ones can do postcards or draw in a greeting card.) They might even get the thrill of receiving something back!

Play Would You Rather?

Come up with some tough this-or-that questions: Would you rather have super speed or super strength? Would you rather dance in front of a crowd or sing in front of a crowd? Write them down on some paper, draw a question from the jar, and take turns answering honestly.

Try Fashion Design

Stencils, paint, solid tees—and go! You can tie-dye, use spin art, buy chalkboard shirts, or use fabric markers, but whatever you do, be prepared to wear your creation the next day. (Tote bags also work.)

Do Mad Libs or Other Story Games

It's crazy to think that Mad Libs have been around since the '50s, and kids still get a kick out of them. If you don't feel like stocking up on Mad Libs books, you can also play some kind of "exquisite corpse" game: The first person writes an opening sentence to a story. The next player adds the second sentence. The third person adds the next line but is only allowed to see the second player's sentence. And so it goes, with each player adding a line while only looking at one preceding sentence until the final story—which usually makes no sense—is read out loud.

Have Them Play With an App

We won't tell if you surrender your phone or set them up on a tablet for a little while, too. But rather than scrolling through Instagram, give them an app tailor-made for their age and grade and maybe they'll learn something.