Rad & Reckless. But Also Pretty Chill... Salty Shreds Style!
Engaging & Exciting: 10 Indoor Activities for Kids
Keeping kids occupied inside takes some serious effort and imagination. Their bubbled-up energy is difficult to control, requiring a delicate balance of mental and physical stimulation to keep them happy, fulfilled, and engaged.
Sometimes it's nice to have a straightforward list of indoor activities for kids at your disposal, a source of simple inspiration that you can rely on during any rainy or cold, groggy day. And that's precisely what I have for you today.
For the families who enjoy less screen time and more imagination, here are some of my favorite indoor kids' activities to keep your groms stoked and smilin'.
My Favorite Indoor Kids Activities
1. A Balance Board Sesh
If your kids are busy learning how to surf or hardcore little skaters when the sun shines, a session on the balance board is a killer way to enhance these skillsets inside four walls.
It'll keep them, and most likely you, busy for hours with a mellow workout, and I love that a balance board also caters to building mental focus. Balance takes a centered body derived from a strong mind, and spending time building on this skill set via a balance board for kids is a massive asset to their growth.
2. Nature-Inspired Arts & Crafts!
Arts and crafts are synonyms with indoor activities for kids, but I like to approach hands-on creativity with a bit of a nature-inspired twist. Basically, I try to structure arts and crafts projects around the natural world and use items/materials from the Earth! Not only is this a more sustainable approach, but it further promotes creativity through outside-the-box thinking.
Need ideas? Try:
- Making sea glass jewelry
- Creating a pressed flower collage
- Making a driftwood & shell windchime
- Craft a dreamcatcher out of yarn and sticks
- Tie-dye with homemade floral dyes.
I think you get the idea! Also, these nature-inspired indoor kids activities are great to structure outdoor activities around too!
Spend time outside gathering driftwood, searching for sea glass, pressing or drying flowers, making natural paints, or collecting clay to sculpt. This way, you'll have a treasure chest full of crafts, all from the outside world and none from a factory, to stay busy for hours on end.
3. Take it to the Kitchen
My favorite activities are those that naturally cater to necessary life skills in a fun, enjoyable manner.
Inviting your groms into the kitchen to cook yummy food, whip up some green smoothies, or bake a healthy dessert is the perfect indoor activity for kids.
This is such a productive approach to increasing interest in healthy eating activities while avoiding the 'I'm hungry!' monsters.
It is a family bonding activity and a great way to knock out dinner while killing a few hours inside complaint-free! Make it fun, make it educational, make it messy! There's no limit to recipes and wild concoctions to stir up with your hungry groms, so use this as your ally during any rainy day.
Love their Matching Steezy Slides Grom Tee!
4. Soft, Indoor Skateboard Trucks!
If your groms have a passion for skateboarding, similar to a balance board, there's another little device that makes for ideal indoor fun for kids. If you didn't know, they make soft, rubber skateboard trucks, allowing you to practice your skate skills on the carpet without damage to the floor.
Once your little skate grom has the basics down, and they're looking to learn how to ollie or pop-shove, this is an excellent addition to their skating journey.
It's a safe way to master foot/body movement before taking things to the concrete. If your kid has the determination that mine do (which I find a common attribute in skaters), then they'll occupy themselves for quite some time as they work towards landing that trick for hours.
You can replace your standard trucks on any skateboard each time, but I like keeping an old deck around with soft trucks on the ready so they can snag it and practice to their free will.
5. Fort Wars Never Fail
Fort wars never fail as a way to spend giggling fun together inside. Building a sheet fort is a nostalgic memory that every kid will love and cherish, and the process requires tons of imagination with mental engagement.
You can structure creative stories around your forts; you can challenge each other to build a better fort; you can read books or do arts and crafts inside them. It's lovely because the process of building a fort is one of the best indoor activities for kids, and then this opens up the doors to so many further activities to engage in within the fabric walls.
6. Teach them Basic Yoga!
A day inside curates the perfect opportunity to teach your kids a few simple yoga poses. And hopefully, yoga naturally becomes something they love to do in their own time, for as we all know, it's one of the healthiest, most enlightening activities for the mind and soul.
Set the yoga mats out, play some music, and work towards relaxing their minds in this environment by starting with a few deep breaths. It can take a minute or two for them to mellow out, as yoga requires a matured sense of calm, so be lenient and patient with how they approach it. But once they seem into it, just work through some basic yoga poses for kids and enjoy the many benefits of this whole body exercise.
7. Indoor Gardening!
Gardening, or really just taking care of a variety of plants, isn't reserved for the outdoors only. There are so many wonderful life forms that can be grown within the walls of your home, presenting many ways to keep your kids occupied inside.
Have them help with watering, trimming, and testing the soil, and give them a plant or two deemed as their entire responsibility. Do they have what it takes to keep it alive and flourishing?
For us, we love to utilize edible plants indoors, as this brings the life-cycle of plants full circle in terms of their life awareness and education. Our favorites are herbs and microgreens, as they are relatively low maintenance, they grow quickly, and they can be used in the widest range of applications, from food, and teas, to skincare!
Your groms will visualize the process of turning seed into nutrition, building awareness around food. They'll be ecstatic to throw their microgreens in a green smoothie or to adorn their lemonade with fresh mint. To them, that's the coolest thing in the world! It teaches them responsibility and care for a living creature, and getting to use what you have grown is highly enticing to their growing minds.
8. Chores with a Reward!
Folding Up Her Rad Kids Clothes!
Let's face it; as busy parents, we often crave a rainy day to force us inside, allowing us to knock out that growing to-do list of indoor chores without the pressure of a beautiful day to distract us. But is this even possible when you have groms running barefoot and wreaking havoc?
A reward construct is a powerful tool in subliminally teaching responsibility and life skills while giving them something exciting to strive for. To blend the things I need to get done with the ability to entertain and sustain the attention of energized kids, I simply use their bottled-up energy to my advantage. Create a simple chore list and set rewards for each box they check off.
Overall, so much of what we do in life features this construct anyways, so it's good to showcase how hard work leads to attaining the things you want, and that time is valuable, and nothing comes free. Challenge them to see how much they can help you, and at the end, reward them for their efforts with a beach day, frozen yogurt, or anything else that instills excitement in their little brains.
9. A Date Night for Everyone!
Date night, at the house, with kids home? Why not?!
Indoor fun for kids and an excellent way to spend time with your other half, have your groms take care of you guys in a restaurant-style setting. The catch? They're the waiters/waitresses and bartenders! Even the cooks, if you like.
Have them set up the table, take your order, try making your mocktails, and take care of you in a work-like setting while you laugh and enjoy their giggles echoing from the kitchen.
10. Jam Out!
Snag the guitars, ukuleles, and drums. It's time for jam sesh.
It can sound like a family band or total crap; who cares! Seriously, you don't have to know how to play an instrument to still play instruments. It's all about exploration of the mind and body, and music caters perfectly to both.
Teaching your kids how to play instruments, or even just messing around with them for fun, showcases incredible benefits like enhanced language development and a higher IQ.
So why not use this as an opportunity to learn, expand horizons, and teach something new to your groms, too? Music will change their life!
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Live rad, stay salty.
- Ash, Dev & The Salty Shreds Fam.