Indoor Play Ideas for Toddlers and Preschoolers!

These activities can be adapted to suit various ages – use your imagination and have a blast with your kids! (They are also great ideas to leave for a babysitter.)

• Use a blanket or sheet over top of kitchen chairs to make a “rocket ship”. Cut out circles for the planets and tape them on the inside then sit inside with a flashlight and pretend you’re flying into space.

• Have children help to make homemade play dough, then play with one of many fun play dough sets you can purchase.

• Keep any large boxes you acquire to make a car, train, kitchen, castle, or dollhouse.

• Bowling with empty soda cans.

• Play with washable finger paint in the bathtub for easy cleanup of both child and space.

• Play children’s card games, such as old maid, fish, war, crazy 8’s.

• Any kind of dancing to music.

• Games such as “ring-around-the-rosie” or “duck, duck goose”.

• Sing along CDs marching, counting or identifying body parts.

• Create a “store” with household objects that kids go shopping for. Have one child be the shopper and one the cashier.

• Make edible necklaces – string fruit loops or cheerios.

• Print coloring and activity pages from the internet, perhaps from a child’s favorite TV show website.

• Make an obstacle course in the house, using things like chairs to go under and over, couch cushions to climb over, toys to jump over, or a dress-up outfit to take on and off.

• Baking activities can integrate a lot of learning for preschoolers, such as counting, following directions and fine motor skills.

• Beading – use pipe cleaners for smaller kids, then build up to stretchy cording to make necklaces and bracelets.

• Play a memory game using toys. Show five, have child leave room, remove one, and have them come back and guess what’s missing. Take turns guessing.

• Play hide ‘n’ seek.

• Let them play in the kitchen sink.

• Make up a “Blue’s Clues” or “Dora the Explorer” game around the house.

• Make a calendar with family pictures or drawings for each month.

• Turn a coffee table on its side for an instant puppet theater.

From Moms' Lifesavers: Tips to Make Life Easier for New Mothers