Fun and Safe Indoor Activities For
Children of All Ages

With at least six more weeks of winter ahead of us it may be getting difficult to keep your children entertained. It’s especially challenging when older children are home from school on snow days or stuck inside on rainy days and you need to find fun activities for children of different ages. The following are a few activities that your children can do together along with some safety tips to make sure it’s an enjoyable day!

Create a Treasure Hunt: Use some common household objects that wouldn’t normally be found in the playroom and create a treasure hunt. (Examples are stuffed animals from the bedroom, plastic kitchen utensils and the TV remote!) Draw pictures of the items and write out the names of each so little children can participate and big children can work on their spelling! 

Safety Tip: Keep children away from hot baseboard heaters and space heaters that can present burning hazards.

Make Play dough: Making play dough is as much fun as creating something with it afterwards. There’s nothing more fun for children than getting their hands into cold goop!

Play dough Recipe:
1/4 cup salt
1 cup flour
1/4 cup water

Have your child mix the flour and salt in a bowl. Then add water. Knead and squeeze the dough until it has a clay-like consistency. You may need to add more water to reach the consistency desired. Add food coloring to make different colors. (Green “goop”, or “slime”, is always a favorite. Use plastic (not metal) cookie cutters to get their imaginations running wild.)

Safety Tip: When children are playing in the kitchen, create an area free of knife blocks, breakable and sharp objects, coffee pots and other hot appliances.

Put on a Magic Show, Concert or Play: Let your children borrow some of mom and dad’s old clothes for costumes. Use blankets for capes and wooden spoons for magician’s wands to create a show for the entire family. Set up a stage by attaching a sheet across an extra large door opening.

Safety Tip: Be mindful of children climbing to reach tall dresser drawers and armoires to get clothing and other items. Heavy furniture can easily topple over onto them and should always be secured to the wall with furniture straps and braces.

Open a Restaurant – Get children involved in making dinner for the evening and pretend they are running a real restaurant. With some help and suggestions from you, let them plan out the meal and write/draw menus and placemats. Create uniforms for the “chef” and “wait staff.” Easy and nutritious menu selections could include English Muffin Pizzas, Mac & Cheese with Veggies, Taco Salad and Sandwich Roll-Ups.