Playing with kids and watching them play is so much fun. Kids can make fun out of anything even a simple spoon. They can play with it for hours. You can also turn your everyday and routine household items into a toy that can be used by toddlers for playing.
In this article, we have come up with some of the common and some unique indoor games that can be played by kids and with kids. These activities will keep them busy and will indulge in some sort of physical activity that may be about improving balance, improving hand-eye coordination, improving eyesight, etc. You can also become a part of these indoor games and can strengthen your parent-child relationship.
Best Indoor Games for Kids
Let’s see, what indoor games we have in our bucket list:-
1. Balance beam –
This is an indoor game but it involves the physical activity of your child. To play this game you just need some colorful tapes. All you have to do is stick the length of tape in a straight or circular type on a clean floor. Now you have to make the game yourself. For example, you can make a rule that your child will walk on the blue line with one leg folded or will walk on the red one with hands tied at the back. If he finishes the line without stepping out of it, then he wins it. How entertaining and fun-filled this game and do not even any costly material to play. You should try this one with your child to engage in some physical activity indoors.
2. Pitching Pennies –
This game improves the hand-eye coordination of your child. In this one, you can play with coins, small ping pong balls, marbles, etc. All you have to do is place a paper or plastic cup on a flat surface that may be a chair or table and hand your child a few pennies or balls. Make him stand some steps far from the target which is the paper cup. All he has to do is make a target by throwing the coins or marbles in a paper cup. More the targets achieved more the points scored and thus more coordination development between his hands and eyes.
3. Indoor Bowling –
Bowling is enjoyed by people of all ages but do you know kids can do bowling even indoors. You can purchase a bowling set from the market to let them play it or you can create your own. We tell you how!! All you need is some 7-8 soda cans or plastic bottles that can be lined up one on another. You can paint them to give them a nice and attractive look and to make your child indulge in this game more actively. You should form a bowling lane with the help of colored tape. Keep in mind the age of your child while forming the length of the bowling lane. Place the set of bottles or cans at the end of a lane and ask your child to stand on the other end of the lane and roll the tennis or plastic ball just on the colored lane made. He scores a point when he strikes all the targets.
4. Pen and Paper Games –
Various games can be played indoors or outdoors if you just have a pen, pencil, or paper. Some of the most common and enjoyable games are:-
- Tic Tac Toe – We all used to play this game in our school days during our lectures going on. You can recall your memories by playing it with your child. You can tell him all the rules and provide proper instructions that one person will form 0 and others will form X in a 3*3 box. The person who completes a line horizontally, vertically, or diagonally is the winner.
- Join the dots: You can make a square of 6*6 or 8*8. All you have to do is join the dots, the one who forms box while joining the dots is the winner. You should write your name initials within the boxes formed, the person who has more initials will be declared the winner in the last. It is the best game to pass the time while just sitting idle.
- Name, place, animal, thing – Playing this game improves your General Knowledge as you get to know the names of different places and animals. To play this one, you have to divide the paper into four parts and give head to the columns as Name, place, animal, thing. The parent or the sibling has to make a fast count of alphabets from A to Z and the other one has to say Stop. The alphabet on which you get stopped, you have to write the four things in the respective columns starting from the same alphabet.
5. Sock Toss –
This game acts as a substitute for BasketBall for little ones. All you need is a cloth hamper and a handful of colorful socks. Place the cloth hamper on a flat surface and make your child stand a few feet far from it. Now roll the socks and tie them up. Ask your kid to make a throw of it in the cloth hamper basket. If the socks get into it, he scores a point. You can also use paper balls for this game instead of socks. In that case, you have to make a ball of paper by crushing it properly.
6. Bubble Game –
Kids are very fond of blowing bubbles inside and outside the house. But it damages the electric appliances, carpets when they blow inside. so in order to keep your things and also to allow them to blow bubbles, you can practice this game instead of that readymade bubble kit set or bubble gun. You just have to take a plate with a broad surface and add two to three drops of dishwasher into it, then add some water and give your kid a straw and ask your kid to play the same by putting one end of it into the mixture. As soon as he starts blowing, the big bubbles keep on rising.
7. Indoor Obstacle Course –
This game can be played in a big house. So if you have a big house, you can play this with your child on a holiday or whenever you feel like it. To play this game, you have to make hurdles with a few feets gap between them. You can make hurdles out of a chair or just a small table etc. Now you have to tell your child to overcome these hurdles and reach the end line by following the rules. You can make your own rules under this game. For example, they have to crawl under the chair and jump over the surface of a table. When they reach the endpoint by following the rules, they win this game. Playing this game will gonna boost their physical strength to some extent.
8. Follow the leader –
This game can be played best when you have two or more kids at your house or you can play it by calling your kid friends home. The game will help your child to follow the instructions provided by you at least in the game. You can make any kind of instructions like ask them to sit or stand in a second, do clapping and then stop, jump, and then stop. The child who does best is termed to be a winner. The game will help your child to do a little workout with in the house walls and we assure you that your kids will really laugh and enjoy while playing this game.
9. Puzzles –
This game allows your child to sit in a corner or a room for hours and indulge in happy playing. You can play different puzzles from the market and ask your child to solve it. Playing this game will increase the mental capacity of your child. Some of the different puzzles are:
- Picture Puzzles – You get different pieces of a picture and a photo of it on the board. All you have to do is gather the different pieces and form the same picture.
- Word Puzzles – This game is also known as Scramble. You have to form different words in it. Playing this one will surely improve the vocabulary of your child.
10. Card games –
Card games are popular in almost every country. You can teach your kids some basic games of playing cards by having a deck or two. Some of the easy card games that can be played by children are – Crazy Eights, Garbage or trash, Pounce, etc. Card games will help to improve the logical reasoning, number identification, and arrangement and color segregation abilities of your child.
11. Dominoes –
This game has gained much popularity over the past couple of years. You must have seen videos of it on the internet. You can play this game if you plenty of time and have a Dominoes game set. You simply have to stack the dominoes in any pattern you like. Once the design and pattern are ready, you can ask your child to flip the first domino to set it off and you can record a video of the same.
12. StoryTelling –
Children love listening to stories during bedtime. But on the day of a vacation, you can exchange the roles. You can tell your child to make a story of his own out of fiction or true events and let them narrate it to you. You can also pick a theme for storytelling and can also give them few ideas on how to make and narrate the story.
13. Build a fort –
A fort can be build up by various things like cardboard, pillows, thermal sheets, etc. If you are making a fort out of cardboard then you have to tell your child to build it of a size that he can easily sit or lay under it.
Playing these games with your child will not only help to pass your or his time effectively but it will also boost up your relationship as parent and child.