Indoor Fun for Preschoolers
By: Lisa Babick
Who says an indoor day has to be a day of whining kids and boredom?
Activities for All Ages
It's Picnic Time
Make your own picnic basket, spread a blanket on the floor and have an indoor picnic. Ideas for your picnic meal include, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a thermos of lemonade or juice, crackers, and for dessert an ice cream cone cupcake. (See the Do-It-Yourself section below for instructions.)
Have a Parade!
Grab some hats (parents' hats are the best), a couple of dad's shirts, a few pans and wooden spoons. Line the kids up, make sure you grab an instrument, too, and head down the hallway making music in your own parade. Non-walkers can be part of this parade too. Either let the child sit on the sidelines and bang a pot or put the child in a stroller and push the her around. Other ideas: cut pieces of ribbon to use as colorful "flags" or use feather dusters as marching wands.
Waterfall Pull
Spread a sheet out on the floor and have your child sit down on one end. Pick up the sheet at the opposite end and hoist it over your shoulder. Slowly pull the children across the floor.
Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers
Make a Life-Size Self Portrait
This is a fun activity that might just take up a good part of your day. You'll need a large sheet of butcher paper or poster board. If you don't have either, tape together several sheets of typing or computer paper (even notebook paper will work.) Have your child lie on the paper and trace around him or her with a marker. Then, let your child decorate the inside. Provide a variety of materials such as crayons, markers, buttons, yarn and art tissue. Younger children can make portraits of their foot or hand dipped in fingerpaint. You can also have the children create a portrait of you. Lie down, let them trace your outline and then decorate.
A Haunted Day
Close the drapes and blinds, have the children sit around in a circle and tell spooky stories. Shine a flashlight on your face as you tell your stories. Each child can make up his or her own story or do a round robin where you provide the first sentence, such as "I was walking down the empty road" and each child follows with a sentence of her own.
Make a Fabric Wall
String a clothesline across a room. Pin old sheets, towels or pillowcases along the clothesline to make a fabric wall. Let your kids have a ball running under, between, and through the sheets.
Activities for Toddlers
Play a Game of Indoor Baseball
Take a few sheets of newspaper and crumple into a ball. Take a sheet of foil and wrap the paper ball in the foil. Use a few sheets of newspaper and roll it lengthwise to create a "bat". Cover that with foil as well. (You can also use a tube from a roll of wrapping paper). Take 4 paper towels and tape them to the floor. Pitch to your child and play indoor baseball.
Activities for Preschoolers
Piñata
Cut two small holes about 1-inch apart in the bottom of a large grocery bag. Lace a length of heavy string or twine through the holes. Fill the bag with snacks, such as raisin boxes, individually wrapped cookies or crackers. Stuff tissue paper or crumpled newspaper in the bag to fill it out. Tie the bag closed in a slipknot with a long ribbon. Hand the bag upside down by the heavy string or twine. Have your child pull the string on the bag to free the day's snacks.
Make an Edible Necklace
This is a great activity that leads to a great snack. All you'll need is shoestring licorice and cereal or crackers with holes in the middle (like Cheerios). String the cereal on the licorice, tie the ends and voila – a necklace ready to eat.
Do It Yourself
Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes
What You'll Need:
Flat bottomed ice cream cones
1 box of cake mix
Can of frosting
Sprinkles or chocolate chips (optional)
How to Make It:
- Prepare the cake mix according to package directions.
- Place ice cream cones in muffin tins.
- Spoon the mix into the cones until they are about 2/3 full and bake according to package directions.
- When cool, frost and decorate with sprinkles.
Magic Yarn
What You'll Need:
Yarn
Small toys like cars, play jewelry, stickers or key chains.
How to Make It:
- Roll the yarn around each toy and tape the end to secur and place in your box. On indoor days, let each child pull out one treasure.
Picnic Basket Craft
What You'll Need:
1 brown paper lunch bag
1-1/2 X 18" brown construction paper strip
2 1" sponge squares
brown poster paint (or you could use a different color, if you'd like)
stapler
Paper towel
How to Make It:
- Fold down a one-inch cuff around the top of the paper bag. Fold the cuff down four more times so that the bag stands about for to five inches tall.
- Sponge-paint a checkerboard pattern on the basket. Let the paint dry.
- Staple one end of the paper strip to one end of the basket, then to the other end.
- Line the basket with a paper towel.
- Add a cup, small paper plate and a napkin (and maybe a goodie or two) and off you go!
Related Features:
