Rainy days. Cold days. Too hot days even. It’s when we bring out the indoor fun! I lived in the south long enough to need some indoor activities for the HOT summer. Not only that, but some days mom needed a little rest and a fun sensory activity that could be done while we both sat on the floor. It was perfect.
Our Favorite Indoor Activities
I feel like I am always coming up with new ones too, but here are a few that seem to do the trick. I will also say, I am a huge advocate for using what you have, so with any of these, get creative and use whatever you have to make your version.
- Lentil Sandbox
- Homemade Playdough (click for my post on this)
- Balls and Salad Tongs
- Ramps for Cars
- Cardboard Box Forts
- Balance Beam
- Macaroni Stringing
- Blanket Forts
- Paper Airplanes
Some of these are pretty self explanatory. Let’s go into some more detail on a few though!
Lentil Sandbox
You can use rice, beans, noodles, basically anything dry that can be scooped and poured without making a crumbly mess. I used lentils because I had a bag we had not used up for several months and it needed to be used. Viola. The Lentil Sandbox was born.
It actually started as some sensory play as we practiced sitting up. I would pour the lentils out on the blanket and let the baby kick them and touch them while we practiced sitting up. Once crawling and eating EVERYTHING became more the norm, we transitioned to lentils in a large bin where I could also sit the baby to play without scattering them literally everywhere. For a while I had to sit close and play along to demonstrate that there was more to do than eat the lentils. But pouring and scooping caught on quick and it was all fun and games from there.
We used the lentil sandbox all the way up until our toddler was then dumping out the lentil bin all over each time we played. We will revisit lentil bins when we learn to follow instructions on where things need to stay.
I like to give the kids a couple spoons, or some old sour cream containers to scoop and pour and fill things up. Basically whatever you have around that looks like a substitute “sand” toy works fine!
Balls and Salad Tongs
I just use toy balls or pink pong size balls and some tongs and a couple bowls to put them in and take them out of.
Ramps for Cars
Boards, books, cardboard… get creative. Anything that makes a fun slope to zoom the toy cars down!
Balance Beam
I have some lumber lying around the house for those “some day” projects. Some of those are some nice finished boards from an old headboard and are even lightly upholsterd. I set these accross two egg boxes (those 60 count ones you can get from walmart). The boxes are about 3-4 inches tall, so the beam is low to the ground for the inevidible falls. My little one LOVES trying to walk across, crawl accross etc.. so we build obstacle courses out of the above materials and have some serious fun!
Macoroni Stringing
You can really use any tube shaped pasta for this. For the string you can use an old shoelace or some pipe cleaners or even plastic straws. Let the kids make “bracelets” and “necklaces” or whatever they want to call them. Once done, unstring the noodles and save them for next time!
Other Ideas
Honestly, I have found that other ideas stem from a start with some of the above. You adapt an activity and come up with more as you go! I really enjoyed an app that had some great ideas called “Inspired Minds”. If you want more ideas, check that out to see what else! My big thing was not going out to buy things to entertain us. If you use your imagination, measuring cups, mixing bowls, and all those cotton balls you have under the sink can keep the kids happy for a while!