You had anticipated going for a walk …. but the country track looks like this…
So, here are some ideas starting with tent making.
Do you have a cupboard for sheets and blankets? Out they come along with the pegs from the laundry basket.
- Indoor tent making – blankets, sheets, pegs.
- Indoor fishing with magnetic fish – our go to.
- Boardgames. (e.g. Snakes and ladders. Twister. Pictionary. Scrabble. Battleships. Operation Ouch).
- Monopoly as long as it doesn’t start fights.
- Marbles/dominos/dice. Start to learn ‘jacks’ or ‘liar dice’.
- ‘Hangman’ – paper and pencil and a year 7 up vocabulary.
- Balloons – learning to blow up, then play “Keepie up it” – same as football but with a balloon.
- Blowing Bubbles – always a winner, whatever age. (Usually outdoors, but depends on your space)
- ‘Drumming’ with saucepans, plastic, cardboard, wooden boxes.
- Making cakes/biscuits/ice cream/pizza
- After the cooking, lots of soapy washing up with plastic tubs and safe utensils,
- Science experiments are a possibility but I prefer doing those from a science kit with instructions so no one is tempted to freelance with experiments ….
- Cardboard box. If you have had a delivery of a large item, use the box to become a boat, car, space ship, etc. where ever the story/crayons/paints take you.
- Pan’s/Memory game. Place 12 or more items (from kitchen cupboards or their room or bathroom) on a tray. Let them look at it for a minute. Cover it up. Who can remember the most? Try again but change the positions of the items.
- Hide and seek – depending on the size of your house.
- Charades
- Building lego/bricks
- Card games e.g. Snap, Go Fish. Teach them “Patience” – hours of solo fun.
- Learn how to play draughts (checkers) or start learning chess or to knit/croquet? (Depending on ability of parents … or youtube).
- Instant disco can be combined with:
- Musical cushions (same as chair with cushions)
- Freeze/statues and shapes. You can add the ‘freeze’ as the music stop by saying they have to stand like a monster. Of course, how well the ‘freeze’ is subjective depending on the children playing and how long you want the game to go on. (Experts will say it helps with concentration, co-ordination and focus, true but for our immediate purposes, it’s fun and uses up rainy day time.)
- Lava floor – again depending on your sofas and space, the floor or surfaces around the house turn to ‘lava’ and they have to find a safe place off the floor. (Again, ‘safe’ is important, balancing or perching on window sills or counter tops, is not ideal. This getting out of the rain, not getting into AandE.)
- Painting Windows (Paint brushes, tempera paint, masking tape, dishwashing liquid).
- Painting paper plates/paper
- Paint/crayon the outside of a paper plate and create a dream catcher from wool
- Papier mache pinata You could create an easy piñata, just a round one, using a balloon. When it’s dry, cut a hole, fill it with sweets, re-cover the hole, wait for it to dry, and off you go.’ (Full disclosure. When I last made a papier mache piñata it was so hard when it dried, that we could not get into it. I had used too many layers!)
- Christmas time you can make decorations (FYI save your lolly sticks in the summer)
- Walking the line – you can use the masking tape (left over from painting?) to mark out a ‘line’ for the children to ‘balance’. Walking forwards, backwards. Hopping.
- Bean bags. Use the masking tape to mark out ‘boxes’ in increasing distance. The children have to throw the bean bag into the boxes.
- Chinese whispers or ‘Telephone’. Start with a fairly complicated sentence, and whisper it along the line of children. (Need more than 5 players to make it work. Of course, Grandparents might deliberately ‘gobble-de-gook it!)
- Who am I? Make a “crown” out of cardboard or paper, and attach a name at the front’. You or the children choose ‘Who’ the person or creature maybe. Write it on a piece of paper, and sellotape it to the crown, so the “Who am I” child can not see it.
- Simon Says/Grandmother’s Footsteps
- Orange under the chin – passing an orange from child to child under their chin.
- For older children, there is making a film/music video/telling jokes on camera.
- Sit down to a virtual tour of a museum. You can tell we are heading to ‘down time’….
- And finally a movie (have it ready to save ‘I want this” I want that’.) My go-to was “Enchanted” . My teenage children told me the dragon traumatised them – but I think they are trying yet another ‘guilt Mummy’ game. Little them loved the dragon, insisting we replay her fall ….
Indoor dens will give you some more ideas.
For more suggestions on film have a look in another part of the site …
Play School for Grown Ups – Suggestions if you have small experience of small people