Our top indoor activities to keep the kids entertained when the weather is gloomy.
Winter is fast approaching and with it comes cold nights, shorter days and often wind and rain; perfect weather if you want to curl up on the couch with a good book, but challenging if you have an energetic little one or ones running around! If you’re stuck indoors with cabin fever and looking for things to keep the kids entertained, this list is sure to help fill the brief. Time to imagine, create and play.
As a youngster most of us would have had the pleasure of building our own castles or forts within the family house. Construction of such palaces often relied on dismantling the living room furniture and re-purposing bed linen to create secret “kid only” spaces for playing and hiding out in.
These imaginative hideaways are both fun to construct and fun to play in. And if you’re lucky your little one might want you to crawl in and play too!
You will need:
- Sheets or blankets
- Sofa cushions
- Pillows
- Broom stick
- Couch or chairs
- Clothes peg & rubber bands
- Paper and pen to create a sign
- Flash light - to use once in the castle
Method:
Let your child’s imagination take over by using the above props to create their own castle. Don’t forget to ask your little one to name their castle and create a sign.
Most kids love to help out in the kitchen and it’s hard to come by one who doesn’t love a sweet snack! Being stuck indoors is the perfect time to mix culinary learning and creativity by baking custom cookies with your kids. Use this basic cookie dough recipe as a base, then get your kids to shape, fill, or decorate these delicious bikkies to however their hearts desire.
You will need:
- Ingredients for cookie dough:
- 250g of softened butter
- 2/3 caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
- 1 egg
- 2 cups of plain flour
- Optional flavoring/filling dough (chocolate bites, m&m’s, hundreds and thousands, dried fruit etc.)
- Cookie cutters
To make the dough:
Mix butter, sugar and vanilla essence with an electric mixer in a medium sized bowl until light and creamy. Add in egg and mix until combined. Sift in flour and stir until mixture is combined and smooth. Add more flour for a firmer dough. Customise your dough by adding in your favorite flavoring and use cookie cutters to shape. Cool on a wire rack.
Ingredients for icing:
- 200g butter softened
- 1 ¼ cups of icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
- Optional colouring - add drop or two of your favorite food colouring for colourful cookies
To make the icing:
Beat together the butter, icing sugar and vanilla essence with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add in a drop or two of your food colouring and mix through thoroughly to achieve your perfect colour.
Decorating:
Once the cookies have cooled down, ice and decorate each one with your favorite toppings to create your own unique cookie. A fun idea is to use lollies to decorate each one as a different face smiley. The sky is the limit, enjoy!
Let your kids’ imagination and creativity fly through the roof by getting them to create and build their own box city.
A little bit of preparation is required for this one as you’ll need a lot of spare boxes! Start saving cereal, tea, tissue or any other box you can think of. It might be also useful to save some old toilet rolls to use for chimneys and tunnels.
Next you will need some craft supplies – scissors, paper, glue, textas, crayons, glitter, buttons and anything else you can think of.
Get your little ones to decorate the boxes as different types of buildings and cars. Try sticking on pieces of paper as doors and windows or adding a toilet roll to the roof for a chimney. Once you have enough boxes decorated, build up your city and bring out the toys and dolls to inhabit it!
This is a great activity for extended periods indoors, as it can take quite some time to create a whole city worth of box buildings!
This is one for the kids but also one for the parents if you time it nicely around your morning or afternoon cuppa.
Make a space on the floor and lay down an old sheet to use as a picnic blanket. Prop lots of cushions and blankets around to make it comfortable. For some extra theatrics and fun have your little one get dressed up in their favorite outfit.
Fill your teapot with some warm milk and lay out cups, saucers and spoons. Fill a small bowl with chocolate powder such as cocoa, Milo or Quick and have sugar on hand to sweeten to taste. It’s also nice to have something small to eat on the table such as biscuits or cut up sandwiches.
Let the little ones make their own “tea” by mixing chocolate powder and milk into their tea cups. And don’t forget to make yourself a cuppa in the process.
There is nothing more fun than a good old fashioned treasure hunt with a lovely surprise at the end– you just need a bunch of clues, a lovely treasure treat and most of all, creativity!
Cater your clues to the age of your child by using pictures for younger children and words for older kids. Incorporate games into some of the clues like a memory card game. Turn over playing cards to match a pair before you release the next clue.
For older children add riddles, word scrambles, puzzles and games into the mix.
Some helpful hints:
- The first clues should be easier then increase in difficulty as the hunt progresses.
- Mix up the types of clues to keep it interesting i.e. letter scrambles, followed by a puzzle, followed by a rhyme etc. Try not to have two of the same types of clues in a row.
- Incorporate dressing up into character for the hunt.
- Make sure you have a nice prize at the end and give lots of praise!