75+ Indoor Activities for Kids to Keep Busy on Rainy Days
These rainy day activities keep kids’ brains engaged and entertained
Every parent fears the dreaded phrase “I’m bored!” And the likelihood of hearing it seems to increase when rainy weather forces kids inside. How do you keep young minds and idle hands engaged and occupied during those long hours indoors?
We’ve put together a list of over 75 fun and easy activities, including three printables, that are safe for indoor spaces—even childproofing specialists near you will approve. The ideas range from exploring their artistic side to attempting physical challenges to brain teasers that make them think.
Explore the list below for the many secrets to keeping your kids busy on rainy days.
1. “Laser” Maze
Tape some simple crepe streamers in haphazard zigzag patterns down a long hallway to create a pretend laser maze. Then the kids get to jump, crawl, limbo, and shimmy their way through without touching the streamers.
2. Sensory Bin
Mix rice with small kid-friendly toys and treasures in a box to create a sensory bin for little ones. They can use a scoop or their hands to dig through to find the prizes you've hidden.
3. Personalize Pillowcases
Use the handy printable below to create an easy-to-use stencil for decorating boring pillowcases. With a little freezer paper, a warm iron, some acrylic or fabric paints, and a bit of air-drying time, your kids can express their personal design styles in their bedrooms.
Download Pillowcase Stencils Here
4. Marshmallow Buildings
Encourage your budding architect’s imagination by pulling out the toothpicks and mini marshmallows. Stick a fluffy treat on each end of a toothpick, then add another toothpick at a 90-degree angle. Keep building to create unique structures.
5. Dance Party
Clear some room and turn up some of your favorite tunes for an energized dance party. Teach your kids the moves you learned as a kid and then have them create their own signature routine.
6. Color Scavenger Hunt
Pick up a variety of fun colored paint chips from your hardware store. Then ask your kids to locate items around the house that match the colors as closely as possible. Use a timer to increase the challenge and excitement.
7. Family Pizza Night
Have the whole family join in by making their own pizzas. Allow the kids to help spread the sauce, sprinkle cheese, and select their own toppings. Whether you make fresh pizza dough or use a frozen crust or even some English muffins, the kiddos will love the hands-on time in the kitchen.
8. Alligator Alley
Toss pillows, blankets, or stuffed animals around on the floor to create a path of “islands” for your kids to hop from one to another. If they miss a jump or fall in the “water,” the adult gets to play alligator and attack with tickles.
9. Figure Skating
With some simple accessories around the house, you can make any smooth floor surface an indoor “rink” ideal for skating. Easily found items such as dryer sheets, paper plates, empty tissue boxes, or wool mittens can turn little bare feet into perfect sliders.
10. Topple Some Dominoes
Pull out the dominoes and start lining them up to create a unique path for them to fall. Experiment with trying to get them to topple up or down some steps. Build up excitement for the moment of the big topple!
11. Gratitude Jar
Decorate a large empty jar with paint, stickers, and/or glitter. Cut up strips of blank paper and keep them next to the jar to record the good things that happened to your child that day, such as “Today we saw a rainbow.” Read the gratitude sayings at family dinner every week.
12. Get Glammed Up
An imaginary movie premiere or elegant tea party is a perfect excuse for getting glammed up. Join the kids in playing fancy dress-up by letting them explore applying makeup and doing their hair in a special style.
13. Indoor Toddler Hammocks
Tie two flat bedsheets together around a sturdy table. Unfold a section of the sheet underneath the table and help your little one climb inside with their favorite toy or book for some special quiet time.
14. Hallway Bowling
Ideal for a long hallway, take some empty plastic bottles or disposable plastic cups and set them up at one end. Consider stacking the plastic cups to make a pyramid for a more dramatic “strike.” Use any ball from around the house and let the kids take turns trying to knock down all the “pins.”
15. Mirror, Mirror
Sit or stand face to face with your child. Ask them to copy your movements exactly. You can wiggle your eyebrows, touch your toes, run in place, reach for the sky, and so much more. Then you get to switch roles!
16. Make an Air Fort
Head to the linen closet and grab your biggest flat sheet. Then tape it down to the floor with painter’s tape and stick a fan at one end. The airflow will puff up the sheet, creating an instant secret air fort.
17. Build a Lego City
It’s time to pull out all the Lego bricks and let the creativity fly! Ask your kids to build a city of the future. Once complete, they can present it to you, explaining everything they envisioned.
18. Sticky Spiderweb
Use painter’s tape across an open doorway to make a web-like design slightly above your child’s height. With your child facing the sticky side of the tape web, give them small balls of crumpled paper to throw at the web. Have them count how many stick!
19. Photo Scavenger Hunt
If they’re old enough to take cell phone photos, send the kids on a journey through your home to snap pictures of assigned items. You can even theme the list of objectives toward a particular room in the home or include things representing each family member.
20. Create Homemade Goo
Use the printable recipes below to make your own silly putty, stretchy slime, or kinetic sand. Kids are very tactile, and playing with these different textures stimulates the mind and the senses. (Keep in mind that local upholstery cleaners are just a phone call away if anything goes wrong.)
Download Playtime Recipes Here
21. Tape Race Track
Grab the painter’s tape to make an indoor race track for your child’s toy cars. Two parallel strips of tape become the “track.” Get creative and run it up the walls, across some furniture, and around the floor.
22. Paper Snowflakes
Go for a classic that just requires paper and kid-friendly scissors. Some simple paper folds and snips of the scissors will create unique snowflakes every time. Explore having the kids paint or color the paper first to add some brightness.
23. Play Charades
You and your kids can come up with the clues, then take turns drawing them from a hat to act them out. Keep the concepts simple for younger kids and don’t be afraid to get silly with them.
24. Write a Letter
Encourage kids to go old-school by having them write a handwritten letter to a loved one. They can help give it to the mail carrier and then look forward to hopefully receiving a letter back in the near future.
25. Story Time
Have the kids gather their favorite stuffed animals for storytime, whether it’s “Goodnight Moon” or if your child’s a ”Harry Potter” fanatic. Set everyone up as the audience, and then you (or your child) can read aloud to everyone.
26. Build a Cardboard Castle
If you have large cardboard boxes in the garage, pull them out to help create a cardboard castle or fort for them to play in. With some markers or paint, they can personalize it to make it fit for royalty.
27. Draw a Self-Portrait
Have your child sit near a mirror (or take a photo of them instead) so they can study their face to draw their own self-portrait. Depending on their age, you could show them famous self-portraits and encourage them to try a unique art style for theirs.
28. Pillowcase Race
Update the picnic classic “potato sack race” for indoor use with pillowcases. Line the kids up and give them a countdown to start. Use a crepe streamer to create a finish line for them to break through.
29. Potato Stamps
Cut some potatoes in half, then cut out a simple design such as a heart or star on the flat edge. Dip it onto an ink pad and use your homemade stamp to decorate paper bags, fabric totes, or greeting cards.
30. Fashion Show
Lay down some bath towels to create a runway and let the kids pick out their favorite outfits so they can strut their stuff. Add in some energizing music and prizes for things like creative color mixing and funniest walk.
31. Play a Board Game
Bring the family together for some board game fun. Let the kids pick their favorite game from your stash or try a new one they may enjoy.
32. Pasta Jewelry
Get out the markers and have your kids color macaroni or other tubular noodles. They can add stickers, glitter, or even googly eyes. String the noodles onto some colorful yarn to create one-of-a-kind necklaces and bracelets.
33. Balloon Tennis
Blow up a few small balloons and then let the kids use their hands as tennis rackets to hit the balloon back and forth. This activity gets kids moving and encourages better hand-eye coordination.
34. Reenact a Favorite Movie Scene
Instead of planting the kids in the TV room, ask them to act out their favorite scenes from movies they’ve seen. Encourage them to get in character by dressing up to play the part.
35. Simon Says
A fun way to encourage following directions is by having your little ones mimic whatever active motions you dream up. Keep them a little silly, though, with animal movements, funny faces, and anything on one foot.
36. Tissue Box Creatures
The opening of a tissue box makes for a perfect mouth for a monster or animal when you add a little construction paper and glue. Cover the box with colorful paper, then glue some triangles for teeth inside the opening and top it off with googly eyes.
37. Paper Airplane Race
Test out their paper-airplane-folding skills and then have them line up for the race. The winner is the person whose airplane travels the farthest, so be sure there’s room for them to fly.
38. Create String Art
Add color to bedroom walls with handmade string art. These easy templates simplify the process. You’ll need only a square of wood, small wire nails, colorful embroidery thread, and a hammer to create this keepsake. And the template doubles as a connect-the-dots coloring page for the kids too young to handle the hammer.
Download String Art Template Here
39. Learn a TikTok Dance
Next time you’re scrolling through TikTok home decor trends, keep an eye out for a popular dance with easy choreography for you and your child to master. Then record your efforts and share it with the world (or at least your family and friends).
40. Ball Toss
Line up some buckets or baskets in a row. Assign a point value to each one, with points increasing the farther away it is. Have the kids toss balls into the buckets and count up their scores.
41. Make Instruments
Check around the house for potential musical instruments. Look for things like rubber bands, toilet paper rolls, tin cans, or wooden spoons. Cover one end of a toilet paper tube with paper and tape, then drop some dried beans or rice inside and cover the other end with more paper and tape for an instant musical shaker.
42. Indoor Hopscotch
Painter’s tape is perfect for creating an indoor hopscotch grid on your floor without doing any damage. You can use a rolled-up sock to toss into the squares as a marker of which square has to be skipped each round.
43. Construct a Blanket Fort
Have the kids gather blankets, pillows, and furniture cushions to build a blanket and pillow fort as a secret hideout. Help them drape the blankets over chairs or tables—hopefully, they’ll reward your assistance with entry to their secret club!
44. Draw a Treasure Map
Give your child a small treasure and tell them to hide it in their room. Then ask them to draw you a treasure map to where it’s hidden. When they’re done, you get to go on an adventure to find it.
45. Bake and Decorate Cookies
Get out the aprons and preheat the oven! Find a simple cookie recipe to make from scratch together. Depending on the type of cookie you make, you can also decorate them (after they’ve cooled, of course!).
46. Make Sock Puppets
Long socks, some yarn, and googly eyes are the basis for easy and fun sock puppets. Fabric remnants can be used to make them clothes. When they’re ready, stage a show to see them in action.
47. Create a Time Capsule
Ask your child fun questions about their favorite things and have them draw a picture of what the future will look like. Seal up the answers with the drawing and a few small trinkets in a decorated paper towel holder tube and store it in your closet to open in the future.
48. Rain Cloud in a Jar
Explore some weather science with a glass vase, water, shaving cream, and some food dye. Fill the vase with water. Spray a thin layer of shaving cream on the water’s surface. Then drip food coloring onto the shaving cream to show how raindrops fall from the clouds.
49. Tin Can Golf
Recycle your tin cans to use for a few rounds of tin can golf. Make a golf club from a cardboard gift wrap tube with a cardboard wedge taped to one end. Use ping pong balls or other small balls to play.
50. Colander Weaving
Give your toddler some pipe cleaners and a colander to teach them how to weave. Show them how to get the pipe cleaners through each hole and how they can tuck it into the next hole.
51. Build a Marble Run
Use a cardboard box, some popsicle sticks, and a glue gun to create a fun track for marbles to roll through. Designs can mimic mazes or ball-drop games like the famous Plinko game from “The Price is Right.”
52. Practice Juggling
Take the time indoors to show your child how to juggle and encourage them to practice. Balled-up socks or ping pong balls are great for jugglers just starting out.
53. Paper Plate Ring Toss
Prepare the paper plates by cutting out the center. Let the kids decorate the plate rings. Tape or glue a paper towel tube to an upside-down paper plate. Set up the kids at a fair distance to toss their rings around the paper towel tube.
54. Play Superhero
Cut out and decorate simple superhero masks and tie them around each child’s head. Add a sheet tied around their shoulders as a cape, and your little heroes can zoom around the house saving the day.
55. Three-Legged Race
Use a bandage wrap or a scarf to gently tie your kids’ ankles together. They will be forced to work together to make it to the finish line. It may even create some sibling bonding!
56. Recreate a Painting
If your young one is a budding artist, ask them to identify their favorite artwork in your home. Then ask them to recreate the painting. Once complete, you can hang their masterpiece next to the original artwork.
57. Build a Card House
A simple deck of cards allows a child to work on balance concepts while building a delicate stacked house. This activity requires concentration, making it a quiet option for most people.
58. Magazine Collage
Take the old magazines laying around the house and ask your kids to cut out everything they find appealing. They can use the cut-outs to create a personalized collage.
59. Play Grocery Store
With a few items from the pantry, your child can create an imaginary grocery store in your home. They can learn about how money works and find joy in mimicking their parents’ tasks that they witness every day.
60. Jigsaw Puzzles
Pull out the jigsaw puzzle and let your kids spread out as they work to solve it. When a puzzle is complete, consider asking friends or family if they’d like to exchange puzzles so that more people can try them.
61. Indoor Campout
Pitch a small tent in your living room for an indoor campout. Fill it with blankets and pillows to make it cozy. Make s’mores in your kitchen oven and then tell mildly scary stories sitting together in the tent.
62. Boxing Balloons
Blow up some balloons and tape them to the end of long crepe paper streamers. Attach the other end of each streamer to your ceiling so that the balloons hang around your child’s head. They can now jab and hit their personal punching bag.
63. Take a Glow Bath
Drop a few glow sticks in the bathwater and turn out the lights. The bright glow and a warm bath create a unique experience and a great distraction from the weather outside.
64. Straw Maze
Use painter’s tape to create a maze pathway on the floor. Give each child a small pom-pom or cotton ball and a straw. From the start of the maze, they blow through the straw to move the pom-pom to the maze exit.
65. Giant Nail Salon
Take large, flat pieces of cardboard and trace your hands and your child’s hands onto it several times. Pour some paint colors into an ice cube tray (to avoid spills) and let the kiddos paint the fingertips of each drawn hand in their own imaginary nail salon.
66. A Fizzy Science Experiment
Pour white vinegar into several small cups and add food coloring to each one. Then place baking soda in the bottom of a flat bowl. Let the kids use eye droppers to drip the colorful vinegar into the baking soda and watch it fizz up like colorful clouds.
67. Penguin Waddle
Give your child a balloon for them to put in between their knees. They must waddle across the room, without dropping the balloon. For older kids, add in a few obstacles for them to get around.
68. Create a Book Nook
If you don’t already have a special reading nook, this is a great opportunity to create one. Find a secluded and quiet spot in your house to place a pile of blankets and pillows. Add in a small basket of books and it’s ready to go.
69. Animal Rescue
A great option for toddlers, this game teaches them to sort and transfer. Fill a bin with water and drop in a variety of plastic toy animals. Place an empty bin next to it and have your young one use a slotted spoon to “save” the animals in the water and move them to the empty bin.
70. Pool Noodle Javelin
Duct tape one pool noodle end to end to create a circle. Hang it from the ceiling or doorway with string. Use another pool noodle as your javelin and aim to get it through the hanging circle target.
71. Ice Fishing
Freeze some toy fish and foam letters spelling “fish” in a small plastic container. When it’s bath time, surprise them with the frozen addition to their bath. Watch them work to free the toys from the ice prison and ask them to spell the word once the letters are freed.
72. Sardines
This twist on hide-and-seek features only one person hiding and everyone else doing the seeking. Once a seeker finds the hider, they must join the hider in the hiding spot. Whoever finds everyone last becomes the new hider.
73. Sumo Pillow Wrestling
Dress the kids in an oversized adult T-shirt (perhaps from the parents’ closet). Then stuff pillows or couch cushions into the shirts and let the kids wrestle. The pillows (and close supervision) keep this a safe and fun activity.
74. Movement Painting
Place a piece of paper inside a shallow bin. Set out a variety of tempura paints. Drop things that easily roll, such as marbles and Hot Wheels, into the paint. Then place them in the bin on the paper. Move the bin about to allow the moving items to create cool lines across the page.
75. Paper Plate Tic-Tac-Toe
Grab some paper plates and draw a large X or O on each one with a marker. Create a 3x3 grid on your floor with painter’s tape as your game board. Then let the competition begin!
76. Build a Zoo
Have your kids gather all the stuffed animals in the house. They can use laundry baskets, cardboard boxes, and string to make fences and exhibits for all of the animals.
77. Make Shadow Puppets
Especially on a dreary rainy day, making shadow puppets can deliver a smile. Use the flashlight on your cell phone to create stark shadows. Play with the shapes and movements of your hands to display new animals and creatures.
78. Paper Towel Butterflies
Fold white paper towels into small squares. Dip the corner of each square into a small bowl filled with water and a few drops of food coloring. Alternate corners and colors. Once unfolded and dry, wrap the center of each paper towel with a pipe cleaner to create a butterfly perfect for any butterfly garden.
The next time you hear a child whine about being bored when stuck in the house, let them know you’ve got lots of ideas for some indoor fun. This list is your secret weapon—you may actually find yourself with some quiet time while the kids are entertained, which is a great opportunity to plan ahead. Prepare for the return to the outdoors and sunnier weather by researching local playground installers and basketball hoop specialists in your area.