Home Fun For Kids: Indoor Activities For Babies, Toddlers, and Kids

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There are these days when you can’t, shouldn’t or simply don’t wish to go out. Would it be rainy, freezing cold outside, your town is on lockdown, you feel unwell or you had a very long weekend: regardless of what reason it is, always remember that staying at home with your family is a lot of fun for kids. There are a ton of indoor activities for babies, toddlers, and your children that you can introduce making it fun and educative at the same time.

Below are some fantastic ideas with detailed recipes of the games and indoor activities for kids that are introduced by travel experts from all over the globe. They know exactly what it takes to entertain their babies, toddlers, and kids whether they are on a road, plane or home.

All indoor activity ideas for kids are arranged according to the age of your child starting from one year of age.

Searching more ideas for toddlers of age 2 to 3? Read this post here: 25+ Perfect Indoor Activities For Babies And Toddlers.

Things To Do With Kids At Home

Corrita from It’s a Family Thing says that as a full-time travel family, they are accustomed to improvising and thinking of fun family activities at home on a daily basis. Oftentimes they have to find interesting and creative ways to entertain their 16-month old baby. Since the lockdown, they have been working on his confidence and motor skills.

Here are a few games that they use to keep their son entertained while helping him learn.

1. Unpoppable bubbles

Our little baby loves bubbles, but he doesn’t move quickly enough to catch the bubbles before they pop on their own. We used the following ingredients to make them longer-lasting bubbles.

• 3 cups of water
• 1 cup dish soap
• ½ cup corn starch or sugar

After you have all of the ingredients, mix everything together and put them in a bubble container. There you have it, longer-lasting bubbles that are safer for your little one. We usually play for 20 – 30 minutes before our toddler gets tired and is ready to play with something else. This is a great way for your little one to release their energy and get ready for naptime. 

2. Dance Party

After each activity we have a dance party using Kidz Bop, there is a maximum of three songs in one video. These are great physical activities to do with kids at home to release their energy and have fun. It also gives us time to set up the next activity while our son is occupied.

Don’t like watching a video? Listen to this playlist specially designed for your kids!

Have more song ideas, share with us in the comments below!

3. Ball Toss

There are numerous fun indoor activities for toddlers. To help with hand-eye coordination and confidence we play ball toss with a large bowl and softball. The game is simple, we place the bowl a few inches from our son and let him throw it in the bowl. Since he is so young the goal is to increase his confidence. We aren’t concerned if he gets the call into the bowl, we are just trying to get him to believe in himself.

4. Sensory Bottles

We use old water bottles to make homemade sensory bottles from whatever we can find in the house. You can get as crazy and creative as you’d like. To make the sensory bottle you will need:

• Clear plastic bottle
• Water
• Oil
• Baby oil
• Food Coloring (optional, but cool)
• Glitter (optional, but cool)
• Any waterproof object that can fit inside the bottle

Place all of these items inside of the bottle and watch how they interact. It is a lot of fun and you can even play “I-spy” with the items inside.

5. Window Rainbows

Anna Miller from Twins and Travels knows how to create fun and quiet activities for kids at home. She has an amazingly entertaining game that keeps her four-year-old twins and their one-year-old sister busy for a long time. 

Rainbows in windows in the UK are to say thank you to our doctors, nurses, care staff, teachers and anyone putting themselves in the front link with Covid19. The streets are lined with rainbows of all shapes and sizes but we decided to cover our window with thanks. 

This window rainbow is very simple to make and it has been our favorite activity so far. You only need a few resources:

• Scissors
• Paper glue
• Tissue paper in a variety of color that matches the rainbow

Start by taking one strip of tissue paper and fold it twice. This will help you to make more than one heart at a time which could take ages! Make sure you cut on the fold, and just half a heart shapes like in the picture. When you open the heart, it will be full. Repeat this with all your colors. Place each color in a little bowl of the box to keep them separate. 

Apply the glue directly to the window in the shape of the rainbow and place the hearts on one at a time. We did two rows of each color but you could always do one if you want a small rainbow, or three, or four if you want a huge one!

6. Family Morning At The Beach

Angelica from Toddlin’ Across America knows exactly how to create fun family activities at home and even enjoy the beach day without going out.

Are you stuck at home without a seashore in sight? Set up your living room for a little staycation. Lay beach towels on the floor and spread kinetic sand out in a plastic tub or container. Add a few sand toys for even more fun. Don’t forget to turn up the thermostat or light a fire to simulate that hot summer sun. Add some ocean-inspired tunes. Toast with yummy nautical-themed drinks, and enjoy your family morning at the beach.

Before you plan your beach staycation, add in a few educational activities leading up to the event.

Here is a good option: Ocean Unit Study.

Enjoy a little bird-feeding fun from your backyard. If the birds are nearby, pretend you’re throwing delicious snacks to a flock of seagulls. 

An at-home beach day is such a great way to make fun memories in the comfort of your own home. You don’t even need a hotel reservation.

While the entire world seems frozen in time, stuck inside the walls of our homes, parents everywhere are searching for ways to keep their little ones entertained and busy. Lauren from the Expat Chronicle knows how to do it well.

For our family of five living in a fifth-floor apartment in Barcelona, each day brings about new challenges. Our children are 8, 6 and 3 so they all require stimulation, creativity, and exercise. They also have different interests. Simply said, it’s not easy to keep all three happy at the same time!  
My husband and I have really had to get innovative and create fun things to do with family at home utilizing the small space we have, especially with no outdoor area but a small European balcony.

Here are three of our favorite stay at home activities for toddlers to keep them smiling.

7. Get Your Kids Moving

To pass the time and get the kids moving, create obstacle courses down the long hallway of our apartment. 

By using benches, tennis racquets, a hula hoop and our grocery store trolly we take turns timing one another and engaging in friendly competition. The kids have such a blast with this. 

Each time, we make the course a bit more challenging and include different objects. 

8. Reward Your Toddlers  

Every Friday after the kids have completed a full week of virtual learning, we reward them with various creative activities. 

Different rooms in the apartment are transformed into stations for the kids to choose from. We’ve included dancing (Just Dance follow along), construction (LEGO building), beauty (play dress-up), cooking (prepare a simple snack) and sensory (blindfolded to guess objects feel/taste). 

This has been such a great success for us and motivates the kids throughout the week to do well in school. Creative Stations are a reward for working hard and staying focused. 

9. Get Creative Juices Flowing 

One thing I failed to stock up on while preparing for our lockdown was craft supplies! Paper, markers, crayons, glue – we’re running very low at the moment. 

So, what other option do we have for craft time than to use whatever is found in our recycling bin? We’ve made bird feeders out of plastic bottles, Easter centerpieces from Styrofoam cartons and octopus from toilet paper holders. 

Sometimes having zero supplies encourages my kids to be really strategic about what they create! 

10. Kids Yoga

Diana from the Travels in Poland believes that the best stay at home kid activities is a lot of exercising and movement. Here is how to achieve it in a split of a second.

Cosmic Kids Yoga is one of the best YouTube channels for kids who want movement, yoga, music, dancing, and songs.  Kids love to try new things and this channel provides kids with yoga stories in which they follow instructor Jaime.  The instructor tells a story with a corresponding background and uses tones, voices, imagery, songs and even dance within the yoga movements.  Kids enjoy this channel immensely as some of the most popular stories and books are told through yoga.  It teaches kids strength and confidence and increases their flexibility and balance as well.

The yoga instructor comes up with fun names for yoga moves such as snake pose, mountain pose, tree pose, lion and cat pose and so many more which creates lots of fun for kids.  She begins each story against a digital background and eases kids into the poses. The poses are super easy to follow and are part of the narration of the whole story.  Most stories last 15-20 minutes with a few shorter ones as well.  The channel also has videos on mindfulness and relaxation and leads kids through different steps on how to remain calm and visualization.  There are also narrated stories (without yoga) and short dancing videos that children can follow along to easily.

Rachel from Children of Wanderlust looks after three children at the age of five and under. During lockdown with limited resources being able to shop only for food and house essentials, they have had to be creative with some of their activities. 

Their favorites so far have been scavenger hunts, treasure hunts and on Saturdays, they have a party. 

11. Party Day For Kids

It’s really important to differentiate the weekdays from the weekends. It helps to break up the week, much like ‘normal’ non-lockdown life. We have decided that Saturdays will be party days. We make a special effort for getting dressed in party dresses preparing party food: sandwiches, crisps, biscuits and play suitable party music. Our family usually plays party games – musical statues, etc. Having three kids helps – there has to be some advantage. We also bake cakes to eat at our party and make decorations.

12. Scavenger hunt

Fortunately, we have a garden, but this could also work indoors. We write a list for each of our two girls and then they have to search for the items. We usually have five items – you don’t want them to get bored with the activity.

If the children are older, then more items would be better. Aurora is three so she can’t read it all by herself. We have to read it to her and we have to help them with some of their searchings too. The trick is to give items that are difficult but not impossible for them to find.

Savannah is five and can read a bit so this activity also encourages her to practice her reading. Easton is only 18 months but loves to wander around and help to find the objects too. He has a surprisingly good understanding and can show us where objects are. Try to add as much description as possible to each object, i.e. ‘red’ flowers so that the children are using colors.

They like having their own bag to collect the items. We used little paper bags from a clothes shop, but you could use anything to make it their special scavenger hunt bag. We also had walkie talkies and a camera to discuss progress and take pictures. They really love it. You could also turn it into a race to finish, but in our house that always ends in tears so for us, it is NOT a competition.

13. Household Treasure hunt

We write a series of clues. Each clue leads to a place where another clue is hidden. After about six clues we place the ‘treasure’ – usually chocolate. You could always use something else like a toy or a reward for watching a film if you wanted.

We try to make our clues rhyme and also at a level which Savannah can read. If you are doing it with younger children, try to make the clues simple and more accessible for them. Try to use colors, shapes, or placement words in the clues to help improve their general knowledge, i.e. behind the blue shoes, near the square table, etc.

Ours work as a team during this activity and share the treasure. This promotes teamwork and sharing. Our youngest, Easton, also loves to join in. If you are doing it with just small children, you will have to help them, but they will still enjoy the excitement of finding the next clue. 

Read some of the great ideas on homeschooling from Rachel here.

Another idea of how to play treasure hunts with your kids comes from Eileen at FamiliesGo.

Treasure hunts have been a long-time favorite activity for our family when we were stuck indoors. When my daughter was very young the clue would be drawings of the bathtub, his desk, her bed, etc. Sometimes they would just be posted on Stickie notes. Sometimes he would hide a series of stuffed animals holding them.

The clues would usually lead to a treat, like a piece of chocolate, but if we were doing a lot of them she might just find her favorite snuggly friend at the end.  When she was old enough to read, the clues changed to a mixture of drawings and simple riddles.

One example: “For the next clue you’ll have to use your head; it’s not on the floor, it’s on your _____.”

Over the years the clues have become more challenging riddles, plus puzzles, code-breaking, and other challenges. She’s twelve now and still likes them, but it has gotten harder to make them challenging.  These work well for bad-weather playdates, too. But with more than two kids, things start to get hectic.

I hope these activities keep your little ones entertained!

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Also, check out:

• 25+ Perfect Indoor Activities For Babies And Toddlers.
• The Ultimate Guide To Children’s Centres And The Best Free Baby Activities In London.
• 15 Travel and Multicultural Education Activities For Students At Home.
• 20 Ways to Battle Quarantine Woes.
• All you should know about childcare options in London.

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