Fun Indoor Games for Kids When they are Stuck Inside

Because we live in an apartment and I cannot shoo the kids out the door at a moment’s notice, my kids and I have become experts in finding and playing fun indoor games for kids. I have a gigantic list of indoor activities for kids, but it is such an extensive list it can get overwhelming fairly quickly. I’ve curated some of the best indoor games below, our own as well as some fun games for kids from other sites.

Depending on your needs, peruse the list for indoor games to get your kids moving, educational and learning ideas, as well as pen and paper games for when you need to keep things a bit calmer than usual.

These fun indoor games for kids will get you through the cold winter (or the hot summer), no problem!

(Note: this post contains affiliate links.)

 Fun Indoor Games for Active Kids

Land, Sea and Air is an indoor jumping game that also helps with executive function

Magnet wand alphabet game. Kids will love to make up their own levels of play, just like a real life video game.

Sock Hockey. Use brooms for sticks and balled up socks as the puck!

Paper airplane landing strips. How many airplanes can you land in the correct spot. Plus, practice engineering skills while building elaborate landing spots.

Indoor frisbee with plastic lids! Really.

Indoor boomerangs. They (probably) won’t break anything and kids use their brains in order to make them.

Tape shape ball game. More fun than it seems.

Homemade carnival game. As fun as it seems.

Make straw rockets.

Put down painter’s tape on the floor and blow a pom pom or ping pong ball along the tape line using a straw!

Balloon tennis gets kids moving.

Indoor croquet. You can make your own set out of cardboard tubes and ping pong balls. We loved making and playing the version we got in a Kiwi Crate.

Vertical bowling with plastic cups is easy to set up and provided ample building opportunities.

Sensory shot put is a unique way to help kids with their gross motor skills.

Dinosaur gross motor movement game is a fun indoor game for kids with prehistoric tendencies.

Crush the cups is a clever minute to win it game to help kids get out their aggressive energy.

Hopscotch.  Use painter’s tape to create the squares on the floor.

Lava. Did you play this as a kid? Put pillows on the floor and instruct kids that if they fall off the pillows they will be falling into hot lava!!!

Make a ring toss with an upright cardboard paper towel roll and rings cut from paper plates.

Learn how to juggle with balled up socks or ping pong balls.

Fun Indoor Educational Games

Secret code scavenger hunt is a favorite after school indoor game for my boys.

Frozen word hunt can be done in the bath, or on a tray.

Rhyming games are great for any time and an excellent literacy builder.

Sift-n-Spell adds a lot of learning into a sensory hunt.

Classic thinking games can be done when you want the kids to settle down.

Have balloon rocket races and learn about science.

Learning letters indoor maze game is fun for kids who love their toy vehicles.

Sight word snowball fight and sight word stomp!

Fun Pen and Paper Games

I Spy Printables from The Pleasantest Thing are endless fun.

Giant Dot to Dot is a good way to work both fine motor and gross motor skills at the same time. You can also add in some counting practice.

Toddler Dot to Dot. I developed this one day when my toddler was jealous of his big brother’s extreme dot to dots.

Dots and Boxes is a classic, beginning strategy game.

Shut the box – another classic pen and pencil game.

The Exquisite corpse drawing game is sure to make everyone laugh

A tandem drawing game is good for quiet time.

MORE:

When you are looking for traditional board games, take a look through the game of the month archives.

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