50 Ideas for Indoor Fun in the Winter

kids playing on a tablet

My children are currently sitting at home, looking at their sixth snow day of the winter of 2011. While most of the parents I know are slowly going crazy from all the work piling up that they never have time to accomplish, their children are going extra crazy.

We live in a small city condo and my children are so tired of staring at our four walls. They're lucky to have one another, but I think they're even starting to get tired of each other. If your kids are like mine and need constant supervision, then good luck to you.

Luckily, there are many, many winter activities for them to do that don't involve freezing to death. Here are 50 of them:

50 Indoor Fun Ideas for Kids

Have a floor picnic
Use a bag of cotton balls for an indoor "snowball fight"
Let the kids play with measuring cups, spoons, bowls, and a bag of rice (keep a vacuum on hand!)
Treasure hunt through the house
Play with cardboard boxes: You can build robots, ships, doll houses, and more.
Shrinky Dinks: Jewelry, dolls, travel tags ... all sorts of fun.
Cupcake decorating contests
Board games
Making up our own board games
Re-illustrate/re-write old books
Roller blading: Check out an indoor rink near you!
Indoor playgrounds
Ice skating at a rink
XC skiing: The parents move so fast, everyone stays warm.
Snowshoeing (see above): If your kids are little, pull them in a pulk!
Fairy hunting: Sprinkle a little glitter around the house and imaginations can go CRAZY.
Video games
Make Play-doh
Go through summer clothing and pretend it's summer
Make frozen mocktails, fill the bath, and have a “beach party”
Build a fort
Make a mural
Bake Valentine’s cookies
Make homemade Valentines
Play paper dolls
Pop popcorn and have a movie-fest
Make homemade pizza
Make s’mores in the microwave
Charades
Pictionary
Name that tune
Library story hour
Toy store singalongs
Various indoor playspaces
Open pool time at the gym
Arts & crafts open studies
Bring the outside toys inside (given a good washing first)
Dance parties
Indoor tag
Hide & seek
Fill the bathtub with snow and play inside
Bubble blowing
Homemade bowling with balls and bottles
Round Robin storytelling
Ring Around the Rosy ï»¿
Indoor camping: Bring your sleeping bags into the living room, tell ghost stories, and all sleep there.
Reading books
Trying on Mommy's clothing
Playing "beauty shop"
Making snow ice cream