Entertaining your kids at home isn't always easy.
But we've had a lot more practice at it since the onset of Covid and the stay-at-home orders it brought.
It's normal to worry about your children’s safety, not to want to encourage too much screen time, or lack imagination when it comes to what type of games to play.
But Hurricane Season, and any school holidays, are among the many reasons we need to explore indoor games.
The Covid lockdowns
The most challenging time for me was during the Covid-19 pandemic, when I had to stay indoors with my daughters and come up with games to keep us entertained.
There are many benefits to indoor games as they are generally cheaper and safer than outdoor equivalents.
You know your kids are safe under adult supervision, and the weather outside doesn't matter.
So here are different games we can all play with our kids at home.
- Prodigy math game: Prodigy is an educating web browser or app that is full of virtual guests, mini adventures, exciting battles, and many more features. It promotes independent math practice and supports your child's learning needs. Your child has healthy screen time and is occupied, giving you a chance to do other things.
- Family band party: You will need utensils, plastic bottles, small buckets or empty yogurt tubs. Build your child’s musical skills by singing familiar songs as they use plastic bottles as micro-phones and buckets as drums. Let them find other objects to make music with as they sing out like their favourite musicians.
- A cooking show: You will need pots, pans, kid’s cups, kettles, and a camera/phone to film your show. Set up a mock cooking show teaching your children safety in the kitchen; give them some food items to use like tomatoes, lemons or sugar, then sit down and be a judge commending their food.
- Balloon tennis: You need several balloons to toss in the air. Let your kids tap on the balloons, directing them to each other and preventing them from touching the ground. This helps smaller kids with hand and eye co-ordination.
- Musical chairs: You need chairs in a circle and always have one less chair than the total amount of people. Let the kids dance around the chairs with music playing. Stop the music and let the kids sit on the chairs. The one who misses a chair is out of the game. Take out a chair each round until you're left with a winner.
- A treasure hunt: You need a treasure map, either homemade or from a store. Hide a prize somewhere in the house and let your child find it using clues. They can be spoken or on a map.
- Hide and seek: This is one of the oldest indoor games to play and can provide hours of fun.
- I spy: Let the kids while away the hours playing the I Spy game where they have to think of an object that everyone can see, give the first letter, and then let each person take turns to guess what it is.
- Reading games: Build a fort using sheets and chairs and pick some books. Read the stories aloud and let your children participate by asking short questions about the characters. This will help your children develop a love for literature.
- Dance contest: Keep your kids physically active by having a dance competition with their favourite music playing. You can even join in!
Get creative
Indoor games are very safe and less expensive compared to outdoor games for your kids.
They also encourage kids away from screen time.
So why not give these games a try and let us know if you have any other ideas.