Summer’s almost here, and that usually means more time spent inside trying to escape the heat. If you’re looking for creative, screen-free indoor activities for kids, you’re in the right place! In this blog, NAPA pediatric physical therapists have rounded up over 35 of their favorite indoor activities for kids to try at home. These activities are designed to keep your kiddos physically active while working toward important developmental milestones at the same time. Talk about a win-win!
Ready to channel that kiddo energy into something purposeful? These fun indoor activities for kids do just that. From balance and coordination to strength and imaginative play, these activities check all the boxes. Let’s play!
Use a balloon to play “keep it up” with your child as long as possible. This classic activity works on visual tracking, motor planning, hand-eye coordination, body awareness, and reaction time.
Throw soft objects into a laundry basket or a taped target on the floor. Turn it into a challenge by assigning points or distances! Try using bean bags, rolled-up socks, or even stuffed animals to mix things up.
Pull your child across the floor in a laundry basket. For added imaginative fun, add stuffed animal “passengers” or obstacle routes! Alternatively, you can have your child pull a laundry basket filled with stuffed animals, pillows, or even lightly weighted objects. This activity provides excellent heavy work, offering calming proprioceptive sensory input and helping to regulate the nervous system.
Move like a crab, bear, frog, or snake across the room. Race against a sibling, parent, or even the clock to make it more exciting! In addition to strengthening the body, this activity also works on bilateral coordination, the ability to use both sides of the body together in a smooth and controlled way, which is essential for everyday tasks like dressing and handwriting.
Use painter’s tape to create zigzags, lines, and shapes on the floor, then build your course with items you already have at home! Pillows make great stepping stones, furniture can be crawled under, and old wood planks or tape lines work well as balance beams. Make it as simple or as challenging as your child needs.
Set up your own indoor bowling lane using plastic cups or water bottles as pins and roll a soft ball to knock them down. Kids can take turns, keep score, or even build creative pin layouts.
Let your child scoot belly-down across the floor, a great way to build strength while having some open-ended fun! This can even be added as part of an obstacle course.
Put on your favorite playlist and dance it out! When the music stops, strike a yoga pose and hold it. This combines the fun and cardio of dancing with the balance and focus of stillness.
Use blankets, pillows, and furniture to build a cozy fort or crawl tunnel. This open-ended activity encourages imaginative play and body movement all in one.
Staple pages together or use a blank notebook and let your child write, illustrate, or dictate their own story. You can also print out family photos and help them create a scrapbook full of memories.
Turn up the music and lead a marching band through the house! Use pots, pans, wooden spoons, or DIY instruments to make it your own. Let your child take turns being the band leader and choose the beat or direction.
Create a list of items or visual clues and send your child on a treasure hunt around the house. Great for critical thinking and problem-solving!
Set up safe spots using pillows or mats. No stepping on the floor!
Line up chairs and drape a sheet over to create a tunnel for crawling through. Make it a secret hideout or part of a larger obstacle course.
Help your child into a pillowcase (non-slippery, if possible) and hop across the room to see who wins the race! Ditch the pillowcase and put on some stable shoes to work on jumping stability first, if needed! This simple and silly activity works on lower body strength and balance.
Pretend you’re holding a remote control and your child is “the TV.” Call out different channels and have your child switch between actions or characters—like “zoo animal,” “robot dance,” “superhero,” or “weather reporter.” Encourage them to change their movements, facial expressions, and even voices to match each channel.
Stand face-to-face and take turns copying each other’s movements. This activity is great for non-verbal children or those working on emotional recognition.
Hop like a bunny, waddle like a duck, or stomp like a dinosaur, and have the family guess what type of animal you are!
Send your child on a color-themed treasure hunt around the house. Can they find five red things? Three yellow ones? Add a timer for extra fun!
Print or create exercise cards for each letter of the alphabet and let your child act out the moves.
Have a child who loves reading books? Pick one exercise to do every time a specific word is mentioned!
Being involved in the food preparation process is not only fun for kids, it can actually be therapeutic for those who are picky eaters. You can try out recipes for different smoothies, homemade popsicles, fruit salads or veggie salads, sandwiches, and even homemade ice cream in-a-bag!
If you’re looking for a way to keep your child entertained indoors, look no further! A sensory bin is any container filled with materials specifically chosen to stimulate the senses, allowing the child to explore and interact with the items as they choose. Sensory play is a great way to expose your child to a variety of textures, facilitate communication, and actively engage with your child. The very best thing about sensory bins is that they are just so much FUN!
Dancing is a way to work on gross motor skills while expressing freedom and creativity and teaching a sense of rhythm at the same time. Choose songs that you know your child will enjoy and that include specific movements, like “I’m a Little Teapot” and the “Hokey Pokey.” Dancing will help develop balance, coordination, sensory processing, motor planning, and body awareness.
A fun full-body activity where your child walks on their hands while you hold their legs. This activity builds upper body strength, core stability, coordination, and proprioceptive input.
Some fun fine motor activities and games for school-age kids might include painting with a squirt bottle, squirting down a tower of cups, building marshmallow sculptures, or playing with LEGOs. Or they could create pictures with a Lite Brite, or play Connect 4, Uno, Kerplunk, Jenga, Operation, Angry Birds building and launching game, or Mancala.
Yoga is a fun way to get your child participating in full-body movement. There are many health and wellness benefits to yoga, such as improving flexibility, strength, balance, body awareness, respiratory and GI function, reducing stress, and improving self-confidence.
Use couch cushions and furniture for a soft climbing setup. A Nugget® Couch is great for this!
Transform large cardboard boxes into tunnels, forts, or pretend cars and spaceships. Use a few boxes to create an obstacle path or an imaginative setting for your child to explore.
Play music and freeze when it stops. For children with hearing impairments, stop dancing when a light blinks or a soft vibration occurs.
Help your child set up a “stage” using blankets, chairs, or even a cardboard box. They can act out their own show, perform a favorite story, or have their stuffed animals take center stage! This activity boosts expressive language, confidence, and imagination.
Squishing, rolling, and sculpting play-dough is not only fun, it’s fantastic for building hand strength and creativity! Try this homemade play-dough recipe, it’s surprisingly easy to make!
Break out the markers and construction paper! Kids can create cards, write letters, or even draw picture messages to send to loved ones. This thoughtful activity works on fine motor skills and handwriting while also fostering social connection, emotional expression, gratitude, and mindfulness.
Board games are a sneaky way to build important developmental skills while having fun as a family. Intentional board games can help promote turn-taking, strategy, fine motor skills, and problem-solving.
When in doubt, go with the timeless favorites. These games require minimal setup and always bring the fun!
NAPA Center is a global leader in pediatric therapy, specializing in 3-week intensive therapy programs and weekly pediatric therapy at our multiple clinic locations worldwide. If your child needs our services, we will work closely with you to select the best therapies, creating a customized program specific to your child’s needs and your family’s goals. Interested in bringing your child to NAPA? Book a free phone screening today to see how NAPA’s multidisciplinary team of physical, occupational, and speech therapists can help support your child.
Serena Patel is a pediatric physical therapist at NAPA Center Los Angeles who received her DPT from Duke University. Outside of her love for kiddos, she enjoys spending time outdoors with her friends and family, reading or baking delicious goodies. Having been trained in dance, she also appreciates sharing her passion with other kids through teaching occasional classes at her old studio!
