Simple Indoor Fun When the Weather Turns Cold…

As the weather gets colder we will be looking for some great simple ideas indoors.

Here are some of my favorites:

Salt dough– make ornaments, bead necklaces, etc.

Baking– Who doesn’t love warm and sweet treats on a cold day?  Baking is a great tool for teaching as well-measurement, following directions, science, etc.  Serve your sweet treats to a neighbor or elderly friend.

Scavenger hunt-Give the kids a camera and have them find various objects on the list. For added fun, they can take a picture of them.  Or take it outside and search for animal tracks in the snow, etc.  For Spanish lessons, we use the words we know in Spanish and make a list to find.  The possibilities are endless for scavenger hunt themes.  For little ones-colors, shapes, amount of objects, things that begin with a certain letter, etc.


Bring your lessons alive-Have the kids write a drama based on the period in history you are learning. We have had many great reenactments of pilgrims, Indians, battles, ancient Greece and Rome, etc.

Art gallery-My kids love making beautiful paintings and then hanging them to play art gallery.  They put small prices on each one and have me come and pretend shop.

Grocery store-Again, fun and learning all in one. Set up all your pantry items in a room. The kids can organize them by cans, boxes, etc.  They can price them, even make coupons. Then they can take turns shopping with play money. Definitely teaches life skills, math, etc. all while having fun.

Bean box for little ones.  One of our favorite activities these days. Click here to see it.

Make a newspaper, comic book, or magazine. My kids are loving using computer skills these days to create their own publications.  My daughter even charged us for a subscription!

Making videos- We purchased a very inexpensive video camera for the kids to make movies with.  Then my son uploaded them to the computer and is figuring out how to do video editing.  What a great skill!

Board games- Good ‘ol fashioned games of chess, Uno, and checkers are favorites around here.

Indoor time gives us  a much needed break sometimes of the busyness of life.  Perhaps God intended that when he created those bitter cold days! 🙂  So rather than be discouraged by cold days, know they are temporary, enjoy them, make the best of them, and keep it simple. Memories will be made and family time will be a gift we can give our children worth more than anything store bought.