preschool kids drawing a house on a box

15 Free Indoor Activities for Preschoolers

Learning Fun

Winter can be long with rainy or snowy days and lots of home time, but it can seem even longer with a child who is bored with the same old toys and routine.  Finding new indoor activities for preschoolers to keep them occupied and happy is key to enjoying your time together.  These indoor activities for preschoolers will help you add some new things to occupy your kiddos!

three teddy bears sitting on chairs enjoying indoor activities with preschoolers

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Indoor Activities for Preschoolers

Contents hide
1 Indoor Activities for Preschoolers
1.1 Make Homemade Play Dough
1.2 Plan a Carpet Picnic
1.3 Spend Time Crafting
1.4 Bake Cookies
1.5 Build a Fort
1.6 Play Train
1.7 Set up a Photo Shoot
1.8 Record an Episode in Your Family’s Life
1.9 Have a Sock Party
1.10 Create an Indoor Obstacle Course
1.11 Start Some Seeds
1.12 Play Board Games and Do Puzzles
1.13 Make Home-made Bread
1.14 Read Some Books

Here are some of the sanity savers that have been tried over and over again in our house and have proven to be keeper ideas.  None of these ideas include screen time and they are all free (except the last one)! Each of these free indoor activities for preschoolers will provide hours of fun for you and your kids.

Make Homemade Play Dough

Make play clay or homemade play-dough.  Homemade playdough is so much nicer than store-bought and it’s super easy to make!  Little hands will have so much fun kneading the dough! 

Pull out the rolling pin and cookie cutters and whatever little plastic dishes you might have and let your kids whip up hours of imaginary food!  Create a menu with pretend food options to feed the dolls, stuffed animals, or Mom and Dad.  You can never have too many playdough tools!

For easy cleanup, put a plastic tablecloth on the kitchen table or give each child a plastic placemat to work on.  This helps save the table from all the salt in the playdough and any knives or cutting utensils the kids might use to create their masterpieces.  Playdough also keeps really well for several months sealed in a zipper bag or in a container.

Plan a Carpet Picnic

Plan and prepare a carpet picnic.  Picnic food isn’t only for the summer.  Why not buy some hotdogs and buns and make some potato salad and add some fruit and chips and you’ve got a picnic.  This might become one of your family’s favorite free indoor activities for preschoolers at home.

Spread the picnic blanket or tablecloth on the living room floor and pull out the picnic dishes and enjoy your carpet picnic.  Talk about the fun vacations you have gone on or other family memories.  Talk about where you want to go on your next vacation or real picnic.

If this becomes your favorite stay-at-home kid’s activity for future indoor days you may want to invite another family over to join you for your carpet picnic. 

Spend Time Crafting

Rainy days are a great time to learn how to do something new.  You could start with a small craft kit for making sun catchers, birdhouses,  potholders, or something else and then branch out as you master those things. 

This is a great time to make gifts for grandparents for Valentine’s Day or Mother’s and Father’s day.  Crafting is a great way to teach children to follow instructions and work from start to finish. 

Think about crafts that your kids can learn to do on their own and are also portable.  This will also provide hours of fun and creativity when you travel as well.  Crocheting, knitting, or beading are easy to transport. These indoor activities for preschoolers can be as complicated or simple as the supplies you have on hand. This can be as simple as string and toilet paper tubes, pipe cleaners, or whatever else you have in your craft closet.

Bake Cookies

Baking cookies doesn’t have to just be a holiday tradition.  Pull out your cookie cutters and sprinkles and you could have hours of sugary fun!  Once your cookies are all decorated, put some on a plate and share them with a lonely friend.  If you enjoy this indoor activity for your preschoolers at home, I’m sure your friends or neighbors will also enjoy receiving your goodies!

If you’re looking for other family service ideas, you can find a list of 35 Family Service Ideas here. 

Kids love to show off their masterpieces and they also love to share when we encourage them.  This stay-at-home activity makes your house smell delicious as well!

RELATED: Learning Through Play – Capturing Teachable Moments with Your Children

Build a Fort

Another stay-at-home activity for kids is building a fort or tent.  This may become your kids’ favorite activity!   You probably need to plan ahead for this one since it just might take over your house for a few hours (or days).

Pull out all the sheets and blankets from the linen closet and start draping them over the couch, chairs, ironing board, and whatever other furniture you might have available. 

This will create a giant “mess” but sheets and blankets are easy to fold up at the end of the day.  Clothespins or books might help to hold the blankets and sheets together over the tops of the furniture. 

Once the fort is finished, invite the stuffed animals, your pets, and the dolls to play in the fort. You could even eat your lunch in the fort, read a book, play a game, or take a nap there as well.

Play Train

Pull out all of the kitchen chairs and put them in a line to create a train.  Invite all the dolls or stuffed animals to ride on the train and then let the imagination take flight.  The train might need to make some stops and let some passengers on and others off.  Some trains even serve food while traveling.

This is the perfect time to sweep and mop the kitchen floor while the chairs are all out of the way!  Once the floors are clean the train can go back into the station.

Set up a Photo Shoot

Your kiddos might have a lot of fun using your camera or phone to take photos of their animals or dolls.  Or perhaps, they might enjoy dressing up and posing while you take photos. 

Send the photos to grandparents or cousins so they can enjoy the fun as well.  Invite them to do a photo shoot as well and send you their pictures. 

Record an Episode in Your Family’s Life

Grab your phone and set the stage for an amazing new film.  Encourage your kids to set up a backdrop and create a story they will act out.  Then sit back and record the action.  Don’t forget the costumes, props, and sound effects. 

When you’re video is finished, send it to your grandparents and cousins so they can enjoy the fun. They just might reciprocate and create their own masterpiece and share it with you. 

mother and son enjoying a free acitvity for preschoolers at home

Have a Sock Party

Pull out all of the socks from your drawer and set up a laundry basket as a target.  Give each person their own pairs of socks and then take turns seeing who can get them in the basket.  Better yet, start with the socks from the clean laundry and fold them together first and then have your sock party.

Create an Indoor Obstacle Course

Another awesome indoor activity for preschoolers is to create an obstacle course or maze.  Use any room or rooms in your house and set up a course.  Create signs at each stop with the activity that the participant needs to complete. 

You could also add different exercises your child has to do at different sections such as jumping jacks, hopping on one foot, twirling in circles, etc.

Start Some Seeds

Gardening doesn’t have to just be a summer pastime.  Buy a package of lettuce or radish seeds and teach your child how to plant them.  Then watch for the seeds to germinate and grow. Save your individual yogurt cups and fill them with potting soil and plant your seeds in them. Label them and watch them grow.

Play Board Games and Do Puzzles

Playing games with your child is a wonderful way to play together while teaching them to follow instructions, take turns, and play fairly.  This is one of the easiest stay-at-home activities for kids.  All you need is a game and/or a puzzle!

You can also print out some new games or choose a theme to add into your indoor activities. Perhaps you’d like to go with the camping and outdoor theme with your “tent” in the living and your carpet picnic. The perfect addition could be a set of Camping Bingo sheets to play while you dream about summer.

If you’d like to spend some time with a Bible theme, you can find some printable Bible Bingo games here

RELATED: Best Games to Play with the Family

Looking for more printable Bingo games?

Make Home-made Bread

Yet another fantastic indoor activity to do with preschool kids.  If you haven’t made bread before, this Whole Wheat Bread recipe is fantastic! 

Read Some Books

Pull out some of the books your child hasn’t seen for a while or their favorite stories and set down in your blanket fort and read some books together. If you need some new ideas for books, here’s a great list of books to read aloud to kids.

Each of these indoor activities for preschoolers can help you fill up the days with fun, stay-at-home activities for young children. Pull out a new activity for the day and enjoy the time with your kids! The days go by slowly but the years fly by. Take some time today to play with your child and enjoy their exploration and learning.

Most things in life are more fun when you do them together. So put on your thinking cap and find some things you can do together to enjoy the indoor time.

You may also like these Biblical parenting links…

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97 thoughts on “15 Free Indoor Activities for Preschoolers”

  1. Lisa

    What a great list of ideas for keeping young kiddos engaged when they can’t head outside as often. My preschoolers love crafting, playing games, and acting out fairy tales while I narrate (3 billy goats is their current fave!). Fun post!

    Reply
  2. Julie Plagens

    Fantastic ideas to do with your kids in the winter. We did most of these things when my kids were little. I love the idea of starting seeds. I never did that. We did do the butterfly terrarium and the ants. They were really fun to do together.

    Reply
    1. Karen Carlton

      Radish seeds pop up pretty quickly and so do peas and beans if you soak them first before planting. You can also plant them in dirt in a zippered bag and tape the bag to the window. Then you can see what happens to the seed as well as the plant.

      Reply
  7. Michelle

    I love all of these ideas EXCEPT making playdoh ?? I’m the mom who does not allow playdoh in her house bwahaha but we find other ways to play with playdoh-like materials.

    Reply
  10. Jessica

    It can definitely be difficult to find fun activities when it is raining! We love going to the library, baking, and board games. I like the idea of an indoor picnic, and need to make more forts and crafting activities with my youngest!

    Reply
  14. Beth

    I’m definitely saving this list until my grandson, now 16 months, is old enough to do more of them. Love the photo shoot idea! And fortunately he loves books, so libraries are now are go-to when it’s chilly outside.

    Reply
  26. Malia

    Oh man, I swear we lived at the library when my kids were little! Story time, computer games, and comfy bean bag chairs with endless supplies of books was essentially nirvana for us.

    Reply
  36. vanessa

    Oh you’re singing my song…..As a Recreation Therapist, I encourage parents to not let parenting consume the day…make it fun for parent & child. I can’t wait to spoil my grandson with some of your fun ideas.

    Reply
  37. Stacey Billingsley

    Great ideas! These bring back memories of my kids playing with play-doh. Actually, my ten-year-old will still play, given the opportunity. Heck, so would my twenty-two-year-old. I’m always into cookies, so that’s my activity of choice. The swimming lessons are a great idea, too!

    Reply
  38. tara

    What a great reminder that I will need to start my seeds indoors very soon. This is great since I still have one child left at home. He’s 3 and the winters can get long especially living in northern Minnesota!

    Reply
  45. Bailey

    Making homemade playdough with my mom is one of my favorite memories from early childhood! It’s so easy to make and has so many sensory benefits. Great idea!

    Reply
  46. Emily

    What a great list! I’ve been considering swimming lessons for my kids this winter. I bet they’d have fun swimming and burn off some energy, too!

    Reply
  48. Lisa

    I love these ideas so much. Being cooped up inside with toddlers can seem really daunting, and I hadn’t thought of a lot of these activities. I think the carpet picnic might be favorite and the first we try.

    Reply
  49. Shirley

    This is fantastic! And it is what I am needing right now! I am running out of ideas to keep my grandson from being bored. I have done about 1/2 of these so now I have a list of more to do. Thanks!

    Reply
  52. Susan

    Great list. I can remember building lots of forts outside in the snow AND under some blankets and pillows in the living room. Indoor forts were usually because we had a snow day and my grandmother didn’t want to watch us outside so we had to stay in. Wish we would have had this list back then. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

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