March Holidays: 16 Indoor Activities For Your Child!
With the current situation around the coronavirus, many holiday camps and workshops have been cancelled or heavily-reduced in terms of class sizes. Even though we’re big proponents of getting your child outdoors as much as possible (just look at all the sports classes we offer!), we also know that it brings unwanted risk, especially when you have a kid that likes to touch everything in sight. It’s time for indoor activities.
So, how do you keep your child indoors at home, without them going stir-crazy? Beyond the always-reliable board games and TV, we’ve done the homework for you, and collated some popular crafts or learning indoor activities!
To make it easier, we’ve listed prep time, level of mess anticipated, and expected activity time! Just mix and match some of these 16 indoor activities across the next week of March Holidays, and entertain your child without having them leave the safety and comfort of your home!
Scroll down to any specific activity by clicking on the items below!
- Create-A-Fairy-Jar
- Paper Roll Dragons
- Mixed Media Collage
- Family Tree for Kids
- Origami Frogs – Upgraded
- Alphabet Bingo
- Cup Stacking STEM Challenge
- Tippy Tower
- Invisible Ink
- Rainbow in a bag
- Home-made banjo
- Glow-in-the-dark Jellyfish Crafts
- Zip-line toy transporter
- Indoor Hallway Laser Maze
- Yoga for Kids
- Make-Your-Own Pizzas
Create-A-Fairy-Jar
Activity Time: 10 minutes
Prep Time: Nil
Mess Level: Low
We’ll be honest; this won’t entertain the more active kids for very long, but it will wow them for sure. Create a glow-in-the-dark jar by tipping the contents of a glow stick (very carefully!) and some glitter into a jar, then cap it and let the kids shake!
Voilà, a glow-in-the-dark jar that looks as if you captured fairies or fireflies! This is the perfect indoor activity, as there are plenty of rooms (with the lights off) in the house they can bring these glow-in-the-dark jars into.
Paper Roll Dragons
Activity Time: 20 minutes
Prep Time: Nil
Mess Level: Low
Do your kids love playing with whistles or kazoos? Well, if they do, we’ve found you a version that won’t hurt your ears as much. This paper roll dragon is made with, you guessed it, a paper roll, and some decorations (googly eyes, crepe paper, etc).
You’ll have to supervise when they’re creating it, but you can bet that they’ll then proceed to test out their new ‘fire-breathing’ and roaring skills on everything in sight.
Mixed Media Collage
Activity Time: 30 minutes
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Mess Level: High
Making collages isn’t just for lovestruck teenagers. Instead of letting your child rip images from magazines, though, this activity calls for you to prepare an oversized craft paper (to minimise mess), where your child can paint with watercolours, and then stick images on top of.
For older children, you can supervise them as they cut out images from old books or magazines, but for younger ones, we’d suggest pre-cutting some fun icons out. Give the children the craft paper, and let them go wild sticking everything they want onto it. This helps to build up their art skills too, and you can encourage them by displaying their artwork afterwards!
Family Tree For Kids
Activity Time: 1 hour
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Mess Level: Low
Your child might be old enough to identify ‘Uncle’ and ‘Grandpa’, but do they know how you’re all related? Through this activity, your child will learn how to make connections between information.
Just print out a large picture of a tree (with enough branches for your family!). The following part then requires your involvement to explain all the connections within your family. Ensure that your child takes an active part in the process by asking them to mark the leaves using different coloured ink pads to make small thumbprint ‘leaves’!
Origami Frogs – Upgraded
Activity Time: 30 minutes – 1 hour
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Mess Level: Low
Do you remember being taught to make an origami frog? (If you don’t, check out this tutorial by ItsyBitsyFun.)
This quintessential childhood indoor activity always provides a boatload of entertainment for kids, as they try to get their ‘frogs’ to jump further and higher than everyone else’s.
This upgraded version takes it up a notch by creating a competition. Set up goals, obstacles, and more using craft paper or even straws! Stick down a target to land on, make hurdles using straws, or create a race track to complete.
Alphabet Bingo
Activity Time: 1 hour
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Mess Level: Low
Test your child’s grasp of alphabets by making it a game! Basically, it’s a game of bingo, with letters replacing the numbers. Print these nifty cards from Crazy Little Projects; they come with 10 sets of bingo boards, and one set of cards to use to draw the letters.
Go a few rounds with the kiddos; this game is small-scale enough that you can give little treats or snacks for winning the round. There’s also less competition as there’s always the next round to play!
Cup Stacking STEM Challenge
Activity Time: 1 hour
Prep Time: Nil
Mess Level: Medium
Did you know that there’s a sport revolving around cup stacking? Speed stacking, or sport stacking, is a competitive sport that revolves around stacking cups in a predetermined pattern. The current Asian Open Sport Stacking champion is a 13-year old Singaporean!
Of course, we aren’t aiming that high right now, but there have been studies that show cup stacking help with building hand-eye coordination and motor skills.
Here, the aim is to build a Christmas tree; using an empty toilet roll and a piece of cardboard balanced on top of it, the aim is to then stack cups in the pyramid shape. It can be messy, with cups falling all the time, so we would suggest doing this on the floor!
Tippy Tower
Activity Time: 1 hour
Prep Time: Nil
Mess Level: Medium
If your child isn’t old enough to do the above cup stacking without constantly knocking things over, you can introduce them to Tippy Tower instead!
A more child-friendly version of Jenga, without any small pieces or sharp edges, Tippy Tower uses any leftover gift boxes or cardboard boxes as the blocks.
You can use wrapping paper to smoothen out the edges and tape down the seams, but then, it’s up to your young ones to stack them as high as possible! The great part is, the empty boxes are light enough for young children to carry, while reducing the risk of injury if it falls.
Invisible Ink
Activity Time: 1 hour
Prep Time: Nil
Mess Level: Medium
You know invisible ink from all the mystery novels, but did you know that it’s a low-risk way of entertaining your kids?
You might need to create the first one to convince the kids of this ‘magic. Just dilute some lemon juice in a bowl, and let your children paint patterns or messages onto a piece of paper. Instead of using a candle or a hot bulb to heat up the paper (too dangerous!) though, let the message be slowly revealed by placing the paper in an area with direct sunlight.
After that, it’s up to your children to write all the secret messages they want!
Rainbow in a bag
Activity Time: 30 minutes
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Mess Level: Low
We’ll be honest: this ‘Rainbow in a bag’ indoor activity is genius.
Basically, you’re going to put rainbow paint into a ziplock bag, seal it up, and let your child squish and play with the paint, without getting themselves dirty.
Magic!
The prep time is quite long due to the need to make the rainbow colours; we need a specific texture that doesn’t end up combining to form other colours. After the colours go into the ziplock, though, your children will be able to create their own rainbow, and then imprint patterns by pressing down. It’s a very low-cost way of providing entertainment to your children. Plus, it’s reusable!
Home-made Banjo
Activity Time: 15 minutes – 30 minutes
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Mess Level: Medium
Want your child to learn music but don’t want to spend on kid-sized instruments? Make a home-made mini banjo in less than 10 minutes flat.
Using a jar lid, rubber bands, and a jumbo craft stick, you can create a basic banjo that’ll let out a low strumming sound. Include your children in the process by asking them to help decorate the craft stick, or to choose the colours of rubber band!
Glow-in-the-dark Jellyfish Crafts
Activity Time: 1 hour
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Mess Level: High
This is one of the longer activities on the list; you need to paint the tentacles as well as the body, so there’s a fair amount of drying time included. However, it will keep the children busy indoors for an extended period of time.
Using glow-in-the-dark paint, you can dye the tentacles (made of yarn) into rainbow shades, and while your child is painting the paper bowl that’s going to make up the jellyfish body, you can leave the tentacles out to dry.
This is a great way to teach your children about the anatomy of a jellyfish, and spark their interest in animals and sea creatures!
Zip-line Toy Transporter
Activity Time: 1 hour minimum
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Mess Level: High
This is an activity that’s going to span the width of a large room or your living room, so be prepared for the mess. To teach your child about gravity and space, you can set up a ‘flying spaceship’ indoors.
Hook up a parachute chord (using Command hooks, if you don’t want to ruin your walls) to two opposite sides of the room, with one side lower than the other (so the ‘spaceship’ can slide down). Make sure your child can reach the higher side.
You can then craft a spaceship out of cardboard, or, to take it up a notch, use the above template to create a 3D spaceship that can carry a Lego character or action figure!
This helps with explaining why it’s easier to go down the zipline than up, and the mechanics behind the activity.
Indoor Hallway Laser Maze
Activity Time: 1 hour
Prep Time: Nil
Mess Level: High
Indoor activities usually come with the perception that they don’t tire out the child enough for nap time, but this activity is here to prove otherwise.
Using crepe paper, you can set up an entire maze in your corridor or hallway for children to get around. They’ll be crawling and sliding around, but without any risk knocking themselves out on bars. If the crepe paper tears, you can restart again with a new roll.
Yoga for Kids
Activity Time: 1 hour
Prep Time: Nil
Mess Level: Low
This is for the kids that insist on sticking to your side all day.
If you’re a regular yogi, include them in a session of relaxing zen yoga, and encourage them to do all the poses. You can refer to some suggested poses from Parents.com for ideas!
The great thing is, you can do all this within the comfort of your own home!
Make-Your-Own Pizzas
Activity Time: 1 hour minimum
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Mess Level: High
Data has shown that getting your children involved in the kitchen early will help them be more comfortable trying new food, and also help train measuring skills and build confidence.
A lovely activity to try on a day indoors is to get your children to make their own mini pizzas! A warning: this is sure to create a huge mess, but it’ll be worth it.
Your children will be delighted to make their own pizzas, and if you’re up for it, even making the dough that the pizza will sit on! If you’re not up for dealing with flour and a mixer, you can switch out fresh dough for frozen pizza bases, and just provide toppings for the children to go crazy.
The great part is, you control the ingredients and the choice of toppings, so you can make this as healthy as you like, and the kids will still try it out because it’s something new. What better way to make them eat their vegetables?
Prefer to let the professionals teach your young ones? Coursaver by Tueetor has baking classes, tea-making classes, arts and crafts classes, and more!
