Stuck Inside This Winter? 20 Creative Indoor Activities for Kids
Going Stir-Crazy?
20 Activities your kids can enjoy inside (and outside) during the winter
by Debra Ross, publisher, KidsOutAndAbout.com
A little help from your favorite artificial intelligence can help you take these ideas further!
Sometimes even we intrepid "out and about" types can't get out and about. So what happens when your kids turn into Thing One and Thing Two and your house starts to look like Sally's did after the Cat in the Hat arrived? We prevent the stir-crazies with a little creativity! Here are 20 ideas for activities that you can do inside. And then ask your favorite AI (here are handy links to Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, CoPilot) for some help to take it to the next level!
1. Jump the river: An easy game, using just a ruler and a couple of pieces of string: Spread the strings just one inch apart (using the ruler to measure). Encourage each kid to "jump over the river." Now widen the river by an inch each time. Explain the concepts of narrow and wide. See how far each kid can jump.
How AI can help:
• Ask AI to invent variations on the game (jumping on one foot, hopping backward, or pretending the river is lava or full of crocodiles).
• Ask AI to add learning challenges to each jump, like jumping only if a number is even or a word rhymes with “wide.”
2. Start some indoor seed plantings
How AI can help:
• Ask AI which plants grow fastest indoors based on the light you have, so kids see results quickly.
• Ask AI to help kids create a “plant journal,” including daily observation questions or a personality for the plant.
3. Interior decorating: Help your kids figure out one thing they can do to make their room a special place!
How AI can help:
• Ask AI for decorating ideas using only items already in the house.
• Have AI help your child describe their dream room and turn it into a simple plan.
4. The Fix-it Family: Put on your "Bob the Builder" caps (literal or figurative) and become home handypeople, figuring out what needs fixing, and doing it!
How AI can help:
• Ask AI for a kid-safe list of things children can help fix versus things they should only observe.
• Ask AI to explain how something works (like a hinge or a door handle) at your child’s age level.
5. Make a timeline of each child's milestones. If possible, get some pictures from each developmental stage, and tape or pin them to the appropriate place on the timeline.
How AI can help:
• Ask AI to help turn milestones into short stories instead of just dates.
• Ask AI for thoughtful questions that encourage kids to reflect on how they’ve grown.
6. "Cuban" Cooking: Clean out the refrigerator and come up with some new combinations of food based just on what you have there. (My friend Tatiana, who was born in Havana, calls this "real Cuban cooking.") Make sure the kids are involved in deciding what to combine. Explain that this is what people have to do in other parts of the world, just making do with what is available. Grocery stores aren't everywhere!
How AI can help:
• Tell AI what ingredients you have and ask for kid-friendly recipe ideas.
• Ask AI to explain how families in other parts of the world cook creatively with limited ingredients.
7. Make a "Celebrations book." Print out either one page for each day of the year (365 pages, or 183 if you double-side them) or one page for each week of the year (about 52 pages). Put the date at the top and a lot of blank spaces underneath. Then go through and record the dates of significant events in your family's history, anything that's particularly important to each person: Marriages and births, of course, but also "day I graduated from high school" or "my first date with a boy" (for me it was April 12, 1985...who knows why I remember that), "first day Madison said "Mama," "first day Ella went on the potty." Things like that. Then, at a family dinner every week, you can take out your "Celebrations Book" and figure out what you're celebrating that week.
How AI can help:
• Ask AI to suggest meaningful but non-obvious events worth recording, or prompt parents to remember milestones.
• Ask AI to generate weekly dinner-table questions tied to upcoming dates.
8. Make homemade musical instruments out of rolled up paper, or paper towel tubes, or rubber bands, or plastic bottle flutes, or water-filled glasses. Here is a site that shows you how to make homemade instruments. Here is another good one.
How AI can help:
• Ask AI to suggest rhythms, songs, or sound challenges using homemade instruments.
• Ask AI to explain why different materials make different sounds.
9. Indoor Scavenger Hunt: Our scavenger hunt uses the letters of the alphabet. I made 3 columns on a board starting with the letter A-Z and we go around the house looking for the letters or words that start with these letters.
How AI can help:
• Ask AI to generate themed scavenger hunts (colors, textures, emotions, kindness).
• Ask AI to turn the hunt into a cooperative story or mission
10. Make actual use of the older toys: Spend a short time (15 minutes max) with your kids sorting through bins and shelves to make a list of toys they haven't used in a while. Separate the list into slips of paper in a hat, then each child pulls out a slip with the name of the toy. They play with it for 10 minutes, then get to choose a new toy if they like.
How AI can help:
• Ask AI for new game ideas using old toys.
• Ask AI to help kids invent a commercial or instruction manual for the toy.
Fun with Snow
11. Indoor Snowscape
: Use a plastic pull sled (a large cake pan or the bathtub can be substituted if you don't have one); snow shovel; towels; spoons, toy animals, cars, action figures (my kids like to use Bionicle creations); gloves; snow. Arrange one or two towels on the kitchen or bathroom floor. Fill sled or cake pan with snow, put on some gloves, break out the toys, and ENJOY. If you use a pull sled, use the rope to pull the loaded sled into place on the towels. If you use the bathtub, you can fill a 15+ gallon-sized bin to transport snow to the tub. (Note from Lisa: My kids never tire of this activity, so we keep the necessary "equipment" right outside our back door for easy access.) (Note from editor: My 4-year-old had a great time making her dinosaur figures imitate what happens in The Land Before Time, The Big Freeze.)
How AI can help:
• Ask AI to suggest storylines for the figures (prehistoric, Arctic rescue, fantasy).
• Ask AI to help kids compare pretend play to real animal survival strategies.
12. Snow Cones: Make snow cones with real snow. Walmart sells snow cone flavoring, cone-cups, and spoon-straws inexpensively.
How AI can help:
• Ask AI to invent new flavor combinations using household ingredients.
• Ask AI to help kids design a pretend snow-cone stand.
13. Maple Syrup Candy. When the snow is deep and fresh, we like to boil maple syrup and then pour it over freshly collected snow (in a bowl). Depending on how long you boil the syrup, it turns into maple-flavored ice, chewy maple taffy, or hard maple candy. The middle stage is the best. Even in their teens and twenties, my kids have to do maple syrup snow at least once or twice each winter.
How AI can help:
• Ask AI to explain boiling stages in kid-friendly science terms.
• Ask AI to find other recipes that use maple syrup or sugar.
14. Snow candles. When the temps above zero, you can go outside for this. When it's very cold, you can bring a large bowl of snow in or fill in the sink. With your hand or a spoon make a shallow hole in the snow, the approximate shape you'd like the candle to be. (Think upside down glaciers!) Get aluminum foil and use it to press, and line the inside of your hole, drop in wick tied to a stick (the stick will lay across the top and hold the wick steady). Pour in melted wax, fill to just below rim, and let set till firm. When solid remove from snow & foil! This method makes some beautiful unexpected shapes and crinkles on the outside of the wax from the crinkled foil.
How AI can help:
• Ask AI for candle shape or design inspiration.
• Ask AI to help kids name and describe each candle.
15. Giant-sized igloos, using recycle bins to mold the blocks of snow.
How AI can help:
• Ask AI how real igloos keep people warm.
• Ask AI to help kids plan the build like engineers.
16. Snow painting. Take an empty used liquid dishwashing squirt top containers (Joy, Dawn, Palmolive etc.) with water with food coloring added. Kids love to squirt the snow to make *drawings* or color snow sculptures.
How AI can help:
• Ask AI for artistic prompts or challenges.
• Ask AI to help kids compare snow painting to other art forms.
17. Bubbles. Try blowing bubbles outside and see how they freeze!
How AI can help:
• Ask AI to explain frozen bubbles in simple terms.
• Ask AI to help kids design a mini experiment.
18. Save the snowman! Make a small snowman, put him in your freezer, and unveil him on July 4th. You can place bets on how long you think summer frosty will last and toss around a few snow balls you can save too.
How AI can help:
• Ask AI to help kids record predictions about how long the snowman will last.
• Ask AI to help kids write a silly biography for “Summer Frosty.”
19. Build a Blanket Fort. Use blankets, pillows, chairs, and furniture to build the coziest fort you can. Flashlights, books, and snacks highly encouraged.
How AI can help:
• Ask AI for fort design ideas based on what furniture you have.
• Have AI help kids invent a story or setting for the fort (castle, spaceship, arctic base).
20. Family Game Inventors: Create a brand-new board game or card game using paper, markers, dice, and household objects. Make up rules, test them, and revise as you play.
How AI can help:
• Ask AI to suggest simple game mechanics or rule ideas.
• Have AI help kids write clear instructions or design a game backstory.
Please email us if you have additional suggestions!
© 2017, Updated 2026, KidsOutAndAbout.com