It’s been one hot summer, and you may not always want to spend a sweltering afternoon outdoors. Luckily, there are plenty of simple games and activities that can be done indoors. The ones we’ve collected here should please the young and the young at heart alike.
Masking Tape Play
You can create play areas with just one or two rolls of humble masking tape. Stick it on the floor to create roads or tracks for toy cars or a Hopscotch grid on the carpet. You can also try making concentric circles as a target area and throw bean-filled bags (or even balls or oranges, as long as all the breakables are safely stored away) into the circles to score points.
Balloon Ping-Pong
Ping pong (or table tennis) is the Chinese national sport, but this game won’t be included in the Olympics any time soon. Blow up two balloons, make bats from paper plates glued to sticks (or simply rolled-up newspaper), and play balloon volleyball.
The good part about this game is that you can make up the rules as you go along. You could even set up a net using two chairs with a skipping rope tied between. Or simply have fun rubbing balloons on your hair and get them to stick to walls or the ceiling.
DIY Bowling
This will require some rearranging of furniture. Fill plastic bottles or milk cartons half full with sand to make your own bowling pins. Optionally, you can spend some time decorating your pins with glue and glitter or paint. Then set up a homemade bowling alley in the hall or lounge and see how many pins you can knock over.
Hot Potatoes
This game is guaranteed to get you giggling! Blindfold one person from each team and then place potatoes all over the floor. When you say "go," the blindfolded person must crawl and feel around for the potatoes. If they find one, they must place it on their person (in pockets, down their top, under their belt) and find more. When the time is up, the one with most potatoes wins. The other players guide the blindfolded teammate to make sure they don’t bump into anything.
Photo Scavenger Hunt
Write out a list of things each child (or team) has to photograph. For example, "take a picture of something that reminds you of home" or "take a picture of someone dressed up in the wackiest clothes you can find." Then, give each child or team a camera and set them loose. When everyone’s done, set up a slide show to view the results and award points (or small prizes) for their efforts.
Get Quizzing
Have fun testing each other’s general knowledge with a family quiz. My parents are currently visiting my sister and I, so we quizzed each other on how well we know our extended family members. I kept seeing a dumbfounded look on my parents’ faces. Make sure there’s a prize to get everyone in the competitive spirit.
Button and Pasta Pictures
Get out your button box if you have one, or some dried pasta or rice (you can color pasta with food coloring or paint for added effect). Then get the kids to stick buttons or pasta to a card or piece of paper. You can also make necklaces by threading the buttons or painted pasta onto thread or yarn.
Activities sourced from netmums.com
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
