Easy Ways to Keep the Kids Entertained Indoors

The weather’s turned sour, the weekend has arrived and the kids are about fifteen seconds from destroying the house. You weren’t prepared for this. The weathergirl promised roasting sunshine! Luckily, there are plenty of ways to keep the children entertained indoors to prevent too much damage to the house or your sanity. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Movies

Time to give the kids a proper film education. Break out your favourite movies from when you were a kid – think Hook, The Goonies, The Dark Crystal, The Never-Ending Story – and show the kids what real family entertainment looks like. You can always hit studio websites like http://www.warnerbros.com.au/ for ideas if you can’t think of a few films off the top of your head. Just be ready to dust off the old “respect the classics” monologue when they complain about the dated special effects.

Video Games

They’re not in the mood for movies? Fire up the PlayStation and plug in an extra controller. There’s plenty of family-friendly games out there for more than one player. Skylanders and Disney Infinity will go down well, as will any of the Lego games from TT Games. Batman, Harry Potter, The Lego Movie… they’ve all got a Lego game and they’ve all got co-operative play. Perfect.

Board Games

But maybe they’ve exceeded their TV quota for the day and you want to get them out of the living room. How about a board game? Get them into classics like Smallworld or Munchkin, or try something a bit more modern like Forbidden Desert or Sheriff of Nottingham. Games like these are not only fun to play but they promote personal strategy and co-operation in equal measure. Great for kids and grownups alike.

Get Them in the Kitchen

Might as well get dinner started early. Turn the kids into extra pairs of hands in the kitchen and start creating deliciousness together. If you’re handy at baking, you can create a pile of delicious snacks for later, plus the kids get to eat all the left over mixture, which is always a treat. Getting them into the kitchen not only helps you out, it gives them a crash course in how the kitchen works, an important lesson for later life.

Scavenger Hunt

But what if you don’t really mind them pulling the house apart that much? If you’re particularly crafty when it comes to hiding things and leaving clues, a scavenger hunt could keep them going all afternoon! Use small toys or cheap trinkets that lead up to a much nicer, more awesome prize. It helps develop powers of deduction and it makes kids feel really smart when they figure it all out by themselves.

Keeping the kids entertained when they can’t get out of the house is a daunting task. But, with creative thinking and the right attitude, you can ensure the time passes quickly for both you and them by providing them with a variety of fun activities to do. Do you have any activities you could add to the list? Comment below.