Top 9 Fun Crafts and Activities for Kids // Simple, Easy, and Electronic-Free Indoor Entertainment

When the weather is nice, I love spending time with the kids outside.  It’s a great way to keep them active and moving while getting some fresh air.  But for those rainy and cold days, or when the kids have spent enough time outdoors, I like to have fun things planned for them inside.

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When I know we’ll be spending most of our time indoors, I make sure I have a list of crafts and activities handy to keep the kids entertained.  This keeps them from getting bored and it’s great because it helps limit excessive TV and iPad time. I’ve tried a lot of ideas that I’ve found on the internet.  After some trial and error, I’ve narrowed them down to create an ultimate list of our favorite DIY crafts and activities. These are a big hit with my two and four year olds, but they would be great for toddlers, preschoolers, and elementary aged children.

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Each activity plays on their imagination, gets them to be creative, tickles their senses, and is interactive enough to keep them happy and engaged for hours.  They also use inexpensive and simple materials you already have or can be found at any dollar store. I love that they all require minimal preparation and have easy to no cleanup!

With a lot of schools closing for two weeks or more, a lot of you will have plenty of opportunities to plan and enjoy indoor activities with your kids.  Hopefully, my family’s favorite list of crafts and activities below will give you some ideas! Just remember that at the end of the day, kids just want to interact with you and enjoy some hands-on fun.

Fun & Easy DIY Indoor Crafts and Activities

1. DIY Light Up Art House

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Whenever I get large packages in the mail, I save the box for the kids to play in.  They pretend it’s a boat, house, bed, car, and more. A fun and easy idea to spruce up a large box is to add lights to make a super cool play house.  I used these white LEDsphere lights because I already had them on hand, but the shape of these mini lights would be easier to insert into the cardboard box.  Make holes into the cardboard box with a screwdriver or scissors, insert the lights, and you’re ready to go!  The kids absolutely love the lights and with a box this big, they have so much space to decorate with markers and stickers.  For smaller boxes, you can try creating a light up tunnel instead.

Materials: box (big enough for kids to sit in), christmas lights, screwdriver or scissors, crayons and markers

Time to Create: 15 mins

2. Bubble Foam

Playing with heaps of bubbles doesn’t have to only be reserved for baths.  Combine dish soap with water and mix with a blender to whip up bubble foam in minutes (full instructions here).  I put the bubble foam in a 1 gallon plastic container and set it on the table.  If you want to make a larger batch, you can put it in a large plastic storage container and set it on the floor over a plastic tablecloth for easy clean up.

Materials: mixer, dish soap, water, food coloring (optional)

Time to Create: 5 minutes, longer if making individual batches of colors

3. Pipe Cleaner Finger Puppets

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These are so cute and so easy to make with easy instructions here.  The pipe cleaner allows the puppets to easily adjust to both kid and adult fingers.  You can mix and match the colors of the pom poms and pipe cleaners or color coordinate them.  When the colors match, I like to use them as an aid to teach different colors. These always give my kids a good laugh and my oldest loves to create puppet shows for my son to enjoy.

Materials: pipe cleaners, pom poms, small googly eyes, and hot glue gun

Time to create: 5-10 mins for 5 finger puppets

4. Body Tracing

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Coloring is always fun for my kids but coloring a life size self portrait is even better.  To set up, I tape a piece of large craft paper to the floor. I use this roll of brown craft paper for crafting (and sometimes to wrap presents or use as a tablecloth) but you could also tape two pieces of easel paper together.  I have the kids lie down on top of the paper and I trace their outline with a marker. It’s fun for my daughter to trace my outline too!  You can leave the tracing on the floor or tape it to the wall for the kids to color in and draw. We used crayons, but you can also use colored pencils, markers, or paint.

Materials: 48” craft paper, masking tape/ painter’s tape, markers

Time to Create: less than 5 minutes

5. Bubble Painting

This is a fun way to create art without a paintbrush.  Having the kids blow bubbles is just half the fun – what they end up with is a colorful masterpiece.  All you need to do is mix food coloring with a bubble mixture of dish soap and water in a bowl. You could also use a container of store bought bubbles.  Insert a straw and blow to create a mountain of bubbles. Then place a piece of paper on top of the bubbles to create a colorful and unique print. See here for full instructions.

Materials: dish soap, water, food coloring, bowls, straws, paper.

Time to Create: less than 5 minutes

6. Play-Doh/Molding Clay

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My kids’ all time favorite activity is playing with Play-Doh and it’s easy to see why.  It can be easily molded, cut, and shaped into anything! My daughter loves to combine various colors to make contrasting creations while my son prefers to make molds out of one color at a time.  They both, however, love getting creative with this dough tool kit that makes over 31 different shapes.  We used store bought Play-Doh but you can also make your own at home with these easy instructions.   If you don’t have any dough specific tools, try using a plastic spoon, knife, fork, and cups as play tools.

Materials: Play-Doh, dough tool kit

Time to Create: instant

7. Build a Fort

My kids love to play pretend and building indoor forts lets them exercise that imagination.  I like to keep it simple by getting the kids to help me set up two chairs and blankets. Then I decorate it with fairy lights while they grab their favorite toys and crawl in.  They’ll play in their fort for hours, so I make it cozier for them with pillows and a snack. As an alternative to chairs, you could cover a table with your blanket. If you’re looking to take it up a notch, you can find three other ways to make blanket forts here.

Materials: two chairs, blanket, fairy lights (optional)

Time to Create: less than 5 minutes

8. Pasta Noodle Sensory Bin

Pasta noodles make for a great sensory activity.  Kids love the feeling of dipping their hands into a bucket of items.  I empty three boxes of dry elbow macaroni into a large tub and add small toy animals, cups, and spoons for playing.  Make sure you lay a blanket or plastic sheet underneath for easy clean up. The kids love to hide and dig for the animals or scoop and pour out the macaroni.  If you don’t have dry elbow macaroni, some great alternatives would be dried beans, uncooked rice grains, or sand.

Materials: 2.5 gallon plastic container, dried elbow pasta, toy animals, spoons, and cups

Time to Create: less than 5 minutes

9. Glue and Colored Paper

This is a great activity to teach colors and shapes while practicing fine motor skills.  I cut shapes out of colored construction paper for the kids to glue onto paper. I have them use washable glue sticks since it makes less of a mess than liquid glue.  You can also draw out the shapes and have the older kids cut them out. If you don’t have colored paper you can use regular white paper and have the kids color them in.

Materials: colored construction paper, glue sticks, markers or crayons, kid scissors

Time to Create: less than 5 mins to cut shapes

What are your go-to indoor activities with your kids?