Obstacle course

Create a course and time each person as they go through it. Obstacles can be
things like climbing under chairs, doing a hula hoop, climbing up the stairs,
walking like a crab, or army crawling. Do the course again, and have everyone
try to beat their own time.

Balloon volleyball, balloon toss, or balloon stomp

Split into two teams, and use a couch, rope laid on the ground, or another
divider as a net. Try to spike the balloon on the ground on your opponent’s side.

For younger kids, work together to hit the balloon up, and keep it in the air for
as many consecutive hits as you can.

Balloon stomp:

For this game, you’ll need a balloon for each person. Use string to tie the balloon
to each person’s ankle. When the game starts, everyone tries to stomp on the
other people’s balloons. If your balloon gets popped, you’re out of the game.

Last person without a popped balloon win.

Fish bowl Game:

Everyone writes five names (or more if you decide) on slips of paper. Fold the

papers, and put them in a basket, bowl, or fish bowl. Split into two teams,
and take turns.

One player at a time will try to get their teammates to guess the names until
time runs out (usually one minute for round 1 & 2 and 30 seconds for round 3).
Score one point for every name guessed correctly.

The first round, use words to describe the person or name you’re trying to get
your team to guess. The first round ends when every player has had a turn. At
the end of the round, take out any names that weren’t used and put the used
names back in the bowl.

The second round, act without words or sounds. The round ends when all the
names have been acted. At the end of the round, return the names to the bowl.
The third round, say only one word. Again, the round ends when all the names
have been used. At the end of three rounds, the team with the most points win.

Charades
This classic game of acting never grows old. Typically, charades are played in
two teams. One person acts out the clue without talking or making sounds. If
their team guesses the clue correctly, that team scores a point.

However, with only a few people, we have also just taken turns acting without
anyone keeping score. It’s still a lot of fun.

Make-up a list of words that have to do with an upcoming holiday, pick a theme
like movies, or simply allow players to act out whatever they want.

Dice race
On a piece of paper, have each person write all the possible combinations for
rolling two dice. For example, 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, etc. When you’re ready to start,
have each person roll two dice and cross off the rolled combination. Race to be
the first one first to cross off every combination.

To include more movement, keep the paper on the opposite side of the room
from the dice.

Sink or float experiment

Gather objects from around the house, making certain they are all waterproof.
Fill a sink, bucket, or bathtub with water. Guess whether each object will sink or
float. Test the object to see if you’re right. You can record your findings in
this Free Printable Sink or Float Chart.

After finding out which objects float, you can guess which one can hold the most
weight. Test your guess by putting pennies or another small object on top.

These experimental indoor activities for families are simple and fun, while
encouraging kids to practice the scientific method.
Roll and Toss Math Game
For this game you’ll need one or two dice (depending on which level you want to
play) and either paper cups or plastic cups with paper labels taped on. Decide
which level of the game you want to play, and label the cups accordingly.

The easiest level is single number recognition, which only needs one die, and
you’ll label the cups numbers 1-6. The next levels are addition (label cups 2-12)
or subtraction (label cups 0-5).

The third level is multiplication (label possible products for factors 1-6, such as 1-
6, 12, 24, etc.), or fractions (label the cups with circles with different pie pieces
colored in showing the possible fractions made from the combination of numbers
1-6). For extra math practice, figure out together what the possible rolls will be.

To play the game, roll the dice, and try to throw a ping pong ball into the
corresponding cup. You can play slowly and figure out the problems together.
Alternately, each person can have their own dice, and it can be a race to be the
first person to complete three correct tosses.

Make beads, necklaces, or friendship bracelets

Make your own beads with Polymer Clay Oven Bake Modeling Clay, or a really
simple method is to make beads by rolling paper around a straw.

Whether you are stringing your homemade beads, pony beads, tiny glass beads,
or Cheerios, making necklaces is an artful way to practice hand-eye coordination.
Alternately, use yarn or embroidery floss to practice braiding, or learn more
intricate styles for making friendship bracelets.

Compose a song
Play around with making up a song. You can try to compose a melody too, or
use a melody you all know and write new lyrics. Our kids surprised us one time
when they wrote new words all about grandma, her cooking, and good
memories.
Musical guessing games
Print this Instrument Guessing Game Free Printable that goes with this
instrument video I found on YouTube. I like this video because of the variety of
instruments like bagpipes and harmonica. Listen to the video and try to guess
which instrument is playing.

Name that Tune is another fun musical guessing game. You can use the first
notes of random songs on Pandora or Amazon Music or however you listen to
music. Alternately, take turns humming a song for other family members to
guess

Scavenger hunt
In a scavenger hunt, you look for items that match your list of prompts. The
prompts can be specific, like “You’re blue t-shirt,” but more often, they’re
general, like “Something blue.” You can decide to gather the objects (but then
you have to put them back again), mark them off on your list, or write what
specific object you found.

Make your own scavenger hunt list, or check out this free printable list of indoor
scavenger hunt ideas. Scavenger hunts are really fun outdoor or indoor activities
for families.