We’ve all been there. You want to spend some quality time with your grandchildren but either you can’t be there in person, or the weather has got in the way of your plans. It can be frustrating, especially when you want to make the most of your time with them. Luckily, there’s still plenty of fun indoor activities to while away the hours either in person or virtually. Let’s have a look at some of the best indoor activities to do with your grandchildren. By the end of the day, you might have been scientists, artists, world-explorers or even 5-star chefs!
Bring the outdoors in with a drawing
Little ones tend to love the outdoors, so a great way to bring nature inside is to get their imagination flowing. All you need is some paper and pens, felt-tips or paint and you and your grandchildren can get to work drawing beautiful landscapes, or even local parks. It’s free, fun and could keep them busy for hours.
Collaging
If you don’t have much in the way of art tools you can still get creative with collaging. Gather up any old newspapers, magazines or paper scraps you have lying about and get to work. Give your grandchildren an idea or theme to stick to and see how creative they get. The possibilities are endless.
Build a fort
If your grandchildren prefer to be a bit more active, building a fort could be something fun to try. All you need are some pillows, blankets, and sheets. Cardboard boxes are a bonus. All you need to do is drape the blankets and sheets over some sturdy furniture (like a kitchen table or chair) and add some pillows and teddies in for comfort. Your grandchildren will now have their very own fort.
Cooking or baking
Many of us have fond memories of spending time in the kitchen with our loved ones growing up, so cooking or baking with your grandchildren could be a great way to make some treasured memories. If you need some ideas, BBC Good Food has plenty of kid-friendly recipes for your budding little chefs!
Read a book together
Reading is not only fun, it’s also good for you. When you can’t go out and explore your own world, reading gives you the chance to have adventures with your grandchildren in exciting new places. Get their imagination going with our list of recommended books to read with the little ones.
Take it a step further and write a book together
When you’ve explored a few different worlds with your grandchildren, why not create a new one together? Ask them what kind of story they would like to write and help them bring it to life. All you have to do is get a few A4 pages, fold them in half and staple them at the spine. Encourage them to include illustrations alongside the story and you’ll have a beautiful keepsake.
Puzzles
Puzzles are something that can be enjoyed no matter what age your grandchildren are. If you choose a more complicated puzzle, create a dedicated space for it where all the pieces will be safe so that they can come back and finish it at a later time if necessary.
Hide and seek
An oldie and a goldie! Hide and seek is a traditional game that is sure to have everyone in fits of giggles by the end. Make it a bit harder by playing to music so you can’t hear where they might be hiding!
Try out a science experiment
Children tend to be naturally curious and love to find out how it is that things work, so what better activity to try than a science experiment at home! Whether it’s learning how to make an egg bounce, or creating a volcano, there are hours of fun to be had with these playful experiments.
Have a picnic
Yes, you read that right. Bad weather doesn’t need to get in the way of your picnic plans. Put down a blanket in the middle of the room, grab a basket and layout all your tasty picnic snacks. Better yet, invite all the teddies in the house and you’ll be able to have a teddy bear’s picnic.
Looking for activities that can be done virtually?
You might not always get the chance to spend time with your grandchildren in person, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still do lots of fun activities together. Thanks to clever technology, we can video call and spend some time virtually with our loved ones whenever we want to. Many of the suggestions above can be adapted and done over a video call.
A puppet show
Maybe your grandchild is a budding star that wants to put on a show, or maybe you’d like to create a sock puppet performance for them. Whatever it is, a virtual puppet show can be a lot of fun and is a great way to involve the whole family.
20 Questions
To play this game you have to think of a person, place, or a thing, and the other person has to guess what you’re thinking of by asking 20 questions or less. Remember, they must only be yes-or-no questions!
A story chain
This works best with a group of people but can be done with just two. One person starts the story by saying something like ‘once upon a time’ and the next person comes up with the following sentence. It’s a simple way to have a lot of fun and create endless possibilities for your stories.
Hopefully, these activities have helped to inspire you. Whatever it is that you choose to do with your grandchildren the important thing is to have fun. They grow up so fast, so making the most of this time is something you won’t regret.