Fun Rainy Day Activities for Kids & Indoor Games

Need some fun rainy day activities for kids? If you’re like me, your always looking for new things to do on a rainy day at home to keep your kids busy. Fun indoor games for the whole family that will keep your kids off electronics and from driving you crazy.

Ward off your kid’s cabin fever with some energy-busting activities like hallway laser maze, indoor obstacle course, balloon games, hot lava, and more. Then calm the kids down with fun activities like board games, a cardboard reading nook, lego challenges, escape room games, and Minute to Win it Games. It’s a great way for kids of all ages to have a good time when you’re stuck indoors.

Use these fun indoor games to create a go-to list for the next time it rains. This way there is no stress coming up with kids’ indoor activities at the last minute.

I’ve included fun family game night ideas with activities you can do together as a family too! So check out my list of the best rainy day activities with kids and get inspired for your next rainy day.

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Fun Rainy Day Activities for Kids & Indoor Games

Indoor Games with Balloons

Creating indoor games with balloons is a cheap and fun way to entertain your kids at home. Even big kids will enjoy these fun activities. It’s a good idea to keep a bag of balloons on hand so you’re ready for a rainy day.

Find a few great ways to make balloon games or visit our 15 Awesome Balloon Games for Kids at Parties & Home for even more game ideas.

Balloon Hockey

What you need: two laundry baskets and hockey sticks, kid’s golf clubs, or even the cardboard from inside of a large tube of wrapping paper.

The last one might be the safest. Then a bag of balloons from the Dollar Store. Split the family into teams and see which team can get the most goals  

Balloon Tennis

What you need: Paper plates, balloons, masking tape, then either plastic spoons or a wooden paint stirrer (you can get these free at Menards or Home Depot).

This game is a great way to use up the last of the paper plates from a kid’s birthday party or holiday event. I used up the end of our Halloween plates the last time we played. 

Tape your spoon or wooden stirrer to the back of your paper plate. Then use it like a tennis racket and the balloon as your ball. Hit the balloon back and forth and see which team can keep the balloon in the air the longest.

You could also have the kids individually try to use their paddles to keep the balloon in the air. 

Tip: These are great games to use at sports-themed birthday parties, too. Find more fun birthday party game ideas.

Find more group balloon game ideas you can use at birthday parties, class parties, or backyard BBQs

Hopscotch

What you need: Blue Painters Tape

Use Painters tape to create hopscotch for your kids to hop through. I use painter’s tape because it comes off my floor without leaving any tape marks.

To get an extra boost of energy have the kids hop on one foot or place it at the bottom of the stairs so they can then hop up the stairs.

We use this as a Brain Break idea during Remote Learning too.

What you need: Blue Painters Tape & Streamers

Create a fun laser maze for your kids to climb through. It’s super easy to do with streamers taped across your hallway. I suggest using painter’s tape so that you don’t ruin the paint on your walls.

When it’s all set up let your kids try to get through the maze without touching the lasers (streamers).

This can be a challenging game for kids of all ages just adjust how close the steamers are to try and get through. You can keep changing the course to make it easier or harder for your kids too.

Learn more about making your own DIY Hallway Laser Maze.

Indoor Obstacle Course 

Turn your living room into an indoor obstacle course. It’s a fun activity that will help your kids burn tons of energy.

Use pillows, small cones, hula hoops, or anything you already have in your house and set up an obstacle course to run through. The kids can help make up the course, run through it, and then keep changing it to make it better.

Hot Lava

What you need: Pillows

Turn your living room into an indoor obstacle course with hot lava. Kids pretend that the floor is hot lava and they can’t touch the floor.

Let them make a path with pillows to jump on to make it to a “safe” place like the couch. Keep redoing the path to keep the game going.

If you don’t want the kids jumping on your pillows try the game The Floor is Lava. It’s really fun and has all the pieces to jump on to save your pillows.

Cardboard Toys

Use up all those cardboard boxes from Amazon or Costco and create cheap & fun indoor toys for kids. Spend the entire day creating these cardboard toys and let your kids use their imagination to play with them.

Get inspired with our list of 10 Cool Things to Make with Cardboard.

Book Nook – Kids will love a cozy book nook they can read a favorite book in on a rainy day. All you need is a large box that you can decorate and then add pillows and blankets to make it warm and inviting. The perfect place for a good book.

DIY Cardboard Marble Run – Make a cool Marble run with an old box and paper towel rolls for a fun STEM project at home.

DIY Spinning Nerf Targets – Cool cardboard targets for kids who love to play with Nerf Guns.

Family Game Night Ideas

Plan a fun family game night on rainy days indoors or host a monthly game night for your whole family to bond together. Enjoy playing games like Charades, Pictionary, Spoons, Card nights, Indoor Scavenger Hunts, or try a Family Olympics.

You’ll find tons of indoor game ideas in my Best Family Game Night Ideas.

No time to plan a family game night? Don’t worry I make it easy with the Ultimate Family Game Night Printable with 30 pages of pre-planned games, tips, food ideas, prizes, and more.

Everything you need for 12 months of planned family Game Nights.

Would You Rather Game

Kids love playing the Funny Would You Rather Games. It’s a great way to start a conversation with your kids.

Ask the kids silly questions like Would You Rather have bad breath or stinky feet or Would You Rather eat worms or beetles?

Go around the table and see what each of you would rather do. Then find out why they’d eat a worm instead of a beetle. The answers are the funniest part!

Get a free printable list of Would You Rather Questions for Kids

Minute to Win It Games

Minute to Win It is games and activities that need to be completed in one minute. They are quick and fun games to play that keep the kids interested and excited.

Get even more ideas from:

20 Easy Minute To Win It Games for Kids,

Family Friendly Minute to Win It Christmas Games.

Older kids will enjoy our Teens & Tweens Minute to Win It Games.

Cup Stacking

What you need: 42 solo cups, that’s it.  

Two kids each get 21 cups and have one minute to stack them, make a pyramid, and re-stack them in a minute’s time. Whoever does it the fastest wins.

When the game is done let them make their own designs for fun with the cups. Add some army men, little dinosaurs, or princesses figures and let the kids add them to the castle/pyramid structures for pretend play.   

Coin Stacking

What you need: 50 pennies (amount for 2 players) 

Kids each get a stack of 25 pennies and must stack them up in a minute’s time. The fastest one wins. This is harder than you think.

Suck it Up

What you Need: 50 M&Ms or Skittles, 2 Straws, and 4 paper plates (amount for 2 players) 

Each child gets a straw, 2500 M&Ms, and 2 paper plates. The kids have one minute to move all the M&Ms from one plate to the other by sucking them at the end of the straw.

Whoever finishes first, wins. Bonus: kids get to eat the candy which makes this a favorite. 

Escape Room Games

Your kids will have a blast playing escape room games on a cold or rainy day. They are super easy to do with Printable Escape Room Games kits. Kids will read a thrilling story while they try to solve puzzles and complete challenges to escape the room.

Our favorite printable Escape Room games are from Escape Room Geeks and Lock Paper Scissors. You’ll see an age range for each kit so you can easily find the appropriate difficulty level for your kids. The kits range from age 5 years old to Teens.

The best part the downloadable & printable escape games have everything you’ll need. Just print it out and play. Great for last-minute planning!

Use our review to find the perfect escape room games for your kids.

Dot to Dot & Coloring Worksheets

Kids of all ages will enjoy dot-to-dot worksheets and discovering what pictures will emerge. Once kids have connected the dots they can use the printable worksheets as coloring pages in their own creative way to bring out the hidden picture.

This is great for practicing their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination too.

Grab your FREE Dot to Dot Printable Worksheets and pick from number recognition to animals, food, cars, flowers, and more fun dot-to-dot puzzles.

Also, try our free printable Dinosaur Coloring Pages and Alphabet Coloring Pages.

Board Games

Dust off all those games in the closet, then order in some pizza, make an ice cream bar and play a couple of board games together.  It’s a great way to entertain the whole family.

If your looking for a fun board game try Candyland for younger kids and Monopoly or Sorry for older children.

My kids absolutely love playing Monopoly and you can find versions with their favorite characters like Toy Story or Fortnite.

We also enjoy playing Jenga together.  It’s a great group game with the added suspense of when will the blocks will all fall down.

For trivia, lovers try the guessing game Headbanz. There are several varieties to make it harder or easier depending on your child’s age. 

If you’re stuck at home host a Zoom Family Game Night with Friends and Family. Get some game ideas on our 15 fun Games to Play on Zoom with Kids.

Paper Airplane Challenge

All you need is some paper from your computer printer, then have the kids fold their airplanes and decorate them. This could take a while just in itself.

Then start racing them and see whose plane goes the furthest or which could do tricks. You can add on paper clips as weights to see if that makes a difference in speed or distance. (bonus science lesson) 

Do you need some help coming up with different types of paper airplanes to make? Get this book with tons of easy-to-make plane varieties. I found our kids were more excited about playing when they had a new type of plane each round. 

10 Minute Lego Challenge

Have the kids do a Lego Challenge to use their creativity and keep busy. Put out a box of random Lego pieces.

Then give the kids 10 minutes to create something out of the Lego pieces available. It’s fun to see what they can create in a short time.

Kids Crafts

A great idea on a rainy day is doing crafts together. It’s a great way to keep the kids busy at home and use their creativity.

My kids love to make these easy Coffee Filter Butterflies. All you need is coffee filters, a water bottle, and markers to make these beautiful butterflies they can spend all day creating.

If you have old cardboard boxes use them to make Cardboard Butterfly Crafts. A fun recycled art activity with tissue paper, cardboard & markers.

Related Article – Painting with Bubbles A fun art activity at home

STEM Activities

Try these cool Science Activities on Rainy Day at Home.

Make a Cool Rain Cloud in a Jar with only a few items. Kids will love watching the food dye (rain) go through the shaving cream (clouds).

Learn How to Make a Volcano at Home. Kids will be in awe when it explodes. They’ll want to try it over and over again.

Where to Play these Indoor Games

Besides using these games at home on rainy days they would be great as birthday party games for a bigger group.

I also love using Minute to Win it Games at school parties, they are always a hit! Or check out our list of easy Elementary School Party Games for more ideas and inspiration.

If you want something more virtual try our Zoom Games for kids. They can visit with friends and have fun playing games without being in contact. Everything from one on one battleships to group games like Are you Smarter Than a 5th grader.

More Games to Play at Home

If you want more indoor games and outdoor activities that won’t cost you a thing use our list of 60 Free Things to Do with Kids. These would be great for trying out a no-spend weekend with the kids.

In the winter get your kids outdoors with 30 Fun Outdoor Winter Activities for Kids.

Head out on a family nature scavenger hunt through your neighborhood or a local nature trail for a free day out too.

Turn your backyard into an awesome playground with these easy DIY Outdoor Yard Games with Dollar Tree items.

Reconnect with your kids and enjoy quality time together with Fun Family Bonding Activities at Home. Cheap Things to do the whole family will enjoy together.

Trying to work from home with kids? Use the I’m Bored Jar to keep kids busy while you work. Filled with 36 Things to Do When Your Kids are Bored.

Or use this Free Printable Screen Time Rules checklist so kids know what is expected of them this summer before they get on electronics. No more arguing just point to this checklist.

Are you ready now for upcoming bad weather, rainy days, or days off school? The great part about these fun indoor games is you can adjust them so all ages can have lots of fun playing these games. Use your next rainy day as the perfect time to have blast with your whole family at home.

Start out using these as fun things to do on rainy days with the kids and then add a weekly game night to your schedule. Once you start this you, will be surprised how much they love playing family games and don’t mind ditching their electronics.

Well, maybe not ditching the electronics forever, but at least for some nights. But hey, that’s a win too. Make sure to put your phone away, too!

I hope you enjoyed these fun rainy day activities for kids and found cool things to do on a rainy day at home.

If you have another great indoor game your family likes to play please share it with us in the comments. I love hearing from my readers.

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