Best Indoor Games
So you’ve got a few days to enjoy the great indoors with the family. Now, there are enough hours in the day for proper family time, you could be looking for ways to keep all ages busy and suitably entertained. Before you start to droop under the burden of such a major responsibility here are a few of the best indoor game ideas to deliver fun at home for the family.
1. The Tall Tower
The kids will love everything about this cool indoor game, be it building the block tower or watching it collapse at the end. It’s easy to set up if you can find 15 empty boxes – but any old box that once held crackers, oats, cereal, or other dry goods are good. Use tape to seal the tops and if you’ve got the inclination wrap each one up to make them sturdier.
Once everything is in order, start with the youngest placing a box on the floor and have each player take turns placing one box on top to make a tower. When the tower topples whoever placed the last box is out of the game. Continue until there’s only one player left, the winner. Play best of three to find the best tower builder. This is a great fun-filled game for when you’ve lively stuck indoors on wet days.
2. Pom Pom Curling
Although not played on ice, this indoor broom brushing type of game is loosely based on curling and is perfect for keeping six children active, challenged, and busy trying to win tabletop tournaments. You need to acquire two pom-poms at least and a lot of drinking straws and hop online to print off a large target to tape to one end of your long rectangular table.
With three players in each team, decide on a team name and who will open the game as the bowler and who start as the left hand or right-hand blower. Everyone must play each position to make one game. The bowler stands at the end of the table at the opposite end to the target and starts by rolling a pom-pom towards the target, while the blowers blow through their straws to help the pom-pom on its way until it crosses into the target. Keep a record of the score. The next team takes their turn until everyone has bowled and blown a pom-pom into the target. Add up the scores to find which team is the winner.
3. Hard To Chews
Hard to Chews is always a great choice for a fun indoor game and it’s long been a summer-camp staple. All it takes to win is dexterity and bubble gum chewing skills. Start by placing mittens or socks on each player’s hands. Get a bowl of wrapped bubble gums and give one to each player.
Each player must unwrap the gum as quickly as possible and then chew it to blow a bubble to win. With a bowl full of bubble gums, you can have several elimination rounds to find the ultimate Hard to Chews winner.
4. Thin Ice
Perhaps you’re looking for a simple yet effective indoor game to add some thrills and keep kids occupied. Thin Ice is a suspenseful game that looks easy but tests strategy and skill. To set things up, you need a tissue held tautly in place over a mug by a rubber band. Place a quarter on the tissue and start the game by rolling a die.
Each player poke holes in the tissue for the number on the die. A player is eliminated when they get careless and send the quarter down into the mug. Reset and replay. This is an indoor game that gets better with practice.
5. Try Javelin Straws
Do you love the way the athletes throw javelins in the Olympics? Okay, launching paper javelins isn’t quite the same but it still takes skill. And some straws. Use a 6 x 2 inches strip of paper and roll it around a pencil to make a paper javelin. Seal the seam with tape. Make five more and then find yourself a suitable target, like the waste paper basket.
Grab your javelins and from five feet away prepare to launch your javelins by sliding them over a straw. Aim to land in the javelin in the basket by giving the straw a jolly good blow. This can be a solo beat my best sort of game but equally fun played one on one or teams.
More Fun Indoors
Card games, from Old Maid and Snap to Blackjack and Bridge are long time indoor game favorites, and a game of Bingo or Charades always goes down well, in real life and these days, even by video online. Then, of course, there are board games, Monopoly and Scrabble and there’s checkers, chess, and backgammon. Dot and Boxes is another great choice as a quickfire pencil and paper game like Tic Tac Toe but there are also traditional Battleships for those needing more of a challenge. These are the classic indoor games that are guaranteed to bring some slow-burn excitement into your day. Similarly, you can try a faster-paced game of Disney/Star Wars Movie Quotes, and test each players’ movie knowledge.
Having a few games ready up your sleeve for any occasion isn’t a bad idea but it’s especially worthwhile if you know you are likely to be indoors for a while. You don’t need to splash out and spend a small fortune on commercial games if you get creative and are handy with sticky tape. Whatever lies ahead, at least with this really useful list you’ll have some ideas for the best indoor games that will keep everyone entertained.
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