[Childcare] Perfect Indoor Play Ideas for 0-Year-Olds!
Infants are curious about all kinds of things—they love to take their time observing, and when something catches their eye, they move their bodies to explore places and objects.
Because this is a time when they encounter new things every day, we want them to enjoy a variety of play activities!
Indoor play, in particular, happens in limited spaces, so it often requires creative ideas and little setups—which can make it hard to come up with activities.
For that reason, we’ve gathered lots of indoor play ideas for infants to support teachers like you.
Just imagine the smiles of the children in your class, and even the preparation will feel exciting.
Take it slow indoors and enjoy a wonderful time with the children!
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[Childcare] Perfect Indoor Play Ideas for 0-Year-Olds (11–20)
block play
Block play that lets you assemble pieces to create various shapes like houses and rooms.
When people hear “blocks,” many may picture small pieces like LEGO bricks, but there are actually large blocks bigger than a child’s face! With larger ones, you don’t have to worry about them ending up in their mouth.
The appeal of blocks is that there are so many ways to enjoy them—assembling, grabbing and tossing, or having a teacher build a house and letting the children go inside.
Let’s have fun playing freely while combining the pieces in all sorts of ways.
[Interactive Play] Riding the Bus
![[Interactive Play] Riding the Bus](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ikW5lUa_PJY/sddefault.jpg)
Fureai play “Riding the Bus” is an activity enjoyed by sitting on an adult’s lap or on the floor.
The motion of leaning diagonally in the direction the bus turns is something many children enjoy, often with delighted squeals.
It’s a great interactive game to incorporate into daily childcare.
Because it’s a game that can be enjoyed on an adult’s lap, you can even stretch out your legs and seat two or three children at once to make it even more exciting! After a while, you’ll likely see the children taking on the adult role themselves, placing dolls on their legs and playing the same way.
Playing with dandelion fluff
How about an activity using a tampo, which lets kids paint in a stamp-like way? You can make a tampo by wrapping cotton with gauze, inserting a disposable chopstick, and securing it with a rubber band.
Dab paint onto the gauze part and tap it onto paper like a stamp to add color.
Unlike a brush, it doesn’t require delicate movements, so even infants around 0 years old can easily enjoy painting with paints—highly recommended.
Make several tampos and let them have fun tapping away, combining different colors to create their artwork.
Let’s attach it to a hula hoop and play
Attach strips of Suzuran tape to a hula hoop, and it transforms into a toy with lots of different ways to play! Let the children explore freely.
For preparation, fasten several long strips of Suzuran tape to part of the hula hoop.
Using a few colors makes it look nice.
Encourage the kids to crawl through the hoop or touch the fluttering tape and play however they like.
If you have several similar hoops ready, they can really settle in and play.
It’s a great idea for lots of indoor fun.
drop-in box toy
“Pot-ton Drop” is one of the important activities that promotes hand–eye coordination.
You can make a DIY version with large paper clips and a plastic food storage container.
The method is simple: just make holes in the container lid that are the right size for the clips! Make several holes at different orientations.
Let the children play by dropping the clips into the holes.
It’s a simple setup, but picking up a clip with their fingers and inserting it into a hole requires fine finger dexterity.
Make sure to give them plenty of time to play until they’re satisfied.
interactive play
Young infants spend a lot of time lying down, don’t they? How about trying some bonding play that even tiny babies can enjoy together with you? By making eye contact and touching someone close to them, babies feel a sense of security and closeness, and discover how fun it is to interact with people.
Let’s actively weave these moments into everyday life.
When you engage in bonding play, try to create a gentle atmosphere so your baby can relax and enjoy it.
Pay attention to their reactions as you talk to them and share skin-to-skin contact, and enjoy a happy time with your adorable baby.
[Childcare] Perfect for 0-year-olds! Indoor Play Ideas (21–30)
New Year’s games that even 0-year-olds can enjoy
It’s fun to play basketball indoors, isn’t it? For balls, inflate balloons and prepare plenty of them.
If you add vinyl tape to the surface to mimic a basketball design, it will really boost the atmosphere.
For the hoop, take a pool noodle from a 100-yen shop, cut it lengthwise in half, form it into a circle, secure it with masking tape, and stick it to the wall.
You can adjust the height to match the players’ level, so once everyone gets used to it, raise the difficulty and enjoy making it more game-like.
