Indoor games and recreational activities recommended for summer

6 Easy Indoor Activities You Can Enjoy

[Make the Most of Spare Moments] 6 Easy Indoor Games Kids Can Enjoy [For Elementary Schoolers]

When rainy weather continues or the heat keeps you indoors, kids can’t move their bodies as much and may start to feel stressed.

Here are some recommended indoor activities that get them moving.

Try simple seated games like “Tonton Surisuri” or finger-play exercises to combine light gymnastics with brain training.

For example, with Tonton Surisuri, sit down and lightly pat one thigh with one hand while you make a fist with the other hand and rub the other thigh.

Doing two different actions at the same time is said to help build attention and provide brain-training benefits.

Give these easy exercises a try and have fun staying active indoors.

expand_lessRaise the rankingexpand_morelower

Nakajima Junko

Report a problem

Make ice cream

Just knead it in a bag! 4 easy ice cream recipes

When you think of summer, you can’t help but crave an ice-cold frozen treat, right? Ice cream is easy to buy, so making it yourself might not even cross your mind.

But there’s actually a fun, simple way to make delicious ice cream—even kids can do it.

All you need is a food storage bag.

Just put the ingredients for the flavor you want inside the bag.

For example, for a yogurt-kiwi ice, add yogurt, kiwi, lemon juice, and honey to taste into the food storage bag, then squeeze and mash it with your hands.

Pop it in the freezer, and you’ll be amazed at how easily you can make a tasty ice treat! Try it with whatever flavors you like.

It’s a safe and fun indoor activity—and delicious, too.

Highly recommended.

expand_lessRaise the rankingexpand_morelower

Yuuko.S

Report a problem

Make curry

Asahi, Mom, and Ginta are making curry! Slime Curry

Let’s try making curry! But not real curry—we’ll play by making slime curry.

If you search online, you’ll find recipes for making slime.

It’s a pretend-cooking game where you make curry: preparing rice with play materials, chopping vegetables, simmering in a pot—it’s a really fun activity for kids who love cooking.

Through this kind of play, children can learn the actual steps of cooking, which comes in handy when they make real curry, so it’s highly recommended.

Give it a try when you want to enjoy an indoor activity that’s a bit different from the usual.

expand_lessRaise the rankingexpand_morelower

Yuuko.S

Report a problem

Do-Re-Mi Song Game

[Viral] We tried the Do-Re-Mi Song Game that gets super hyped with friends #SuzuKokoKosuke

Guaranteed to get everyone excited! Let’s play the Do-Re-Mi Song Game.

It’s a game where you sing the well-known Do-Re-Mi song but change the order of the notes.

And while singing in a different order, you’re not allowed to change the pitch.

Since we’ve listened to and sung it so much in places like school, even just disrupting the Do-Re-Mi scale makes it hard.

You get confused because the pitch that usually follows “Do” might suddenly be “La,” for example.

You won’t realize how tricky it is until you try—but it’s super fun! Give it a go as an indoor activity!

expand_lessRaise the rankingexpand_morelower

Yuuko.S

Report a problem

Back text guessing game

I tried playing a game where my little sister writes letters on my back and I guess them. #SuzuKokoko-suke

The nerves in the back are much less sensitive than those in the palms or face, so they develop through playful training.

This is an activity you can start around age four.

For four-year-olds, pair them up and prepare cards with illustrations in advance to determine what to draw on the back.

Give the respondent the set of cards and ask, “Which card’s illustration is being drawn on your back?” For children aged six and up, have three kids line up one behind another and play like a telephone game: each child draws on the back of the person in front what was drawn on their own back.

Swirling Balloon

Is there any indoor play this fun? Spinning with a hair dryer!? Trying the whirling balloon. Reference: Denjiro Yonemura Science Production “Whirling Balloon Experiment” #short

For a moment, you might think it’s magic—but it’s actually very simple: you’re just keeping balloons afloat with a hair dryer’s airflow.

Inflate some balloons, stick them together with double-sided tape to form a ring, and blow air from a hair dryer up from below… the balloons will spin around! If you make a large ring, you can play by jumping through it.

You can also make a small ring of balloons and see how long you can keep it aloft without letting it fall by directing the air at it.

A cool-air setting is recommended over warm air on the hair dryer.

expand_lessRaise the rankingexpand_morelower

utatane

Report a problem

Vanilla ice cream tasting

Vanilla ice cream taste test! Can elementary school kids tell which one is Häagen-Dazs?

This is the classic taste-testing game.

You can choose whatever food you like, but let’s try using vanilla ice cream, which is easy to get in several varieties at convenience stores.

It looks simple but is actually tricky, so it’s a great game for the whole family to try, including Mom and Dad.

You could also change the difficulty by using potato chips or other snacks instead of vanilla ice cream.

expand_lessRaise the rankingexpand_morelower

Murakami Shinpei

Report a problem