If your child is like mine, they are getting to the end of their capacity for indoor boredom. I’d love to let him head outside and get some energy out, but it is still a bit too cold in the Northeast. Nicer weather is on the way, but you might have a few more weeks of restless kids around the house. Here are some tips to keep them busy until they can play outside.

1. Bring the Outside in.
Grab a few bins and containers and grab some of the best of outdoors for your little one to play with inside. Playing with sticks, gravel, a small bag of sand, water or even snow can turn into a fun activity. This one can be messy, so be ready to sweep up or have a small tarp to play on.

2. Blanket Forts.
Maybe it is the engineer in me, but I love trying to come up with ways to set up blankets and chairs and turn them into a special little forts. I have fun doing it and I assume my son likes it too. I find that lightweight sheets are the least likely to fall down. Use binder clips or clothes pins to keep things in place. I also like grabbing a string of Christmas lights to hang inside to brighten things up.

3. Helping in the Kitchen.
My little guy loves to cook and sometimes that just means watching Mommy cook. We give him simple tasks like helping to pour an ingredient or giving something a quick stir. He loves taking pride in the finished product knowing that he helped.

4. Chores.
I think that chores are a great way to teach kids discipline and responsibility. That said, it is never very easy to get kids to cooperate when you are asking them to help do something they don’t want to do. I try to make the job fun by turning it into a race or by making it a little more challenging. Let’s see how many of your stuffed animals you can through into your toy box from a few feet away.

5. Obstacle Course.
If your house is like mine, finding obstacles isn’t very hard to do. By setting up obstacles around the the house my son can race against Mommy and Daddy… and we don’t even need to let him win. He is so agile, that we couldn’t never keep up with him. And he loves watching Daddy get stuck under the coffee table.

6. Follow the Clues.
This is a treasure hunt game and it doesn’t need to be as involved as you think. While your little one is doing something else, grab a treat and a pad of paper. Hide the treat somewhere and come up with a simple clue to describe that location. For example: If you hide something under his placemat, you might say: Look in the place you spill your spaghetti. Take that note and hide it in another location. Do that about 5 to 10 times. Bring the last note to your child and tell him that you received a mysterious note and you need help to figure out what it means.

7. Scavenger Hunt.
Come up with a list of things that can found around the house and see if your little one can find everything on the list. If she can’t read yet, then you can be the list-holder and she can be the fetcher. Pick a number of common items and for some extra fun throw in a few strange items that you have strategically placed around the house.

I hope that helps get through the next few weeks. It won’t be long now. I’m getting my son’s balance bike out and ready to go as soon as he can get back out there.

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