Indoor Camping Activities to Do With Your Children

What Can You Do With Your Kids When You Can’t Go Outside?

What parent hasn’t expressed aloud, or at least to themselves, “Stop growing up so fast!”, when talking about their children? The reality is, parents are busy today and that can contribute to the speed of our available time. That’s why it’s even more disappointing when you have a family camping trip get cancelled because of rain. Camping provides a lot of fun outdoor activities for kids.

And even when a camping trip turns into an indoor trip, there are still ways to make camping fun. Here are some activities you can do with children while indoors on a camping trip.

Create and Play Musical Instruments

Parents and children can combine to use their imaginations in planning, creating and playing a variety of musical instruments. Start with these ideas:

• Drums. It can be fun to let loose on a homemade drum set with children and materials around the home are usually abundant. Of course, pots and pans with wooden spoons are a traditional start but you can stretch balloons over metal bowls of various sizes to create homemade drums. Coffee or powdered drink containers with plastic lids can also imitate drum-like sounds.
• Guitars. Tissue or empty cereal boxes can be the start of a homemade guitar when wrapping or paper towel tubes are inserted for use as the neck. Rubber bands can be cut to serve as strings. PBS has an easy to follow guide to making guitars out of boxes.
• Kazoos. Kazoos can create fun sounds and laughter while helping children learn about sound and vibration. British Columbia’s “Science World” has a detailed look on how to make kazoos out of common household materials and what children can learn in the process.
• Maracas. Maracas are easy to make with rice and plastic Easter eggs or using toilet paper tubes with the ends sealed. Simply shake to the beat!
• Spoons. Don’t have any musical instruments handy? Make music by clicking two spoons together or tapping on a camping cooking pot or pan. And don’t forget to sing along!

For those who want even more ideas, Felt Magnet has over 50 ideas for instruments that can be made at home.

Make Homemade Silly Putty

Putty can provide hours of entertainment, especially when making it becomes part of the fun. Silly Putty can be shaped, molded and can even copy cartoons and printed materials when pressed onto newspapers. Silly putty can be made using three simple ingredients; white glue, cornstarch and food colouring.

PBS Parents has full details on making homemade Silly Putty.

Homemade Finger Paint that is Edible

For parents of younger children of three years or under, there may be a concern about introducing them to finger paints. Younger children may have a tendency to put their fingers in their mouth and traditional finger paints may not be ideal. The answer? Homemade finger paints that are edible! While this finger paint is not designed to be eaten (it is actually intentionally bland) it is made from edible ingredients that won’t harm a child if digested. Ingredients include corn flour or cornstarch, water and food coloring.

The entire simple and safe recipe and instructions can be found at the Learning4Kids website.

Creating Lasting Memories

You’ll not only be creating music, art and learning opportunities, indoor activities with children can create an assortment of lasting memories. Make sure moments are captured in images that may also be used in another indoor activity for another day; creating a parent/child collage. Enjoy your children as they do in fact, grow up so very fast.

The responses below are not provided, commissioned, reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any financial entity or advertiser. It is not the advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.