Easy Indoor Activities for Kids

Pass the time with easy indoor activities for kids on a cold or rainy day. Offer your kids an activity that gets them interacting with plants or animals and teaches them valuable skills.

Let your kids learn by doing and by observation, and stimulate their sense of wonder about the natural world. Challenge them physically while teaching them at the same time.

On the following pages, you'll get great ideas for indoor activities to teach your kids.

Cat Walking

Teach your kids how to walk like a cat -- it's a lot harder than you think! Read about this easy indoor activity and watch your kids have fun.

Colorful Carnation

This innovative indoor activity teaches kids how flowers "drink" water. Learn how to prepare a colorful carnation, and watch the water disappear.

Cat walking encourages kids to try to walk like a cat. Learn how to play Cat Walking on the next page.

Looking for more indoor fun to have with your kids? Try:

Cat Walking

Cat walking is an easy indoor activity for kids that's educational and fun. This purrrfectly wonderful activity will keep you on your toes.

Step One: Scientists say cats actually walk on their toes at least 80 percent of the time. Could you manage that?

Step Two: Practice walking on your toes to your favorite song, counting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 as you go. When you get to 9 and 10, walk as you normally do. Start your cat walk again, counting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, then walking flat-footed again for steps 9 and 10. How do your legs feel?

Step Three: Want to test a new catlike rhythm? Do the same cat walk to the beats of your name.

The colorful carnation activity clearly shows kids how flowers "drink" water. Read about colorful carnation on the next page.

Looking for more indoor fun to have with your kids? Try:

Colorful Carnation

Colorful carnation is an easy indoor activity that teaches kids how cut flowers stay beautiful. Do flowers ever get thirsty? In this project, you can actually watch a flower "drink" water.

What You'll Need:

White Carnation
Scissors or Knife
Two Glasses
Water
Red and Blue Food Coloring

Step One: Get a white carnation with a long stem. Cut the carnation's stem lengthwise, from the bottom to about halfway up to the flower.

Step Two: Now fill two glasses with water. Use food coloring to color the water in one of the glasses dark red. Color the water in the other glass dark blue.

Step Three: Put the glasses right next to each other. Put one half of the carnation stem into each glass.

Step Four: Check the carnation a day later, and two days later. Can you tell that the carnation has been drinking the water? You'll notice that the water travels up the tubes into the stem to reach the other parts of the plant.