Cheap and/or FREE Indoor Fun for the Kiddos.

     As a Mother, I am constantly on the prowl for cheap and/or FREE activities for my almost 2 year old son (Aidan) to do, at home. We typically only get out of the house once/week and there are no other kids close by, in his age-range, to play with. All of my work is done at home- with 2 home businesses- (except my house-keeping job every other week and making deliveries for my online Thrift Store and AVON businesses once/week.) and I also go to school online. However, between the hours of 1pm- 7:30pm - I do not do anything that does not involve my son. The reason I chose to work at home is to be able to spend time with him and not have to miss out on any precious moments. Therefore, I typically stay up half the night working so I can spend those 6  1/2 hours with him, every day. Someone recently asked me how I fit everything into a 24 hour day and still spend so much time with Aidan. The short and sweet answer is, I make it work. Spending time with him and not letting someone else raise him (babysitter, relative, etc) is the most important thing in the entire world to me. So I do what I have to do to make that happen. One day soon I'll post my schedule here for those who are interested. Give you an idea of "a day in the life" lol. But back to the topic at hand- cheap and/or free fun for the kiddos!

     As I was saying, I'm always looking for ideas of things to do with Aidan at home. We don't watch tv and we don't play video-games. The reason we don't watch tv AT ALL is because he doesn't have the patience for it, lol. The only time he'll look at the tv screen is if someone is singing or music of some sort is playing. He loves music and he loves to dance. =) I'm not saying I'll never allow him to play video-games, I enjoy them myself but haven't played in so long I can't even remember when the last time was. It was pre-Aidan, that's for sure, lol. He'll be introduced to video-games eventually, but he most certainly will NOT be a couch-potato!

     I've been wanting to make an actual list of activities, instead of trying to keep them all in my head. So tonight I decided to start on that, and figured why not share it with you guys while I'm at it. Some of these are obvious and some are not so obvious. I'll continue adding to this list, so be sure to keep checking back. I will also do some 'how to" posts soon, for some of the less-obvious activities on the list.

INDOOR Activities

• Finger-painting. ( I tried a recipe for finger-paint a while back that I had found on Pinterest. It did not turn out anything at all like I was expecting. I came across a little set at Hobby Lobby for $3 bucks and just decided to go ahead and buy it. After it runs out I'll be trying a couple more recipes until I eventually find one I'm pleased with. When that happens, I'll share the recipe with you.)
• Drawing.
• Reading.
• Coloring.
• Play-dough.
• Shaving cream- with or without food coloring. (I let Aidan do this is the tub before his bath. He loves it!)
•  Dancing. Turn on the radio, music channel on tv, or sing your own.
• Making music. Use store-bought instruments or make your own.
• Decorating clothes, pot holder, oven mitt, tote bag, etc with fabric paint or fabric markers.
• Splash around in the tub, not because it's bath-time but just because.
• Indoor car wash for matchbox cars. You can use the sink or a casserole dish, in the floor.
• Cook together.
• Let him/her help do chores.
• Blocks. Store-bought or hand-made.
• Indoor obstacle course.
• Bowling. Store-bought or hand-made set.
• Blow bubbles. Store-bought or hand-made.
• "I Spy"
• "Simon Says"
• Puzzles.
• Flash-cards.
• Toy piggy bank with fake coins.
• "Fishing" using a hand-made magnet fishing rod.
• Alphabet magnets on the fridge.
• "Camp Out" in the living room.
• Build a fort.
• "Busy Book" or "Quiet Book"
• Hand-made activity board with hinges, locks & keys, light switches, etc.
• Make "shadows" on the wall or ceiling.
• "Nesting" containers.
• Large empty boxes. Kids love boxes.
• Cars/trucks/dolls.
• Balls- indoor basketball, roll a ball back and fourth, etc.
• String beads, cheerios, etc.
• Attach velcro dots onto the ends of crafting Popsicle sticks. He/she can build shapes, letters, etc with them.
• Practice picking items up with kitchen tongs.
• Hand puppets.
• "Paint" furniture, floor, etc with water and a paint brush.
• Stickers.
• Tearing paper.
• Make a collage.
• Fill a baby-wipe container with scrap material in lots of different colors. Let him/her take them out/put them in till their heart's content.
• Balloon bad-minton.
• Scavenger hunt.
• Make hand-print and/or foot-print art (for gifts maybe?)
• Photo shoot.
• Animals of the day, color of the day, etc. 
• Make jewelry with beads or if you have a mouther, you can use macaroni, fruit loops, or cheerios instead.
• Water color painting.
• Lava floor.
• Indoor picnic.
• Exercize. 
• Play dress-up.
• Tea-party.
• Build with marshmellows and toothpicks.
• Make a hand-made bird feeder to hang outside.
• Hide and seek.
• Play "chase."
• Play "horsey" and give him/her rides through the house. (If your knees can take it- me, not so much...)
• Play free online games. Just type in "free online games for __ year olds." into google.
• Talk into an electric fan. (Don't tell me you've never done this!)
• Do the Hokey-Pokey.
• Play "Red light, Green light."
• Take a nap together.
• Indoor hopscotch.
• Look at photo albums/scrap books.
• Watch a movie and eat popcorn.
• Indoor snow ball fight- with socks.
• Paper airplanes.
• Let him/her give you a make-over with your make-up and hair supplies.
• Legos.
• Let him/her peel masking tape off a table or counter.
• Nerf gun target practice.
•  Plastic cup phones with string.

     On Monday I will start the OUTDOOR Activity list. =)  Thanks for reading! Please take a moment to pin, share, subscribe, comment, etc!