Technology has replaced all our childhood favourite games. The worst thing we do as parents is giving kids access to cell phones to pass the time or play games. As a result of which, kids have now become addicted to cell phones.
Generation z can never relate to the essence of indoor games that we millennials used to play.
What Are The Benefits Of Indoor Games
Parents must start converting children's bad habits into good ones. Games and plays are good as long as they teach something.
Indoor games can up-level your kids' thinking and developing process; let’s see how.
- Indoor games are better than phone addiction because they do not harm kids.
- These playful activities boost unique skills and enhance problem-solving skills.
- It provides family time that helps to increase child-parent interaction.
- Kids stay safe & secure in front of their parent's eyes.
- Children are curious and want to explore more things, and different types of games enhance their creativity.
Top 10 Indoor Games To Play With Kids At Home
Today, only a few kids love to play non-sedentary games, and most waste time on video games. The trend of indoor games has just vanished. To overcome cell phone addiction, indoor games are the best option for kids.
The indoor games mentioned below will challenge kids' thinking abilities and help them with problem-solving skills.
Ludo
Ludo is the most famous indoor game in Asian households. It is a strategy board game. In ludo, 2 or 4 players can play against each other. However, you can also play as a partner. The Ludo board is divided into four colours, and every player has four tokens. To win the Ludo game, players need to pass the home column through all tokens first. The last player to reach there loses.
Benefits: A research published in Jurnal Keterapian Fisik concluded that indoor games help calm children suffering from Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Ludo increases children's thinking ability and is a brainstorming activity for the kids.
Warning: Don't play with toddlers, as they can swallow the tokens.
UNO
The multicolor card game is based on who first empties their hand and wins. In UNO, players can participate; each has seven cards of different colours. You have to match the same colour and numbers card. In this game, some cards are power cards. Power cards help you win because using these you can withdraw more cards from your hand. As a result , the opponents with the most card count loses the UNO game.
Benefits: In UNO, different colour and number cards are used, which help children learn counting and colour names.
Warning: Keep UNO cards away from toddlers, as they can get cut and wound by cards.
Hide & Seek
Hide and seek is one of the oldest games. It is based on the Italian "nascondino" children's game. In Hide and Seek, one person closes their eyes and counts from 1 to 100 while other players hide in proximity. A minimum of 2 players can play Hide and Seek. The player caught first by the seeker will become a loser, and next time they will be the seeker. The player who stays hidden till the end wins the game.
Benefits: Hide and Seek games involve physical movement which helps in muscle development of kids. It also increases stamina and encourages decision making.
Warning: Always supervise your kids while they play hide and seek. They may get locked up in boxes or containers.
Tic Tac Toe
The most popular game in school life, Tic Tac Toe, is played with a pencil and paper. You have to draw a three-by-three square grid on paper. And the players choose Xs or Os. The rules are simple: the first person puts X on one square and the other O. The first one who gets three in a row, horizontal, vertical, or diagonal, wins the game. You can play this game on the whiteboard with the marker to interact with your kids.
Benefits: Tic Tac Toe boosts critical thinking ability and is the best brainstorming activity for kids.
Warning: Don’t play Tic Tac Toe in front of toddlers, as they can get injured from the sharp nib of a pencil.
Treasure Hunt
It looks like a hide & seek, but the impact on children is different. In this, you can hide any precious thing your child wants and write various clues or hide these clues in different places. Connect these clues from one to the other. Remember to make the clues easy for kids to decode to increase their interest.
Benefits: Kids think out of the box to solve clues that boost their problem-solving skills, and if they play with friends, enhances leadership or teamwork skills.
Warning: Do not make the scavenger hunt difficult for children, as they may harm themselves.
Also Read: 7 Amazing Birthday Party Theme Ideas for Your Kids
Puzzles
Playing with puzzles is the best game for boosting kids' brain muscles. Puzzles challenge kids’ thinking power and encourage them to concentrate on the details. There can be unique types of puzzles. It can be a photo, a word, or a map. Kids only need to join all the little pieces to complete the puzzle.
Benefits: Children's brain development and memory skill is enhanced by playing puzzle games.
Warning: A puzzle set has many small pieces, so keep it away from toddlers so they can not eat it.
Dance and Freeze
Dance and freeze is a well-known party game that parents can play with their kids at home. You only need to play background music and ask participant kids to dance. Then pause the music and say freeze. All the participants will cease in the position they were dancing, just like a mannequin. The next part of the game is to try to make them smile with worldly jokes. If they move, they will be disqualified from the game, and the last one who survives will win.
Benefits: Standing in the same posture enhances leg muscles and control. Dancing encourages physical movement.
Warning: Always try to play in an open place so kids can jump free.
Passing The Parcel
It is also a party game, but you can play it with kids to boost their social skills. In this, we can use a ball or cushion passing in the circle, and music is playing behind. When the music stops, the one person with a ball or cushion chooses a dare. It is the best game for learning and having fun together.
Benefits: The muscle-building activity increases kids' motor skills and hand-to-eye coordination. You can also add creative tasks like paint & draw.
Warning: Never write harmful physical tasks for kids.
Also Read: Why is Painting and Drawing Good for Kids?
Scrabble
It is the most brainstorming indoor board game. Players use seven-letter tokens to write a word on a board. Or all words you make from the tiles get different points; big words have more points. The game finishes when there are no letter tiles left. In the end, players calculate the points. The player with the highest points or score wins the scrabble.
Benefits: This one game is full of many benefits. It expands vocabulary, boosts memory function, enhances socialising skills, and increases grammar.
Warning: Don't use adult words because that would be inappropriate for kids.
Name, Place, Animal, Thing
This game is best when all cousins or friends are having a sleepover at your home. You should play Name, Place, Animal, Thing game with your children to teach them nouns and spellings. It also enhances kids’ knowledge. To play this game, make four columns of each category. Pick one English alphabet and ask kids to write one item in each category from that specific alphabet. The first who writes faster on all components wins the game. Or you can add points and calculate these points. After all rounds, whoever has the most points wins the game.
Benefits: Children learn new places and things with this fun-loving game.
Warning: Don't stress the kids if they can not write or they lose.
Also Read: How to Make Homework Fun for Kids? A Parental Guide
Final Note
Playing indoor activities with the kids is the best way to enhance their development. These games make your children more active than mobile games. Whenever you plan to play indoor games with your kids, make sure to follow the precautions to play safely. These games encourage kids' whole body development, from muscles to the brain.
Indoor games are the only way to take off the curse of cell phones from your kids’ lives.