Sure, you could go out to the mall or do winter sports. But there’s only so much you can do before it becomes too expensive or the novelty wears off. Never fear, to get you through this winter, we’ve put together some of the best ideas for indoor entertainment in your mobile home.
Activities for the kids
Yes, winter can be a great time to spend some quality family time together without distraction. However, mommy and daddy don’t always have the energy or the boundless ingenuity needed to keep the kids from tearing down the house. That’s why it’s important to have a list of activities or entertainment ideas mostly for the kids, but that the parents can supervise and help with.
Get constructive with cardboard
This activity is cheap, fun, and will help your kids develop problem-solving skills while allowing them to exercise their creativity. There are also limitless possibilities when it comes to how far you can go and what they will dream up next. The best part is, all that you need is a lot of cardboard, scissors or a carpet knife, and some glue!
A popular choice because of its scale and appeal to is to build a fort out of cardboard as you can see from these awesome cardboard forts. Just keep in mind that you stick to a scale that’s suitable for indoors. The awesome thing about a fort is that it can be used to play in for the rest of the winter school break. However, the possibilities are boundless.
Make play dough
What makes play dough such a great activity is that it’s just as entertaining to make as it is to play with! It’s also very simple and cheap. The perfect toy to keep their attention for the rest of winter. Emry Trantham from DIY Natural has a great recipe and instructions to make an all-natural play dough with ingredients you should have in the kitchen. Pump up the fun by inviting the community kids for a play dough making party.
Make food art
This is a classic. We bet that most of our readers have some fond memories of making macaroni artwork and having a blast doing it. It’s time to get out the paint, arts and crafts kit, as well as every type of pasta you have and start creating a masterpiece. Unfortunately, this activity is only good for a day or two. However, it’s another great idea if you want to have the neighborhood kids over. You also don’t have to stop at paper. With enough glue, the kids can even start to make sculptures.
Indoor obstacle course
Photo credit: CrumbBums
This idea is only really suitable or realistic if you have an extra room or playroom for the kids to completely take over. Here is where you, and them, really need to get creative. Almost anything from furniture to string to cardboard and other scraps can be used to create obstacle courses. For some extra fun, and a competitive edge, you can time their runs through the obstacle course. Have them try and improve their records. This, combined with the fact that you can alter the course, will give it some replayability.
Indoor campout
It’s hard to imagine now what we found so fun about camping out in our own home as a kid! However, this is another fun activity for kids that can be combined with a number of other things, like microwave s’mores! You also don’t need an actual tent to make this happen. In fact, setting up a DIY tent with some sheets can help give it another dimension and keep kids occupied for another couple of hours. A camping light can make a great DIY camp for ghost storytelling!
Toddler painting
Our last suggestion for kids entertainment is another super-easy, super-cheap, and less-messy-than-it-sounds activity. It’s also a great way to not only get the little ones but the moms of the community together too. On her blog, Angela provides 3 great ways to set up a toddler/mom painting activity. For the kids, getting messy is part of the fun but spreading a tarp on the floor or wherever it takes place can make it easy to clean up.
Activities for everyone
The following activities are for old and young alike. That means that you can take the same idea and tailor it to kids or for adults. Some of them are also fantastic ways to bring the family together by working and accomplishing some tasks together.
Indoors scavenger hunt
Yes, the first thing we think of when a scavenger hunt comes up are kids running around in the yard looking for gifts. However, you can certainly have a scavenger hunt indoors too. In fact, you will probably even have more creative places to hide your stashes! There are also a number of ways in which you can theme it as an adult scavenger hunt. For example, the first person to find a key gets to keep the gift inside, which can be anything from chocolate to wine. Remember to set some boundaries if you don’t want people digging in your private stuff!
Do a spring clean and declutter
Since you’re trapped in your home anyway, you might as well take the time to make sure it’s as spotless and provides as much space as possible. As you might know, most of the dust in our homes is our own skin cells. More time in the home = more dust. That’s why it’s a great idea to kick off winter or make sure your home is hygienic halfway through by taking a day or two to properly spring clean it.
You’d also be surprised at how entertaining it can be if you get the whole family involved. It can be a great bonding exercise. If the kids are still a bit stubborn, a merit system can help them find some drive. Spending more time in the home will also give you a better idea of what you need and what you can throw away.
Paint or renovate
Just like cleaning your home, doing some basic renovation or sprucing up during winter can also go a long way. There might be small tweaks you can make to your home that also happen to make it more liveable during winter. A fresh facade on the indoors can make spending extra time there more bearable. This is the perfect reason to pull out the paint!
Take out the board games
This might seem obvious, but it might be time to dust off the old Monopoly board or go and buy a new board game to enjoy this winter. The great thing about board games is that they can be enjoyed universally. While you might want to have fun just as a family, you can also organize a board game night where you invite over your friends. There is a such huge variety of games for different age groups, for various lengths of time, and for different experiences that you are bound to find something perfect for your wants.
Bake up a storm
When you mention a cold winter, one of the first things that pop into mind is the comfort of eating sweet and delicious treats. It’s even better when you can bite into that buttery and doughy chocolate chip cookie while it’s still hot, fresh out of the oven. Throw some hot cocoa into the mix, and you’ve got an unbeatable combination. You bake for just the family or make a whole thing out of it by inviting over some friends and having everyone participate in making everything from scratch.
Homemade festive decorations
Rather than buy your Christmas and New Years decorations this year, why not have some fun and make them yourself? This is another great activity that will serve as entertainment for the whole family. Make sure you have enough red, gold, and green paint! While you’re at it, you might as well decorate the whole house together using your new decorations. You can find a wealth of ideas online but you should also let your creativity roam and see what you come up with.
Tie-dye
Another groovy way to pass the time indoors can be to have a tie-dye party. A good way to do this as a party and keep your costs down is to ask everyone to bring their own plain t-shirts and you supply the rest. Although this is usually seen as more of a spring or summer event, you can use it to bring a bit of color and life into your winter. Tie Dye Your Summer has a great video on how to set up a tie-dye station. For adults, you can combine it with funky cocktails and snacks.
Arts and crafts or scrapbooking
Arts and crafts and scrapbooking have become not only popular ways to pass the time but also to meet in like-minded groups. It could be a great move to see who else in your mobile home park is interesting in forming a scrapbooking club. Or, it could just be another few fun evenings with the kids. You might pick up a fun, new indoor hobby as well as make some brand new friends. All the while, you’ll be exercising your creativity as well as immortalizing your cherished memories.
Get a new hobby
Since you’re confined to indoors, now is a great time to pick up a new hobby or to learn something new. This could be anything from learning about something you were always curious about, picking up a silly party trick, or even completing an online degree or certificate to further yourself professionally. It’s never a bad idea to take some time to improve yourself, and there’s no time like the present. It could also be as simple as finishing a book you’ve been too busy to read.
Activities for adults
Adults need entertainment too! And, we haven’t forgotten about you. While we’ve already given plenty of ideas that can be themed for adults as well as kids, there are still a few left, especially for adults, that we think are worth trying.
Dinner party
There’s no time like winter to host a fancy dinner party. With everyone already dressed for the cold, you’re halfway there to making it a classy affair. With the cold outside, a hearty meal will also go down that much better, and it’s a great opportunity to show off your cooking prowess. However, there are a few ways that you can play on the winter theme and make it more fun at the same time. One way is to experiment with spiked hot cocoa or coffee. There are plenty of recipes for these online that use anything like rum, brandy, or even red wine.
Gambling night
Poker, blackjack, or even roulette – there is nothing that gets the adrenaline flowing and people talking like playing some casino games. You don’t necessarily have to play for money for everyone to have fun and be involved. You can buy a casino table game set online with everything you need to play a bunch of different games for under $100. Order some pizza and tell everyone to bring drinks, and you’re all set!
Don’t hibernate this winter!
As you can see from these ideas, just because you’ll be indoors most of the time it shouldn’t stop you from being social or meeting plenty of new people. As many of these tips rely on you hosting others in your home, you might want to read some of our tips on how to entertain your mobile home guests. If you want to welcome the New Year the right way this winter, then we’ve also prepared a guide on how to host the best New Year’s Eve party.
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