While you might already feel incredibly tired from staying at home for so long, you don’t have to feel bored. With a little imagination and a fun spirit, you can have a great time with your family and friends indoors, and without spending a great deal of money.
While parts of the world are slowly reopening after a difficult year, that isn’t necessarily true for many people. Even after mass vaccination efforts, lots of families are still hunkered down, for a variety of reasons: for one, younger kids haven’t been vaccinated yet. And two, there may be an immunocompromised member of the family whom everyone is struggling to protect from new strains of the virus that no one knows much about. All the more reason for people to continue finding different activities they can enjoy from home, especially as a family. If you’re wondering about the different games you and your family or friends can enjoy but worried you may have exhausted all your options after more than a year in lockdown, then the following list is for you.
Performative games
If your family is a bit on the theatrical side and loves to be as bombastic as possible, then you can try different names that bring out the performer in you. One game that kids absolutely love is called act and react, and basically, the moderator chooses an action, and then people have to go around reacting. Keep doing this till people collapse into a pile of giggles – that happens to be the winning reaction, and then you can keep going. The fun is in imagining all kinds of weird scenarios for people to react to, like finding a severed head in the cupboard. Or, you can keep things as kid-friendly as you like, but be sure to bring on all the over-the-top reactions you can.
Other fun games to explore can include pantomiming or whipping out the old Pictionary. These are all performative and relatively low-cost ways of entertaining yourselves, and they can help you bond as you all learn to be silly together.
Trivia nights
Most people love to accumulate random bits of knowledge that seem utterly useless. Even those of us who think they’re not really into that enjoy spouting facts that can impress others, so long as it’s a topic they love. In that case, games like Trivial Pursuit never go out of style, and you can explore other offshoots that focus attention on things like pop culture, questions about geography, and so on. Some people are unduly intimidated by trivia games, but they can be really fun, and you can choose the topics of interest to you. You don’t have to stick to subjects like literature or math and science if they seem too unwieldy. Feel free to explore the trivia games available out there, and choose something that feels fun to you and your family. And, maybe you’ll learn something interesting while you’re at it.
Scavenger hunt
If you have a backyard, this might be the best way to put it to use. But even if you don’t, an indoor scavenger hunt is just as fun. First, see how many items you would like for the kids to find and decide upon a theme. Is it buried treasure, something related to pirates, or a nature scavenger hunt? Put your imagination to use, and square away the details for a theme everyone could enjoy. Then, prepare lists for each person of the items that they need to find – of course, be sure to hide everything really well, or else the game won't be half as fun! You can even get creative with the list itself, adding some decoupage or cool sketches to get people even more interested. If you like, also include a few clues to help make the hunt a bit easier – maybe in the form of a riddle, so that kids will have even more fun trying to solve it. If you’re not sure what kind of theme you should pick, it’s easy to find full guides for scavenger hunts online, with all kinds of cool themes to help make it an interesting activity for everyone.
Indoor obstacle course
If you have smaller kids, you probably already know that nothing will be more fun for them than basically running around the house, engendering a sense of adventure along the way. You can do that by installing a fun obstacle course. This doesn’t have to be complicated, and you can be as simple – or creative – as you like. Throw in a few pillows, include a mini slide, and anything else that might prove fun and challenging.
Photo by Aksel Fristrup on Unsplash
While you might already feel incredibly tired from staying at home for so long, you don’t have to feel bored. With a little imagination and a fun spirit, you can have a great time with your family and friends indoors, and without spending a great deal of money. Just be creative and remain open to different ideas, no matter how silly they may seem.
Main photo by Josh Appel on Unsplash
