As COVID-19 has caused summer camps to retool, indoor activities are proving to have their advantage. Scrambling for activities that do not unnecessarily expose a child to risk of transmission, indoor games and crafts can maintain social distancing when necessary without eliminating the fun ‘summer camp’ atmosphere.
Need some ideas on indoor activities for summer camp? This list contains 13 best ideas for summer camp indoor activities:
Activity #1: Coding
There are some surprisingly basic coding software and children-based software out there. Entertain a child’s interest in robotics and the digital world by giving them the chance to code something. If your child needs guidance, you should enroll them in a summer camp program that offers programming courses for kids. These courses are a great way to enrich your child’s knowledge over the summer!
Activity #2: Make Your Own Playdough
Another great summer camp indoor activity is making a playdough. Children seem to naturally entertain themselves when they have playdough in their hands. Playdough recipes are easy to find online and are fun to make. Add some food coloring and go nuts! Once done, the child has their own playdough to make things from for the rest of the summer.
Activity #3: Cooking A Meal
Cooking can be as simple as baking cookies or topping a bowl of ice cream to coming up with their own recipe around pasta, rice, or meat. Decorating some ice cream or cooking a meal maintains social distancing while engaging a child for an afternoon in their work.
Activity #4: Tye Dye Clothing
Tye dyeing an old t-shirt or pair of pants can be a very creativity DIY project that helps to fill an afternoon. A child can also use different markers or tools to color and style their clothing after drying. You can choose to go with a single t-shirt or a whole outfit if you want to. For those interested in fashion and clothing, this could be a slice of heaven.
Activity #5: Start a Fake Business
Design your own ‘Start a Fake Business’ game. Help children create their own business plans, complete with name, logo, and everything. This summer camp indoor activity is a great opportunity to teach them a little about personal responsibility, financial investment, and how local businesses work.
Activity #6: Painting A Picture
Art is a fine way to create, personalize, and express one’s self. In school, even in art class, rules exist. In summer camp, give a child the chance to express themselves the way they want. When they paint a picture, give them the colors and tools and let them do their thing.
Activity #7: Bread Painting
Decorating bread is fun, creative, and is just as delicious to eat. All that’s needed are a few ingredients and a loaf of bread. You don’t need more than that. Creating a rainbow, doing pointillism, or painting a portrait, the possibilities are endless with what you can do on white bread.
Activity #8: Pick-A-Country Project
Learning about other cultures and countries can be a very eye-opening experience for young children. For an indoor activity any child can enjoy, have them pick a country and decorate a poster-board with relevant details about said culture. This indoor activity can be easily done through encyclopaedias or online through research on YouTube, documentaries, and Wikipedia.
Activity #9: Dominoes
A whole landscape of domino rows encourages creativity and are more than fun to watch. Consider capturing it on video to give back to the child when they’re sent home from summer camp. This indoor activity may take up a lot of space and can involve buying multiple sets of dominoes. However, the results are more than worth it. The dominoes are, of course, reusable and easily cleaned when it’s needed.
Activity #10: Gardening
We know. This sounds like an outdoor activity. It doesn’t have to be. It’s as easy as getting a container to start a small garden indoors. Especially if you have natural light coming in by a big window, use something small like an old container or as large as a Walmart-style plastic storage container. This is an opportunity to connect with nature, learn about life, and can teach a little about flowers, vegetables, or herbs.
Activity #11: Build A Fort
If you have a lot of blankets and space to make use of, building a fort can just be so much fun. Think back to your own childhood. If you ever built a fort, you know how fun it can be. A DIY fort is also somewhere a child can relax at the end of the day, like having their own little house. Alternatively, if you don’t have a large amount of blankets, you can have a little camping trip purposing a tent in the main space.
Activity #12: Yoga
On days when you can’t go outside, you still need a way to get that energy out and feel good. Children doing a simple five-minute yoga routine gets it done. If you don’t think following a routine’s going to work, simple dancing does. Get a child to bring their favourite music to the summer camp, make a playlist, and encourage them to dance to help get some energy out.
Activity #13: Badminton
Badminton is a very low-risk activity and can be played casually and collaboratively or competitively. Summer camp indoor activities meant for outdoors can’t often be applied inside but in this case, badminton works rather well. All you need is a birdy, a few rackets, and a net.
