Rainy Day Projects

Sick Day Indoor Builds for kids

Forts, tents, cardboard creations, and other things to build with what's already in the house.

Part of Sick Day activities and all indoor builds.

No-prep ideas for this

Something to say right now while you get the sick day set out — or instead of it. All the quick ideas.

  • Lie on the floor and see if you can stay completely still for sixty seconds.

    Lie flat on the floor and stay as still as you possibly can. No twitching, no blinking fast, no giggling. See if you can make it a full minute.

    5 minutes · Ages 3–8 · Adult alongside · No mess · Needs nothing

  • Stack five books as straight as you can, then try to pull one out from the middle.

    Stack five books on top of each other as straight as you can. Then see if you can slide one out from the middle without the stack falling.

    5 minutes · Ages 5–10 · Kids can run it · No mess · Needs: book

Sick Day Indoor Builds at home

On a sick day, you are not in a position to set up a complicated activity, stay on your feet managing it, and then clean it up afterward. What you need is something that gives the child a reason to stay still on the sofa and feel occupied — not entertained by a screen, but actually doing something with their hands. Indoor builds work well here because the making and the playing happen in the same place, the materials stay in a tray or on a cushion, and a child who is tired can work slowly without the activity falling apart. All three of the builds below use what is already in the house, stay on or near the sofa, and can be handed off to the child with minimal setup on your part.

What is in this set

The three sick Day Indoor Builds activities here run from 15 to 30 minutes — Soft Wall Cubby from the Couch is the quickest, Paper Pocket Book from Folded Sheets the longest. Between them they cover ages 3–5, ages 5–8 and ages 8–10, and each card below says which. Two of them make no mess at all. One can be run by the kids once set up; the rest want an adult nearby.

Choosing one

For a three-to-five-year-old, reach for the Soft Wall Cubby from the Couch first — it takes five minutes to set up and the child can stay inside it for the rest of the afternoon. For a five-to-eight-year-old with enough energy to sit up and use a marker, the Cardboard Box Tray Town is the right fit: contained, quiet, and genuinely interesting for that age. For an eight-to-ten-year-old who wants a real challenge and can manage it alone, the Paper Pocket Book from Folded Sheets is the one to reach for — it needs no adult once you explain the fold.

Before you start

For all three activities, do the setup before you call the child over: pull the cushions, open the box flat, or lay out the paper before they are watching. The one thing that tends to go wrong across all three is overloading the child with materials at once. Set out only what is needed for the first step, and add anything optional only if they ask or stall.

More sick day activities

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