We are outdoor-loving people, that’s just a fact. But let’s be real, even the most dedicated outdoor family is going to have days where the elements win, whether it’s a non-stop rainstorm, a blizzard that turns the backyard into a no-fly zone, or just one of those 4 p.m. moments when the kids are bouncing off the walls.
The key to keeping our sanity (and protecting the furniture) is having excellent, energy-busting indoor active toys for the house. This isn’t just about fun; it’s about development. These gifts are an investment in balance, coordination, core strength, and, most importantly, peace and quiet after a solid hour of play.
Here is our curated list of the ultimate indoor active toys, sorted by age, to get the wiggles out! Connect many of these items together to create a great obstacle course! Plus, our favorite board games and card games to play together as a family afterward.
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Best Indoor Active Toys for Baby & Toddlers
This stage is all about developing balance, coordination, and that satisfying feeling of moving their own body. These gifts are designed to build confidence in gross motor skills while burning some serious steam!
Strider Bike Rocking Base
A brilliant winter accessory! This converts your toddler’s Strider balance bike into an indoor active rocker toy, perfect for practicing that crucial balancing motion.
VTech Stroll & Discover Activity Walker
A classic for a reason. We loved this one because of the lockable wheels to allow babies to practice safely pulling to a stand. All four of our kids used and loved it.
Bilibo
Don’t let the simple look fool you. This plastic shell is the ultimate open-ended play item. It’s a rocker, a spinner, a helmet, a turtle shell, and a giant shovel.
Little Tikes Cozy Coupe
This is a must-have toy for little kids! Even tiny toddlers can climb in and use their feet to propel themselves (and all their stuffed animals) across the carpet. We personally have and love the dino version.
Tummy Time Baby Spin & Explore Gym
A fantastic option for those pre-walkers. It encourages babies to rotate their bodies, engage their core muscles, and build the strength needed for crawling and sitting up.
Little Tikes Trampoline with Handle
The gold standard of toddler indoor active toys. This mini-trampoline gives them the stability they need for unbeatable energy release.
Little Tikes Big Slide (Folding)
If you have a playroom, garage space, or a big living room, this folding slide is worth the real estate. It encourages climbing (gross motor), waiting (patience!), and the final satisfying whoosh! It is way more satisfying than the smaller slides trust me.
Bright Starts Around We Go
A lifesaver for the in-between stage. The baby can safely move 360 degrees around the activity station, engaging their lower body while their hands stay busy. It’s freedom without the chaos.
Nugget Couch
Our team’s favorite item for indoor active play is the Nugget couch. This beloved piece lives in our living room and is used daily. It’s the ultimate soft spot for safe tumbles, cushion jumping, and building forts, making it one of the most versatile indoor gross motor toys you can buy. If you can swing it, getting at least 2 or 3 sets is the best for building!
Pikler Triangle
A versatile indoor gross motor toy and launchpad for your little explorer’s growing mind and body. It’s the sturdy structure that lets your child safely climb, pull up, and test their own strength.
Best Indoor Active Toys for Older Kids
Now we’re moving into strength, agility, and pure athletic fun! These indoor active toys require a little more space (or a sturdy doorway/ceiling beam) and more coordination, but they offer the massive motor outlet older kids desperately need for indoor play.
Doorway Gymnastics Rings
Simple, effective, and requires zero permanent installation. Great for building upper body and grip strength.
Sensory Swing (Ceiling Mounted)
If you have a solid beam to safely secure a permanent mount, this is the ultimate gift. It builds core strength, coordination, and is a fantastic sensory tool for calming and centering. My daughter’s best friend has one in their garage, and together they spend hours practicing elaborate routines.
Gymnastics Bar
A small, freestanding gymnastics bar is amazing for practicing flips, swings, and basic hang-time. It’s a durable piece that stands up to constant use from big kids and little kids. A Nugget couch makes a great crash pad for underneath as well if you already have one, or grab a tumbling mat which is great for all kinds of play!
When looking at gymnastics bars, make sure to check weight ratings and max height! Getting a “real bar” is definitely more expensive, but they are more durable. You can also find these on used FB Marketplace for a good price (thats where TMM Team Member Jami got hers below)!
DIY Indoor Rock Wall Hand Holds
For the handy parents! Installing these specialized holds onto a dedicated wall in a playroom or garage is an incredible, permanent gross motor solution. You can see them on the wall in the photo above. (Do your research first or consult a professional for structural safety!)
TMM Team Member Jami built this wall with her husband for their kids in the basement. They used 3 4×8 sheets of 3/4″ coated plywood, drilled holes into the plywood and inserted T-nuts. First they attached 2×4 horizontal pieces to the wall as anchors into the wall studs, then attached the plywood panels to those. They recommend buying new bolts as the ones that came with their holds had a weird thread that couldn’t be matched. When the kids age out, it is an easy removal process as well.
Stepping/Balance River Stones
Truly fun for all ages, this set creates an instant obstacle course. They are fantastic indoor active toys that improve balance and coordination. They are the perfect pieces for playing the floor is lava.
Low-to-Ground Balance Beam
Perfect for practicing walking, marching, and even basic gymnastics moves right on the floor. It improves core stability and focus, which are critical for bigger kids.
Indoor Mini-Trampoline
Upgrading from the toddler version, a non-handled, sturdy mini-tramp is the best for pure, unrestricted jumping. Five minutes of jumping is like hitting a reset button on a restless day.
Foam Pogo Jumper
This soft, bouncy stick can be used indoors safely because the base is soft foam, not metal. It’s a loud-but-fun way to practice rhythmic bouncing and coordination.
Indoor Soccer Ball
A softer version of the traditional soccer ball. This is so much fun for the sports fanatic and while it will still knock over your vase or knock a picture off the wall, it will not leave a dent in your wall, speaking from personal experience.
Laser Tag System
This is the ultimate gift for active hide-and-seek. It gets them running, ducking, and strategizing all over the house—turning a bored afternoon into an exciting mission.
Slackboard
A simple but challenging indoor active toy. Standing and shifting weight on the slackboard engages deep stabilizing muscles in the core, legs, and ankles.
Best Board and Card Games for Kids
You’ve hit the parenting jackpot: the kids are happily drained after all that active play. This is the perfect moment to transition to a stack of truly excellent board and card games.
Think of this as the essential “cool-down” phase—the quiet fuel for developing strategic thinking, patience, and cooperation. I’ve rounded up our team’s favorite games that offer a perfect blend of learning and laughter to keep the peace and engage those brains after the bodies have run out of steam!
Board & Card Games for Preschoolers
These games focus on colors, counting, fine motor skills, and—most importantly—learning to take turns and play nicely. Many are cooperative!
First Orchard
The ultimate cooperative first game. Everyone works together to beat the raven, teaching dice-rolling and turn-taking without any “loser” meltdowns.
The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game
Use the adorable squirrel squeezer to collect colored acorns. It’s excellent for fine motor practice, color matching, and early strategy in a sweet, simple package.
Zingo!
A fast-paced BINGO-based game where players race to grab matching picture tiles from the dispenser. It dramatically boosts quick recognition and sight-word development. There are many different versions, too, like Sight Words, Word Builder, Numbers (our favorite), and Sesame Street Themed.
Hoot Owl Hoot!
Another fantastic cooperative game. Players plan together to get the owls home before the sun rises, making teamwork the main objective.
Uno Junior
The classic fun of Uno, but with pictures to help them match before they master numbers. It’s the perfect intro to competitive, fast-paced card games. Save yourself from cheaters and tears by grabbing the card holder, too.
Board & Card Games for Older Kids
These games introduce more complex strategy, deduction, and abstract thinking, making them genuinely fun for the whole family on game night.
Sushi Go!
A quick, sweet “drafting” card game. Players collect sets of sushi to score points, teaching mid-level strategy and set collection in short, engaging rounds.
Outfoxed!
It’s a cooperative Clue for kids! Everyone works together to gather clues and use a simple decoder to figure out which fox stole the pie. Advertised for preschoolers, but we found it is too tricky for them and best for older kids.
Ticket to Ride: First Journey
A faster, simpler version of the popular strategy game. It’s a wonderful entry point for teaching strategy and mapping without getting bogged down in complex rules. My younger kids, who don’t fully understand the game, love to help line up the train pieces.
Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza
A frantic, hilarious, reflex-testing game. Players race to slap the deck when the word matches the card. Warning, it will get competitive and it will get loud. We also love the poolside edition for bringing to the lake or the beach.
Quixx
Fast-paced, simultaneous-play game where players race to cross off numbers in their colored rows by matching cards played from their hand. My 3rd grader played this at school and loved it so much we had to buy a deck for home.
Looking for more outdoorsy gift ideas?
The Quiet Reward of Hard Play
Ultimately, the best indoor active toys aren’t just about the toy itself, but the energy you get back from your kids—that quiet, satisfied calm that follows a great play session. By providing these indoor gross motor toys, you are giving your children the space to move, grow, and regulate their own bodies, turning a challenging indoor day into a successful, active adventure.
Related Links:
- Cultivating Screen Free Habits in Your Family
- 25 Best Outdoor Toys
- Cool Outdoor Toys for Families
- Best Gifts for Outdoorsy Kids
21 Best Indoor Active Toys
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What is your budget for toys? These all seem like great ideas but very hard to be a single parent to afford most of these items.
Hi Hannah! It’s fairly high, active toys and outdoor gear are large budget priorities for me. We’re a little on the excessive side for things like this, we are not minimalists and pack a lot of stuff into a small living space. We live in a harsh climate so while we get out every day we spend a lot more time indoors in the winter, if you live in a warmer climate you will definitely need less active stuff indoors. A lot of these things could be DIYs, but we don’t have the time and I’m guessing you don’t either.. but that’s something to think about, or looking for used toys like pikler triangles or monkey bars. I have found some fun stuff on Marketplace, I didn’t mention trampolines but we have a small trampoline indoors also, and I found that very cheap and it’s excellent for getting out the wiggles!
Oh another reason I wanted more active indoor things at home was because after we had our third child, going places like gymnastics open gym really started to add up cost-wise (when you pay per child), and it was hard to watch all the kids at once. Not to mention it always conflicting with nap time, and my kids always getting colds after going there in the winter. While there are definite benefits to going out to gymnastics, for us it became easier to try to make a space where we could do these things at home, so I think for some of these items we break even in the long run if I add up what gymnastics and trampoline parks and other indoor things you have to pay for add up to.
Absolutely love all your ideas here Kristin. Your house always looks like so much fun – and I don’t think I’ll be satisfied in life until I get myself a home with an accessible crossbeam for all that fun gear!
Thanks for sharing and now I will have no problem giving a list of Christmas and Bday gift ideas when Grandparents ask…
We have the barumba play couch not the nugget. It had a lot of pieces as we only had the space for one and wanted the one with the most pieces so it worked for our family.
What are those pink looking pillows you use with the nuggets? Also curious how many nuggets you have. We have three and I am wondering if we should get another.