What types of indoor things do kids do today that don't involve any electronics?

Aged 6 – 10? How about role play?

I mean, you act like a certain character with your friends, maybe with the assistance of dolls. Or you play alone and your dolls are the characters.

Playing house.

Oh, I should probably mention these are kids in a play that I have to entertain when they aren’t on stage. (which is quite a bit actually) And there are seven of them

My three little great-nephews, ages 4, 8 and 10, build monster constructions with legos, do jigsaw puzzles of various degrees of difficulty, read books, play with old-fashioned wooden trains on their tracks. The ten-year old draws complicated comic strips with complicated stories with an old-fashioned drawing pen and notebook. He and the adults play a fiercely competitive gin-rummy-like game with numbered tiles called Rummikub. When I play with him, his father, his uncle, and my sister, I have to keep my wits about me.

We also play intergenerational Monopoly or Clue. The ten-year-old and his grandfather often collude and cheat if we don’t pay close attention.

The ten-year old cooks with his grandfather; he rolls out pizza dough (from Trader Joe’s) and helps assemble home made pizza; I have also seem him help make real mac and cheese.

The three boys lie together on the porch in the nice weather in a giant hammock and squirm around like puppies.

The four-year old has his own little easel and uses crayons or pastels to draw; he also has old-fashioed coloring books and is allowed to color over all the lines if he feels like it. The eight-year old is more of a dreamer and has collections of wooden and plastic farm animals, zoo animals and dinosaurs for fantasy play.

Freeze tag.

They could play Headbanz

You can buy cheap fabric headbands and index cards at the dollar store to make your own version of the game and save a few bucks.

I was also thinking of board games and card games (I remember rummikub from my friend’s hose when we were kids, @gailcalled—thanks for jogging that memory!). We played chinese jumprope, and string games (like Cat’s Cradle). Coloring is always a good, quiet activity.

Home made bread. Home made cheese cake.

When my daughter was that age, she read, she practiced piano and then guitar, and she loved to do artwork with various media. She still loves making friendship braces, weaving threads together.

^^^ bracelets, not braces.

Damn auto-correct.

Eat, sleep, take a shit.

very helpful @kritiper
geez

I’m assuming they’re going to be cooped up in a room somewhere? Inside, depending on the age and interests of the kids, board games, puzzles and books. You’ve got a wide age range. Unless the children bond well, it’s not likely you’re going to get a lot of interaction between them, so you may need to work hard to keep them amused

@snowberry Yes, they will be cooped up in a room. They bond pretty well. They have been rehearsing together for 3 months.

Too variable. Some read, some do various artistic stuff, some do constructive things like Legos, some do gaming… but there are no real consistent things. See, kids are people too; not all adults are the same, so why would all kids be the same? So I think @kritiper pretty much hit it, in that those are about the only real universals (unless you count breathing).

I take it that you don’t know these particular girls very well.

They could always bring activities from home. One might be learning to knit, while another might be working on a scrapbook. Or you could get really creative and do some time consuming and rather messy art, such as paper mache. Now that I think of it, it might be just the thing (if you don’t have carpet).

Read and use books/cd sets.
They love to use molds and make things from plaster and then paint them. That requires adult participation but it’s fun.

My daughter likes to play Apples to Apples. She was also seriously into duct tape crafts and the elastic rainbow loom crafts for a good while.

Since they are all interested in drama, why not do drama games like improv?

Since you’re dealing with them while they’re not on stage I’m guessing there’s not really going to be time inbetween their scenes to get real involved in anything. Coloring books and small crafts should be fine I would think. What kid doesn’t like coloring at least?

@jerv “I take it that you don’t know these particular girls very well.”

Why do you assume that? That she’s being entrusted to look after these girls while they’re not on stage implies, I think, that she knows them and/or their parents reasonable well.

Loom bands

I just knew @ucme would be into the rainbow loom.

my daughter showed me the way & keeps me fairly busy, we made each other loads

I have a lovely multi-hued green bracelet that wear.

my fave is the one she made for me in my football teams colours

Very nice.

They do still play. I, for instance, was a dog half my childhood. My cousins, who are between six and fourteen, do all sorts of different things: They draw and paint. They play with cuddly toys, plastic animals, dolls, trains, leaves, mud, water and sand, as well as each other. They also build robots and doll houses out of cardboard. Give them a cardboard box, and they play boat or house. Give them blankets, they will build a cave or play dress up. On occasion, they wrestle.

In your scenario, I would prepare some crafts, but it is possible the kids are much better off amusing themselves. They might just want to relax, or they may want to play. If you do need to entertain them, you could:

* read to them
* put on an audio book (have them draw what they are hearing if they want to)
* put on music, let them dance
* make masks out of paper plates
* let them draw
* let them have some fun with play-dough

Just off the top of my head…

Dress-ups.

@Adagio “Dress-ups.”

Well according to the OP these kids are in a stage play, so they’re already playing dress-up in a big way. :P

@Darth_Algar I missed that somehow, thanks for enlightening me : ^)

The big hit of the evening? Make-overs….done on me. It was a lot of fun!