When my children were young we would do lots of activities. Cost wasnt a problem as we were both working . However there were times that this wasnt possible .

Either one of us was sick or the weather let us down .Cold, rainy, too hot,  too windy. or

i didnt have transport available. If we were at our holiday house we would especially like to play games especially in winter

Here are some ideas of fun things to do. 

First game  " abc game .

 2 or more people can play .Preferrably more than 2 its more fun.

The children need to be able to read and write and have some concept of the world around us.

You need a piece of paper each and then topics. Each different day you play you can change the topics. Some egs  girls name, boys name,  colour, vegetable, fruit, city or country ,band or singer,  favorite word,  actor or actress,  animal .Then one person will say when to start and stop. Then the person next to him will say the alphabet to themselves of course and what they stop on eg " g" then you have to write something starting with g . When it comes to singer actress or actor its their surname that needs to start with that letter. When the first person finshes then all pencils/ pens down regardless of whether the other has finished. The adult can go as arbitrator.(usually they have the most knowledge of right or wrong).  Each person scores theri own . 10 marks for each correct  one. 5 each person that comes up with the same (it teaches children to think outside the circle and think of  names that arent that popular. This helps at school and school work too. So they are learning skills.)  If there is no answer or they have it wrong (its easy for children to put the wrong k sound then you need to teach them the difference eg karen cat  both c sound but celery c but child might put it under the s ) so it teaches children how to spell too. 

Then the next person says the alphabet and so on . If they come across a letter that has been done they just start the alphabet again.  x yz u qv are very interesting and hard but this is where children learn something new . So they braoden their learning. 

You need to explain the rules  but keep it simple. That is; no cheating when they correct their own work. If you see it happening then you can swap around and correct each others work but only if its necessary . Children learn to be trusted and learn they can be trusted. They also learn that its not good to cheat . They only cheat themselves and lie to themselves. 

So honesty is also taught . 

There are also lots of game boards that can bring lots of fun at minimum expense we loved playing "trouble" but i dont think they make that anymore. It wasnt expensive and we loved playing it more than the expensive games  2 to 4 people could play that and hubby would also play 

There is" i spy with my little eye " . One person will look around the room find something and say that it starts with then you have to try and guess. The person who guessed correctly gets to have a turn and so on . This can be played in the car on a long journey too.

We also used to play hopscotch thats played outdoors. You need some chalk .Our pavements here in melbourne are perfect! but make sure you are with them (stranger danger).  Better still if you have concrete in back yard you can do it there so you make some squares. Outline with chalk three single squares in order start from bottom to top number the bottom one the second bottom 2 the 3 rd bottom 3 . Then the next one will be a double square divided by a line that will be four and five and then next single squre again will be six and top and final squares will be double seven and eight but number them as digits. Then you find a small stone (not too small not too big  ) start with one person throwing it into the square .If it goes out of the square totally its the next persons turn . If however they got it in the second square then they need to hop to the first square without putting there foot down and bend down pick up the stone and throw to next sqare  when they get to the 8th square they need to turn back and come back down again . They are not throwing the stone high or far so there isnt risk of injury here. This is for children aged 7 or above where they have balance corodination. Although i know our children and i when i was little played much younger.   We were tough and played with home made billy carts and the likes . 

Skipping and skipping rope can be fun and healthy and hoola hoop.  So many tricks that can be learnt. i'm sure mums played with skipping ropes and hula hoops so i wont go into detail there.

Playing snap with cards are great too. For younger children colouring books are great .  It teaches children to try to colour within the lines. They learn what colours go (cordination skills using the brain)  and they even get an eye for how to draw themselves by imitating the pictures in the book.

I'm sure that there are much more out there. So if anyone can think of others feel welcome to comment.

I have started a tag just for fun  (without the scoring for the abc game) so you will get an idea how its done

annie

oh and my son just informed me that they have brought out  a game based on this concept (abc)  called scattergories . So i googled it and sure enough they brought out a game based on this in 1988 . If you google it you will see the rules . It really isnt necessary to buy it unless you find that your children (especially the younger ones ) are more willing to play it with the glamour of it being sold in shops.  I remember playing this back in the 1960s and im sure it was played even further back than that. this is a game that had been passed from generation to generation.

I'm proud to say that my son uses this game in the classroom (he teaches secondary) commerce / accounting and RE

When they have finished lessons and they have spare time they will play it . the class love it lots of debates and friendly arguements of what is right or wrong he uses it in RE  as well and has biblical names it teaches them so much.

Trivia persuit is  great for the older chidren.  You can make up cards with questions on them too.