Indoor Activities for Kids: Let's Play Library!

When your kids are stuck inside on a lousy weather day, the last thing you want to hear is “I’m bored.” Never fear, though – we’ve got you covered. This post is part of the “A-Z of Indoor Activities” blog hop. I chose the letter L to tell you about the idea of a pretend play Library.

Helping to set up a pretend play library is part of the fun, so let your kids use their imagination. Mine like to line books up along a wide windowsill and lay them out on the playroom rug. If you have a nice bookshelf that displays the books well, then that would be a great choice.

Make each child a pretend library card, or print out one of the simple ones I’ve made for you.

 (To print, go here.)

Pretending to check out books is a lot of fun. My kids use their toy cash register. They pretend to scan each book’s bar code, and put them into a bag to carry “home.”

I wish, for this game, that our library still used the old card-and-pocket system. My kids have no idea what that is. I may have to tell the about it.

I can still picture filling out my name on the cards at my elementary school. And I coveted the librarian’s date stamp, with its rotating months and dates. You can still buy library pockets at teacher supply stores. It would be another way to get kids to practice writing their names.

You can also read books about the library. One of our very favorites is Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen. Imagine a gentle lion who visits the library every day for story time. What would happen if he roared? 

I hope your kids enjoy playing "library" as much as mine have. It's an engaging way for little book lovers to enjoy playing inside.




I'm joining this post up with A-Z of Indoor Activities hosted by Nicola on Crafty Kids at Home. You may like to check out the other 25 ideas there.