Family games are a time-honored way to create fun indoor activities for kids and adults alike. With young children, simple board games like Chutes & Ladders will fill the bill. Older kids may enjoy playing Monopoly, checkers or chess. It's important to make this an "appointment" date for all the kids and adults involved. Clear your schedules so everyone can be together and have fun. Make sure homework is completed and let the answering machine take telephone messages.

Indoors is not the place to throw balls or run races, but there are plenty of options for physical indoor fun. Indoor bowling can be accomplished by using rolled-up socks for bowling balls and emptied paper towel rolls for bowling pins. Set up the empty towel rolls as pins at the end of a hallway or similar space, and roll the socks at them. Another fun indoor activity for kids and adults is the simple act of dancing. Crank up some music and dance the night away, with smiles abounding.

Cardboard boxes can provide hours of indoor fun in numerous ways. One large box can be turned into a fort or tent, with adults cutting doors and windows in the box and kids and adults decorating the box with colors, signs and slogans. Another option is to place several boxes together, cut matching holes in the sides of the boxes and put the boxes together to form a multi-room creation. You may even want to make a can-and-string telephone to communicate from room to room.

There's no rule against learning while you're having fun, and sometimes kids won't even realize that there's an educational aspect in play. For small children who love it when adults read to them, bring a new picture book home; a book they haven't seen. Without showing them the illustrations, read the entire book. Then slowly re-read each page and have the children draw their own illustrations for each page. When they have finished, let them see the book's actual illustrations and compare their work to the real thing.