Playing outside isn't always an option. Whatever the weather - too cold, too much snow, rain, too hot, too muddy or too icy - sometimes we are stuck inside with young children who wish they were outside. However, you can certainly have a ton of fun by using some simple creativity and imagination. Here are several super fun ideas for indoor play that your child will delight in.

Make a cardboard puppet theater. A puppet theater can be made from any semi-large to large box. Simply find your box, cut off one of the wider sides and a large rectangular window in the other wide side. Then, with your child, be as creative or simple as you like decorating it. You can use paints, stickers, construction paper, ribbon, crayons, or markers. Basically, whatever you have on hand with work perfectly! After you're done decorating it find a nice spot in your living room to have you and your child take turns putting on a puppet show. You can even practice one to put on for the other parent when they come home from work. You can gather a lot of stuffed animals to be in the audience and teach your child the art of telling stories aloud.

Do you ever wonder what to do with all those left over toilet paper rolls? Well, take two cardboard rolls, glue them together long ways, and you have binoculars! Let your child decorate them with either paint or markers. When it dries take your child with the binoculars on an indoor safari. Place stuffed animals or even pictures of animals all around the house in different rooms. Let your child go on a safari using his binoculars to discover these different animals. At the end of the trail you can read books together about animals.

Have an indoor snowball fight. This works especially well if you have more than one child, but it can still be fun with a parent and one child. First, figure out what you want to use for snowballs. You can blow up tons of white balloons or use crumpled up white paper. Then, construct forts out of couch cushions or chairs and blankets. Constructing this with your child can be a lot of fun in itself. When your forts are ready, begin the snowball fight!

Also, make dinner time an especially fun time. Take a large sheet of crate paper and tape it down to your table. Set the table as usual for dinner, but put out markers, crayons, stickers, glue and googley eyes, on the table. When dinner begins, and while you eat, let your children show their creativity on the crate paper. When they are done, cut out their works of art and display them. The crate paper can be used at any meal, anytime you just want to add a touch of fun to your meal. You can even make it a special Saturday morning breakfast tradition or do it every night for one week at dinner and such.

Have fun with these ideas and add your own touch to them. These ideas can have many variations and even spur your creativity bone. A good idea, if possible is to also prepare for indoor days in advance. When you're at the store, stock up on your child's favorite things like paint, construction paper, and other craft needs. That way, when an unexpected indoor day occurs, you and your child can make it an imaginative day!