Rainy days have the tendency to spoil plans if you let them. Most parents are well aware of this fact, but among the many talents we develop as parents is the ability to be flexible and improvise. Sometimes rainy days give us a much needed day to just relax and take it easy. Maybe you like to catch up on your kids favorite TV shows or play a video game. It's good to do that every once in a while, but sooner or later the kids get board and want something new and interesting to do. So, I've come up with a few thing you can do on a rainy day to mix it up a little bit.
First of all, just because it's raining doesn't always mean you can't go outside. A light spring rain that doesn't have any lightening or thunder associated with it, that's not too cold, could be fun to play in. If you have a backyard that you maintain so that you know it is free of sharp rocks, thistle plants, glass, or other dangers, it might be fun to let the kiddos run around in the wet grass in their bare feet. And of course one of my daughter's favorite things to do in the rain or just after the rain is to splash in mud puddles!
You can also have Rain Water Races! You and each child pick a bucket or container of their choice. Then let them pick where they want to place their bucket outside. The object is to see who's container fills up the fastest! This would be a fun way to introduce a liquid measuring activity too. After you see who won. Break out a liquid measuring cup and see how many cups of water each bucket held. They might be surprised to find out that their containers all held the same amount of water, unless one of them was inventive enough to place their container under a wonder spout!
If you'd rather stay warm and dry and not have to do a whole pile of laundry, there are plenty of fun things to do indoors too!
Sometimes we get so caught up in trying to find something new and exciting to do we forget about the old faithful activities like coloring or drawing pictures, snuggling up and reading our children's favorite books, or having a movie and popcorn night. But if that still seems to hum drum, I have a few more ideas that might help or even inspire you to come up with your own creative ideas!
Making Old Toys New Again!
A rainy day is the perfect day to break out an old board game or any toy for that matter. We all know how old toys suddenly become new favorites when we try to clean out our kids rooms for a yard sale or to donate to charity. Try digging out some old board games or toys now to see what fun you can find at the bottom of that toy box.
Homemade Board Games
If you have a lot of time and some creativity you might even want to try to make you own game! Your little ones will enjoy making up the rules and playing by them. (If you write the rules down as they come up with them this will reinforce the fact that spoken words can be written down and that writing has meaning.) They can design their own game pieces, and help color the game board too using items you find around the house! You can use, cotton balls, magnets, spare buttons, or other items as game pieces or make them by cutting, coloring, and gluing cardboard or construction paper! You can create all kinds of different games, ones that are similar to their favorite board games like Candy Land or matching games like Memory. You can even make them educational by making number matching games, or games that incorporate letters of the alphabet. The possibilities are endless, just be creative! Just remember since your little one is helping you it doesn't have to look professional. The process of making the game should be just as fun as playing it!
Pasta Jewelry
Today might be the day to do some of those crafts you've been thinking about, like that painted pasta necklace. If you use different shapes of pasta and string them on yarn you could work on patterning with this activity as well. Have them make a necklace by patterning the different colors or different shapes as they put them on the string.
Fun with Safety Scissors and Glue
As a Pre-K Teacher and Mother of a 3 year-old I can tell you, that if you give early learners scissors, glue, and paper they are allowed to cut and glue they will be occupied for a while! Toss in some old magazines that they can cut pictures out of and they'll love it! You can either just allow them to use their creativity and imagination to cut and glue until the cows come home or sit down with them and try creating a meaningful collage with pictures of things they enjoy and letters that spell their names or words that describe them.
Staying Active Indoors
Depending on the size of your house and the number of kids in it, you might still be able to burn off some of that energy you were hoping would be taken care of at the playground today by playing some active games like freeze tag, hide-and-seek, your own made up game. For instance, My daughter likes to play "Dinosaurs." It's not a complicated game. All we do is stomp around the house as I chant/sing "Stomp, Stomp, Stomp like a dinosaur, Stomp, Stomp, Stomp like a Dinosaur Stomp." This game ends up taking many different forms as we crawl like alligators, fly like birdies, hop like bunnies... etc. I'm sure you get the idea.
Music & Movement and Finger Plays
A rainy day might be a good day to pop in their favorite children's CD and get moving. Whether it's a well known finger play, a song they follow along with, or just dancing like crazy to some of their favorite silly songs, they'll burn some energy and have fun doing it!
