Have you had ever had great intentions on a day filled with fun outdoor activities only to be surprised by a change of weather and it is raining?
Here is a list of some of the ideas that the kids may enjoy:
1. Build a fort using blankets and your furniture. Throwing a blanket over your kitchen table creates a nice little fort for the kids where they feel like they are on an adventure. Throw a sleeping bag in there and a pillow and the kids can either pretend they are on a camp out or any other imaginative idea they have for the fort. We have brought dinosaurs in and pretended it was a cave.
2. Use low sided storage bins for sensory bins and add some rocks and some toy construction vehicles to pretend they are constructing a new road, etc. Another sensory bin could be rice and small objects and they use a small shovel or rake to search for the items.
3. Check out Pinterest for a fast and easy craft project.
4. Using plastic cups the kids can stack them up and see who can build a pyramid the highest without it tipping over. Another fun game with the cups is to turn the cups over and place them in a row and have the kids stand back and toss foam circles or small ping pong balls and try to make them in the cup. Keep the bins for repeat usage.
5. Play the game "spoons". This game is sure to be a hit. I play with a group of kids and the circle is always filled with laughter as you see who gets stuck without the spoon. What you need for the game: one less spoon for the amount of kids you have playing. So if you have 6 kids playing then you need 5 spoons. You also need a deck of cards or two depending on the number you have playing. One person deals out 4 cards to each person. Everyone holds their cards and the dealer passes one of their 4 cards to their neighbor replacing their passed card with a new card from the deck. Each person in the circle continues doing the same thing; passing one of their cards and picking up the card they received from their neighbor. The cards continue going around the circle until someone has 4 of the same numbers in their hand (for instance, four 5's), once they get 4 of a kind they slyly and quietly while continuing to pass the cards they are given from the person next to them and play continues until all the spoons are gone in the center and there is one person who realizes that they didn't get a spoon. If you can play it slyly enough by continuing to pass the cards that are handed to you while reserving the 4 of a kind in your hand it gets even funnier. There has NEVER been a time that all of us weren't laughing hysterically because you seem to trick someone every time.
6. Bake cookies
7. Do a household activity together such as washing a kitchen floor or reorganizing dresser drawers or matching socks. Kids love to help.
8. Help the kids make sock puppets with worn out old socks or use puppets you have in the house and have them give you a puppet show.
9. For kids old enough to be safe with scissors a fun idea would be to give them old magazines and let them cut out pictures and words from magazines to create a collage. Once they get their pictures cut out it is time to glue them on a piece of paper to try and cover the entire piece of paper.
10. Indoor hide and seek is always fun!
11. Watch a movie. Make & pretend to sell tickets to the movie. We popped popcorn, put a blanket out on the floor and the kid had to give their ticket to the person at the door. They were also given a ticket to purchase popcorn and a drink. The kids just think it is great!
12. Make paper airplanes and have a contest to see whose flies the furthest. Let them design them with markers, paint, or crayons. You could have a contest for the most creative, best flyer, etc.
13. On a day that it is just raining and no thunder and lightening of course, have the kids put on their rain boots and rain jackets and go out and stomp in the puddles. It is a great time for them to try and look for worms too. The kids can have lots of fun out in the rain.
14. A favorite of my kids was to play knee hockey.
15. Charades where you make a bunch of cards of certain animals and tape the card on the back of each person. The rest of the kids have to act out what that animal does without any sound until the person knows what animal they have.
16. Read books. Nothing better than sitting down with your kids and reading together.
17. This is a sensory game where you place a certain object in a paper bag and then each child has to take a guess after putting their hand in the bag without peeking. It is so fun to hear their guesses. Surprise them when you actually take the object out of the bag.
18. Pick an object or object that you are going to hide around the room and then the others have to find the items. For a prize for a birthday party I hid a bunch of Match Box cars and the kids had to find them.
19. Hot Potato where everyone gets in a circle and you either use a balloon or a lightweight ball and toss it to each other in the circle but not actually holding it very long because you pretend it is a hot potato and you are going to get burnt if you hold it too long.
20. Tic tac toe and hangman.
21. Make a peanut butter and seed feeder for the birds. An easy way is by using a hole punch in an end of an empty toilet paper roll or paper towel roll and then tie a string long enough to hang from a branch outside. Cover the roll with peanut butter and then. and roll it in bird seed. When it sin't raining outside, hang it from a tree and the birds will love you.
22. Paint some rocks for the garden. Using craft paint let the kids paint the rocks with bright colors. When the paint is dry you may want to paint some shellac over the paint to preserve the colors on the rocks. What a bright addition to your garden when they are done!
23. Bring out board games that you haven't played in awhile.
24. Make a masking tape road all over their room or the family room. I covered my living room with roads using blue painters tape so I would have no problem pulling it up when we were done. I had areas for parking, a garage area where I put their toy garage, and other stops they could make while they were playing.
25. Pom Pom or cotton ball races. Each child is given a straw and a cotton ball and you have a starting line and a finish line (preferably on a wood or tile floor where the pom pom or cotton ball can move easier). Mark, set, go....each child has to use their straw to blow the cotton ball/pom pom across the floor to the finish line.
