We're blessed to live in an area where our days are mostly filled with sunshine, cool breezes and the smell of pluff mud. However, our parade gets rained out from time to time, and those days can create fussy kids and frustrated parents.
The secret to surviving a rainy day indoors is to be prepared, so you and the little ones don’t get bored. Here are a few ways to make the rainy days more entertaining. Try to keep some necessary supplies for the following activities.
What a great idea
Create an “Idea Box.” Use an old tissue or shoe box, decorated by you and your kids and fill it with ideas of creative activities to do on a rainy day. Then, when the day comes (and it will), have your child pick an idea from the box. It makes them feel a little more involved and in control.
Have a few craft ideas already put together and ready to pull out when needed such as Play Doh, an art kit, a box of buttons, kids’ magazines, puzzles or stickers. One favorite rainy-day trick is to save all the toys that come in kids’ meals or goody bags from birthday parties and pull them out as surprise toys. Be sure to put them back in storage after they’re done playing with them, so when you pull them out again for the next rainy day, they’ll be almost brand new (to the kids anyway).
Get Comfy
Rainy days are synonymous with lazy days in my house. Those are the days I want to curl up on the couch and watch a good movie. So, why not make an event out of it? You might not let your kids watch that much TV on a regular basis, but a rainy day is a good time to sit back and watch a classic flick with your little ones. Turn the living room into a movie theater. Place dolls and teddy bears on a row of chairs (or pillows), make some popcorn, create fake tickets to collect and put in a good DVD.
Play Pretend
Rainy days are also a good time to challenge your imagination. Play pretend anything: pretend store, pretend office, etc. Pretend your camping and create a fort out of your dining room table and chairs. Make indoor s’mores and tell ghost stories.
Life is a Beach
Several months of the year here, we can take our kids to the beach and they can play for hours in the sand while we soak up the sun. Obviously that’s a no go in the rain. But they can still enjoy the same digging play indoors. Create an indoor sandbox using a large plastic storage tub filled half way with rice. Let them use measuring cups as shovels. You can even take it a step further and hide little plastic toys in there to make it a treasure hunt.
Games
Of course you can always make it a family game night (or day) playing the classic board games, such as Candyland, Connect Four, Uno and Memory. Or, you can make your own. One game I found is called Silly Creature Creator. You take index cards and lay them horizontally with the blank side up, one above the other on a table. Have your child draw a head on the top card, a matching body on the middle card and matching legs/feet on the third. After several cards have been completed, mix and match to create silly creatures. Then, have your kids match the right body parts to the right heads.
Test your child’s memory and attention to detail by playing the “look at me” game. Have your kids observe you for one minute. Leave the room and while you’re gone, change one detail about your appearance (remove an earring, change your hair, put on a different shoe), and then return and have them guess what you changed.
One local mom told me about a way kids can let loose — puddle jumping. If it’s not raining too hard and getting close to bath time, put the kids’ rain boots on and let them enjoy jumping in the puddles. Let’s face it. If they can’t jump in puddles now, when can they? You don’t see 40-year-old business men jumping into potholes during their lunch breaks, do you?
Even though sunshine seems to make everyone feel a little better, don’t get bummed or bored if you and your little ones are forced to stay indoors. Just be prepared and all should go well.
