Totful Tuesday: 10 Rainy Day Activities for Kids

Parents everywhere often watch the weather forecast and hope for sunny days, but when the inevitable rain or snow arrives it’s helpful to have kids activities ready to go to keep the troops occupied.

So what do we do here at the House of Lemonade when the elements (snow, rain, scorching sun) keep us from running wild outside?  Here’s 10 Indoor Activities to Keep Kids Happy (and you sane) while stuck inside.

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1.  Washing Babies (and Trains)

Fill a plastic tub or Rubbermaid bin with {a small amount of} water, some foam soap, and small washcloths and let ‘er rip!  We scouted out an all-plastic baby doll just for this purpose (I bought it at a consignment sale, but I found a highly rated plastic doll with bathtub on Amazon if you need one).  We added plastic trains and boats to the mix and I had TWO happy and clean campers occupied for a good half hour!

2.  Paint in a Bag

I found this idea on Pinterest, and tried it myself.  You fill a ziploc bag with paint and tape to a sliding glass door or window.  Honestly, it only stayed up for a few minutes before being ripped off (try taping both top and bottom), so we used it on the table for awhile and it kept them occupied… and was super pretty the few minutes it hung in the window!

3.  Create Roads and Tracks with Tape

Place painters tape on the floor and create “roads” for cars or “tracks” for trains.  Promotes fine motor skills while giving you a few minutes of peace and quiet.  Beware, you might have a whole town in your living room by day’s end!

4.  Doctor, Doctor

Noodle spent her first half of life in doctor’s offices and hospitals.  One of the ways we helped ease her fear of them was playing at home, especially with the fake blood pressure cuff since that used to be her arch nemesis.  You can find kid sized doctor kits everywhere, as well as character themed band-aids.  We give each other check-ups, fix boo-boos, and make sure all our dolls and stuffed animals are feeling their best.  Role play is such an important skill, encourage it!

5.  Making Treats

There’s nothing like pulling out a bag of mini-pretzels, chocolate, and sprinkles to make someone forget they are stuck inside.  Both kids loved dipping the pretzels in chocolate and then sprinkles to make these treats, and of course taste testing the results.  Extras can go to friends, teachers, neighbors, nursing homes, etc. so none are wasted.  Not that they would be.  YUM. Here’s our easy recipe for making the chocolate dipped pretzels!

6.  Painting with Water

Hands down, one of my favorites.  Not only do the kids have a blast using water to paint on our chalkboard, but it gets squeaky clean! We found this Melissa and Doug easel at a consignment sale but it’s relatively inexpensive online, or IKEA has a cheap one too. If you have a chalkboard wall this is even easier!

7.  Paint with Bingo Paints (or Bingo Daubers)

This is a way to use real paint with hardly any mess: paint with bingo paint, or ‘Do-a-Dot Paints‘!  These are super easy to use and the kids love to go crazy making dots.  What to do with all those dotted pieces of paper?  We cut them into post card sizes and make thank-you cards. They also have special books designed to be used with them as well; so fun!

8.  Dress-Up

Raid the Halloween stash or dress-up bin and have a blast pretending to be different people (or animals).  Don’t have costumes?  Make them– or pull out your beach hats, dad’s old shirts, or scour the house for fun props to use.

9. The Rainy Day Bin

 

I keep a small bin of special toys I know they’ll love.  These are Dollar Store type toys– like slinkies, stickers, grow-a-dinosaur, etc.  We have fun playing with something they don’t usually get to use, making it a “novel” toy instead of something they’ll grow bored of quickly. Here’s a list of 7 AWESOME Dollar Store items we love.

10.  Head Outside

 

Wait, whaaaaat?  But this is a list of indoor activities.  Hey, it’s summer.  It’s going to rain.  As long as it’s not a heavy rain, sometimes we put on our rain jackets and boots and head outside.  Puddle jumping, looking for worms, and… laying on the ground, as Bee demonstrates… are fun in warm weather as long as it’s just a drizzle without lightning (or course).  On hot days a blow-up pool under the shade of a tree takes the temp down by 10 degrees at least.  Sometimes when you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

Here’s more parenting related posts you’ll enjoy:

Creating a Home for Learning (ideas for preventing summer slide and getting ready for school)
Curious George Birthday Party (including how I managed to lose a dozen red balloons)
Tips for Feeding your Picky Eater (great guest post from Julie at Teaching Good Eaters)