Our children love to play outside; they’d play outside all day if we let them! We recently had a rainy day here (featured image source here), so going outside was not really an option (unless I wanted to clean up mud and do loads of laundry and scrub pairs and pairs of sneakers…which I didn’t). The kids seemed to do well most of the day with coming up with activities to keep themselves occupied and having fun together, but occasionally they came to me for some inspiration (coming from our 3 year old, that “inspiration” went something like this: Lies on floor, spreads arms wide, moans, “Moooom, what can we DO?!?!?!?!” 🙂 )
I don’t feel like I have to come up with activities whenever the children tell me they’re bored. I believe it’s good for children to use their imaginations and work together to create new games, find new ways to play with toys, and if all else fails sit quietly on the couch and read a book. (As an aside…I’ll have to do a post on toys soon, I think…how to keep toys – especially when you have many children – from overwhelming your house and your kids). Anyway though, when they ask for ideas, most of the time I will give them a few (“How about you make a tent/read a book/color/etc?”). If none of my ideas go over well (especially if they whine!) I start offering little age-appropriate household tasks (“You can help me put away the silverware from the dishwasher!” or “You can help me sort the socks from the dryer!” Sometimes they jump at those suggestions – yes our kids actually like to help with chores! – but sometimes the suggestion of a small task makes the previously suggested activities suddenly seem more interesting. 😉
Especially on a rainy day though, I do try to have some activities ready to go for when the boredness sets in and they need, um, “inspiration”. 😉
Play-Doh
Play-Doh is awesome stuff. It will keep kids, especially boys, occupied for-ev-er (the trick is to just make sure they don’t eat it :). I usually only buy about 4 different colors at a time, because inevitably the colors end up getting all mixed together…don’t sweat that though, Play-Doh is inexpensive – I think I found it at Wal-Mart for .50 a jar – so when it gets nasty or dried out just toss it and bring out new colors.
Baking
Baking is a great way to kill two birds with one stone – make something yummy for hubby when he comes home from work, and keep the kids occupied all at the same time! Let the kids help measure and pour ingredients and take the opportunity to teach fractions. Licking spoons/spatulas/bowls is something our kids are experts at! Hey, it beats doing dishes. (Just kidding!) Oatmeal-raisin cookies are a favorite here at our house. If it’s too hot to turn an oven on, smoothies are another fun kid-friendly option.
Board Games
This one can be hard especially if you have very young children who have a hard time with board game rules (or babies who put every small thing dropped on the floor in their mouth!), but our kids recently got this game from my in-laws and it has been a huge hit. Even our two year old (with help from mom) can follow the rules and play.
Crafts
Here at our house we have to be careful of crayons and markers (some of the children think the walls are a coloring book 🙂 ) but one age-friendly “craft” all our kids like to do is cut up paper with scissors. I set out several pairs of children’s scissors and the weekly grocery ads that I’m done looking through, and the kids love to cut the ads up (the kids can cut out the meat, veggies, chips and soda, or dessert!). This does make a bit of a mess, but afterwards I hand the oldest one a dustpan and brush (or the vacuum cleaner, if the paper pieces are small enough) and he even has fun helping me cleaning up afterwards (and yes it’s true, our oldest loves to vacuum and use the dustpan – sometimes he begs and asks, “What room can I vacuum? Pleeeeease?!” I love it!).
Hopefully this post has given you a few ideas for rainy day activities (or even just “Mom! I’m bored!” activities :). What are some of your favorite activities for kids on rainy (or bored) days?