Fun ideas for rainy days
By Kylie Dawson
Rainy days, especially when they continue for more than a day or two, can create anxiety for parents, even more so when they have highly energetic children. Below are some ideas to help make rainy days an enjoyable experience for everyone, and hopefully they might even become your and your child/ren’s favourite time!
Head outside!
Put on your gumboots, raincoats, and head outside to explore your garden or street. Gutters can be transformed into the perfect setting for leaf races, puddles can be jumped in, birds can be spotted in the trees trying to stay dry, and you might be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a rainbow!
Use undercover spaces
If you have a covered carport or deck, grab some chalk and you can play hopscotch, let your child/ren draw, create a maze, or draw a swirling, twirling line to ‘balance’ on.
Bubble baths
A warm bubble bath is particularly wonderful after heading outside. Grab some bath toys, or just some plastic containers, cups and kitchen utensils, and let the children relax and play until they are all wrinkly.
Treasure hunt
Write up and/or draw some clues and set up a treasure hunt. If you need to draw the clues, you could draw a picture of the location of the next clue, such as the microwave, bathtub or laundry hamper. Once your child/ren have had a chance to engage in the treasure hunt, you could challenge them to set up the next one.
Home cinema with tickets, ushers, popcorn, and dim lights
To give everyone some down time, and much needed rest, gather the kids and set up a home cinema to enjoy after lunch. Make some ‘tickets’, pop some popcorn, layout mattresses or grab some doonas, and dim the lights.
Dress ups
Kids especially love dressing up in their mum’s, dad’s, grandparents, or aunt’s, clothes. So, hide away any special items, and let them have a blast with dressing up in cocktail dresses, suit jackets, boots, high heels, jewellery, and hats. And you can even have a fashion parade at the end of it all!
Shadow puppets
Draw the curtains, turn off the lights, grab a torch and see what shapes and animals you can make with your hands, feet, utensils from the kitchen and items in the room.
Bluey-inspired games
Let Bluey set the inspiration and play some games of “Keepy Uppy” with a balloon, and “Floor is lava” with cushions and furniture.
Science experiments, such as combining vinegar, bicarb and food colouring
Place a bowl or container in a large dish, or on a tray, and let the kids add vinegar and then some bicarb and food colouring. This might inspire the kids to mix other items from the pantry to see what they can create.
Dedicated “messy area”
Having a dedicated messy area can be helpful to keep your sanity, and also gives children the freedom to create and explore without our constant reminders or directions to keep things clean. It also helps to teach children about boundaries and caring for their belongings and your home.
Fort or cubby building
Determine an area where the children can build and let them know what they can and can’t use, and then let the creating begin!
Simon Says, Follow the Leader, Musical Statues
Our little people have a lot of energy, and it can be great to get everyone moving if you have been stuck inside for a while. Simon Says, Follow the Leader and Musical Statues are all games that can be played inside easily. As with all games and young children, help them to establish the rules and expectations at the beginning and mark out a space that they can use for their games.
If you have any other great ideas about fun things to do on rainy days, please share them with us and our online community; the more ideas the better!
