The weather is changing quickly and that means more days spent at home and more bored children to entertain. There’s no need to stress, though, as there are plenty of wonderful activities that can stop cabin fever before it sets in and really captivate a creative mind.
From the simple and free, to the more challenging, all you need to keep your little ones busy is a bit of rain and a positive outlook.
Here are the top 10 activities that will keep your munchkins out of trouble and begging for rainy day activities all year round!
1. Make a fort. There’s nothing more fulfilling, or cosy, than building your own fort and then hosting a tea party inside. Lay a few blankets on the ground and drape sheets and more blankets over several chairs and a clothes horse to get the body of the fort made. Place some cushions and a few sleeping bags inside to make your fort lovely and comfortable.
If you’re feeling particularly creative, make some bunting out of old scraps of fabric and ribbon to pin around the entrance to the fort. Now all you need to do is invite your friends over or line up your teddies and dolls and have a very special tea party indeed!
2. Play at being a fashion designer. This can be great fun for boys AND girls. Get some pads of paper and pens and design some amazing outfits for your teddies, Action man, Barbie or dolls.
Once you have created your designs, get some scraps of fabric or felt and make them into a reality. Use glue or carefully stitch (get an adult to help you with this) the outfits together and accessorise them with sequins, patches or even fabric paint.
3. Who says you need to stay inside when it is raining? Chances are the streets will be pretty empty so take this opportunity to don your rain mac and wellies and get jumping about in some puddles. Lots of fun!
4. Take the opportunity to catch up on some much loved films. Having a film fest with popcorn, whilst snuggled up in a duvet, is a perfect rainy day activity that costs nothing and is hours of entertainment. Who knows, by the time the film fest is over, the sun might be shining again!
5. Create your own play. Think up characters and a plot, write a short script and then get stuck into your dress-up box and wardrobe to create the perfect costumes. Be as imaginative as possible and each work on building your own character’s personality, accent and part in the story.
Drape some curtains over the door, invite the neighbours round and act like you’ve never acted before!
6. Make jewelry. Whether you want to create friendship bracelets for your best friends, or simply want to go a bit crazy with colourful pasta shapes, making jewelry is great fun, cheap AND a lovely present to show you’ve been thinking about someone.
To make pasta jewellery, place uncooked pasta into a sandwich bag. Add a few squirts of hand sanitizer (this makes sure the color spreads evenly), followed by a few drops of whichever food colouring you like. Mix it all upand leave it to dry. Once dry, you can get a piece of string or ribbon and make colourful necklaces and bracelets.
7. Print your own cards and wrapping paper. Potatoes make great stencils for printing. Cut a large, raw baking potato in half (always get an adult to help you with this). Draw on the pattern you want to have as your print. Remove the potato around the pattern et voila! You have a totally unique stencil for creating amazing, personalised paper, cards or whatever else you want to make pretty and patterned!
Blot paint onto the potato stencil using a paint brush, press firmly onto your paper and remove. Repeat this process or make several stencils and mix them. All Round Fun has a great range of other creative indoor play ideas here
8. Board games are a classic rainy day past time. Unearth one that you haven’t played for a while, make sure everyone knows the rules and get playing. If there are a few of you then you can pair up to make it extra competitive. Adding home made biscuits or cakes to the mix keeps rowdy players quiet and makes it a great indoor treat.
9. Host a fashion show wardrobe clear-out. Encourage your children to rummage through their wardrobe and put together some outfits. As they strut along the catwalk you can decide at the end if the outfit, or elements of it, need throwing away, giving to charity or keeping. The most fun your kids will ever have clearing out their unnecessary clutter and refreshing their wardrobe for the oncoming seasons! The same can be done with toys. Invite your children’s friends over with their unwanted toys and get them to do an exchange. Up-cycling at its best!
10. Baking is a brilliant activity for when the weather is dull. It is great fun, interactive AND you get to eat all of the goodies at the end. There’s no better way to cheer yourself up on a wet day. It will also make your house smell delicious!
So, as you can see there are plenty of things to keep you and your children busy when the weather takes a turn for the worse.
Simple, but effective!
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