Last week’s blog was all about easy and fun outdoor activities for the summer, but what happens when it rains? The activities listed below are fun and can also be done year round. I am definitely not a “cool” mom that wants to go play in the rain and I am sure I probably tell my kids they will catch pneumonia if they do that, even though it is not true.
As we approach a week with lots of rain in the forecast, I wanted to compile a list of tried and true indoor things to do with your kids that don’t require a lot of supplies or supervision. The age range here is toddlers to early elementary school children since that’s how old my kids are. Keep reading if those are the ages you are looking for as well.
- Coloring – I love to keep activity packs I pick up from the $1-$3 bin at Target, coloring books from the dollar store, or random stacks of paper hidden since my kids love anything that is a “surprise” or “prize”, even though they look exactly the same as all the other books they have colored in the past. Another fun thing to do is to ask them to make cards for their cousins or friends and we then pretend to mail them (rarely we actually do mail the cards to their Florida cousins!).
- Mani/pedis – I recently discovered that painting fingernails and toenails will keep both my kids (boy and girl) entertained for a while! The best part is to get them to keep still while their nails dry. You can extend the activity by picking different colors for each nail, which we didn’t do because both of my kids were very set in the colors they wanted.
- Chores – this one is so useful during the weekend, when our house looks like it exploded. I can’t typically make cleaning up their toys fun but my kids love grabbing laundry out of the dryer, sorting socks, loading the dishwasher, and helping make the beds. You can even offer up a prize if you make the chores a competition between your kids.
- Stickers – my sister-in-law recently mailed my kids glow-in-the-dark stars and moon stickers and Spiderman stickers for the wall that easily come on and off and that kept them busy for quite some time! They had to get their rooms decorated just right. I am not a fan of regular stickers because they put those everywhere and they are a pain to take off. This kind is wonderful because it doesn’t leave a mess and is so easy to take on and off.
- Cooking – I am not a big baker, so making cookies is not at the top of my list of things to bake with the kids but I do love cooking. I think it is also useful to teach the kids how to do this stuff. We boil pasta together, make couscous, mac and cheese, empanadas, or anything we may be eating for dinner that night. I will make cookies or something sweet of a box every once in a while and of course, they like that too.
- Halloween game – my kids made this one up and it doesn’t work as well anymore with my oldest (6). If you have younger kids, I highly recommend it. The game involves turning off the lights in your bedroom and hiding under blankets from the Halloween monsters that were coming. I enjoyed closing my eyes while we waited patiently for the monsters to come. The best part? You have to be quiet, so the monsters don’t find you!
- Crafts – if you find yourself in a dollar store, grab a bunch of their crafts for endless hours of entertainment. Michaels has crafts too but they can be more expensive. There are ornaments to build, canvasses to paint, small wooden things to build and paint, stickers, random felt activities that can be colored, and a lot more. The best part is they can choose what they want to do, which adds like an extra 15 minutes at least. I also keep Playdoh and other similar type dough things in the bag of crafts and extra paint.
I’d love to hear your fun indoor activities with your kids! Comment below.
