Rainy Day Activities for Kids

Kids love running around the yard, climbing walls, or simply being out of the house. But sometimes, rain plays spoilsport and kids are forced to stay indoors. In no time, you will find them glued either to the television or video games. You, as a parent, hate to see your kid being a couch potato and want him/her to do something creative, being indoors. Following are some rainy day activities for children.

Arts and Crafts: Involve your kids in some arts and craft activities like sketching, coloring pages, painting, clay modeling, puppet-making, making collages using pictures from old magazines, etc. You can even ask them to write creative articles and greeting cards using different items that are already available at home like beads, colors, buttons, shells, colorful pieces of cloth, etc.

Games: There are many indoor games that can involve multiple players. Try card games, jigsaw puzzles, board games; monopoly and checkers being the most popular. You can even try making a card house, playing house or with dolls and cars with toddlers. Treasure hunts or hide-and-seek are the games that can be played with older children.

Cooking: Involve your children in some fun kids cooking, and make their favorite dishes. You can even teach younger children how to make simple dishes like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Children love to participate in baking cookies or tempting chocolate cakes.

Picnic: Having an indoor picnic can also be a lot of fun for toddlers as well as children. Have games, snacks and a meal packed in a basket like a real picnic. You can even move the furniture in your living room to spread the mat, play games to get the real 'picnic effect'.

Story Time: Let the children read stories or older children can read stories aloud for the younger ones. You can even have a story enacted like a play. Involve kids and ask them to play different parts. They will be thrilled and you may even be surprised by your child's imagination. You can also go a step further and dress the kids up like story book characters.

Apart from all the above rainy day activities for kids, you can enjoy family movie time by putting on a movie DVD meant especially for children. Put on some old videos of your kid's babyhood with your running commentary about the incidences and events. Children will really find this amusing. You can even teach your kids to make paper boats and you can then set them to sail in rain water collected in a tub. Rainy day activities for toddlers should be filled with action. Allow them once to use colors, pens and pencils, play with soft toys, etc.

You can even utilize this time by teaching children a few skills, suitable to their age, like painting, carving soap, operating a computer, improving their handwriting, understanding and counting money, playing musical instruments, etc. Older children can also be involved in simple household chores. Awarding them for simple tasks, which will leave them hungry for more, and will also be helpful for you.

The idea behind rainy day activities for kids is to have the maximum physical activity and interesting kids art activities. Sitting in one place will surely bore them. These indoor rainy day activities are great to get the entire family together, augment child development and keep your kids from getting bored.