Need a cure for boredom on a rainy day? Keep the kids busy with these rainy day activities that are sure to get their creative juices flowing!
Kids love going outside. It’s the one place they can run, jump, scream and play rough and not get told to calm down. They get to burn off all that excess energy that keeps them hyped up all the time. In addition, running around outside is great exercise. It helps to keep kids in shape but sometimes the weather is too bad to go out.
When it rains, kids are cooped up inside with no way to let off steam. They get bored, cranky and often complain they have nothing fun to do. Listening to how bored your child is every five minutes can make parents cranky and annoyed. The solution is to prepare for these days in advance.
Bust boredom on rainy days wide open with these 25 boredom busting activities:
1) Head to the kitchen
Nothing stops kids from complaining about the weather faster than making homemade cookies, brownies and other treats. It also helps to get them familiar with the kitchen so it serves multiple purposes.
2) Take pictures or make short fun videos
Most kids love being in front of a camera. They like to pose and act funny. It makes them happy so you’ll be making them smile and creating memories for your scrapbook at the same time.
3) Have a picnic in the living room
Gather together a blanket, picnic basket, paper plates and other items you would carry on a picnic. Clear out the middle of the living room floor. Once the food is packed, go for a hike around the house until you end up in the living room where your picnic begins. After your meal you can play a board game or other indoor games to make it even more exciting.
4) Make an indoor fairy garden
Fairy gardens are so fun to make! Usually when you think of a fairy garden, you think of creating one outside but here is a tutorial for making an indoor fairy garden. This is perfect since it’s a rainy day and you can’t get outside. Once the garden is created, kids can use it to decorate their room and once the rain stops they can transfer it outside.
5) Pull out the arts and craft supplies
Nothing washes the rainy day blues away like getting creative. Kids can paint, draw and have a great time making things.
6) Blow up the balloons
Balloons have a way of instantly putting a smile on the face of kids everywhere. You’ll love the fact that you don’t have to worry about them breaking anything like you do when you see a ball flying across the room.
7) Sing and dance to music
This will wear kids out faster than anything and who could be bored when they hear their favorite song. It’s a great way to make kids smile when the rain is pouring down outside.
8) Play board games
Nothing beats pulling the games off the shelf and having a good old fashioned board game show-down. It’s a great way to get the kids engaging with everyone in the family doing something fun.
9) Dress up and put on a show
Pull out some old costumes from Halloween last year and pretend to be a favorite character. Whenever someone asks a question, be sure to use the voice of the costume character to answer!
10) Write to a pen pal
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Despite our ability to instantly communicate with other people, snail mail is still a fun way for kids to connect with their friends and family. It’s also a great way to have them practice their spelling skills.
Grab a piece of paper and pen and choose someone to write a pen pal letter to. It can be a friend in the same neighborhood or out of state. Even a grandparent that doesn’t live close by can be a pen pal.
11) Indoor scavenger hunt
Make this as simple or elaborate as you want. Hide a few objects in one room to contain the fun, or throughout the entire house to spread it out. Try drawing a simple map to help your little explorers find the treasure.
12) Draw
Rainy days are a good time to practice drawing skills. Try free-handing a picture or trace if that works better. Draw in different fun colors to mix things up.
13) Practice a new skill (sewing, mechanics, piano, etc.)
This may be a good time for kids to practice a skill they’ve been trying to perfect. A little extra practice before the big piano recital couldn’t hurt.
14) Take turns telling stories
Tell fun stories, scary stories, silly stories, you name it. Or let each person take a turn adding a sentence or two to the story line and then letting the next person add theirs until you’ve created a big story that everyone’s contributed to.
15) Create an indoor obstacle course
Remember doing this when you were a kid? Some ideas for an indoor obstacle course include:
- push chairs together to form a tunnel to crawl through
- place a jump rope on the floor in a straight line as a tight rope
- hop from one checkpoint to another on one foot
- balance an object on your head as you make your way through a maze of objects
16) Build with toys like Legos or K’nex
Grab the Legos and build! Make it a contest and see who can build the largest castle, tower, house, etc. Or who can be the most unique with their creation?
17) Have a pampering party
Pull out the nail polish and make it a spa day. Pamper yourselves by doing each others hair and nails.
18) Play card games
Teach the kids some of your favorite card games from when you were a kid.
19) Play hide and seek
What kid doesn’t love hide and seek!
20) Play “I spy”
Play this classic game when it’s too wet and cold to go outside. Play the regular way where you “spy” anything. Or play with themes, like spy things that are red or spy things that begin with each letter of the alphabet.
21) Do simple science experiments
Kids love watching things fizz, bubble and explode. There are so many simple experiments that they can do inside that require everyday household experiments. You probably have things in your cabinets they can explore and experiment with right now! Check out Steam Powered Family for super simple experiments your kids will really enjoy.
22) Exercise together
Don’t just do any old boring exercises. Make it fun! Think of creative ways to make it feel like you’re all just having fun together. For example, instead of doing push-ups, pretend you’re going under barbed wire and do an army crawl under the dining room chairs. When you make it to the other side, give the victors a prize!
23) Make ice cream in a bag!
24) Color in a coloring book
25) Read a book
Each child can read to themselves or they can take turns reading aloud to each other. You could also read aloud to everyone. Make it even more fun and let each child put a sock puppet on their hand and choose which character they want to be. When that character talks in the book, they get to act out what the character is doing with their sock puppet!
Bonus! Make a tent out of sheets, turn off the lights and use a flashlight to read in your tent.
26) Play in the rain!
You know what they say, “If you can’t beat them, join them.” In this case don’t let the rain ruin your day, go out and play in it!
Kids get bored easy but it’s amazing how fast you can turn that frown into a smile when you offer them something fun to do to occupy their time. Help bust boredom with these tips and turn those rainy days into fun days.
