When you have young children rainy days are as wonderful as they are challenging (book a sitter now if you need to get out for a bit). While running around in the rain will never cease to be one of the most entertaining ways to enjoy it, sometimes you just need to keep everyone dry and entertained. These rainy day activities for kids are the perfect addition to your rainy day schedule!
Story Time at Your Local Library
Most public libraries offer story time weekly or monthly. These are led by members of local groups, volunteers, or the librarians themselves and are often age specific. Check your local library’s schedule for the best dates and times for your child’s age.
In the meantime, enjoy a trip with your child to the library and spend time exploring the rows and rows of books. Your library may also have a children’s corner with an activity table and reading nook.
Rainy Day Activities for Kids in the Kitchen
Cooking is one of those rainy day activities for kids that is both fun and a valuable life skill. Invite your child to help prepare breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a quick snack. Practice measuring with younger children, and introduce early knife skills to older children.
Pinterest is a great place to find kid-friendly recipes because it is so visual. Here are a few we recommend:
Cooking is also a good way to encourage your child to try new foods! Try looking through your pantry for different ingredients your child may like to try, then use them in a recipe and have a tasting party.
Create Salt Dough Figurines
When your child is stuck inside, try using this recipe from Clay-It-Now to create figurines out of salt dough.
Salt dough is an ideal sculpting medium for kids because it’s easy to make and non-toxic. Perfect for rainy days, salt dough requires only boiling water, flour, salt, and vegetable oil.
Help your child carefully make the salt dough. Then sculpt it into figurines, shapes, or even tiny buildings or cars. Bake the dough according to your recipe and let cool completely.
Paint your salt dough with watercolor paints, and let your child decide what to do next! Use your creations for your next imaginative play session or give them as a gift to a friend or loved one.
Make Sock Puppets Out of Unmatched Socks
It seems like no matter what you do, there will always be unmatched socks at the end of laundry day. Am I right?!
Put that unmatched pile of socks to good use, and turn them into sock puppets!
Go simple by decorating them with washable markers and puffy paint or go all out and glue on googly eyes, felt appendages, and more. It’s the perfect way to recycle those lonely, old socks.
When you’re done creating your new sock buddies, have your child put on a puppet show just for you.