Rainy Day with kids

Ok, so spring may have just started here in lovely Melbourne, but I just looked at the monthly forecast and this is what I saw when it came to rainfall...


So, rain is all good and well, but if it's just endless, as it has been a bit here the last few months and apparently will be for a bit longer, I thought I'd share with you my favourite activities to do with kids when the weather is bad. There are other websites with great ideas such as this one, this one,  or this one (for small kids), some of them might be the same as mine.

I have spent many a day locked inside with rain lashing outside and bored kids inside. Sure you can chuck on the latest Disney movie and enjoy their zombie-like faces, but as I have mentioned before, I am convinced this generation of kids will spend more time in front of screens than we ever thought possible. Better to get them active and/or creative.

Here goes!

Build a fort/cubby

Favourite by far: build a fort/cubby out of couch cushions, sheets, blankets tablecloths, tables, chairs, pegs, broomsticks, elastic bands, whatever. The bigger the better! Then have a tea party/ picnic inside.
This can also be done with cardboard boxes, just make sure you buy a fridge first!

Build an obstacle course

Use furniture, toys, any items around the house into making an obstacle course as long as possible, through different rooms, let the kids think of different routes to go through it. Be creative, use chairs sideways, let kids climb over the edge of a couch, set out the route with masking tape on the floor, keep count, race, etc. Hours of fun!

Build a track for small balls

Use empty paper towel rolls, any bits of recycling, paper boxes, furniture, etc to build a track for marbles or golf ball, The fun of course is to start as high as possible and use our old friend gravity to help your balls roll as far as possible.

Build you own dolls house / multi-story car park / castle

You will need a bit of recycling for this activity, but kids will love making their own minature house, or car park, or whatever. Save empty matchboxes to glue together for a little chest of drawers or beds, etc. Here are some great sites to inspire you: Planetpal,  Kidspot, Yahoo!

A Dutch lady by the name of Karina Schaapman started making a dolls house, or as it's know a Mouse House ( here is another blog's post about it), one day out of cardboard boxes and ended up making one that is now three metres high and two metres wide and lives in the City Library of Amsterdam. I saw it a few months ago and loved it. It is entirely handmade and mostly made out of recycled household items! It is the base for her books about the mice Sam and Julia, which is soon to be published by Allen & Unwin in English here in Australia. 

Get crafty 

Of course there's hours of fun in paper, glue and scissors, tons of colours and glitters and whatever else. 

Here's some things kids could make:

1. Design your own board game
2. Make a jigsaw puzzle out of colouring pages or your own drawings by sticking them onto a piece of cardboard and drawing puzzle pieces on the back of it and then cut it up
3. Make your own pop-up book/lift the flap book 
4. Make tons of cards for birthdays/celebrations to use on later occasions
5. Design your own wrapping paper
6. Draw mazes for each other
7. The internet is FULL of colouring pages you can print out for kids to colour in, just go to Google images and search for your desired subject and add colouring page i.e. "Disney Princess Colouring Page" (or Coloring Page, which is how the Americans write it, to broaden your search results.) 

Pass-on drawings/stories

Depending on the age group of the kids,  there are two options. With young kids you can each grab a piece of paper, and start drawing the head of a character, including the neck, and then fold the paper so your drawing is hidden and only the bottom lines of the neck are visible, then the next person has to draw the torso, etc. Make sure you fold each piece so it stays hidden! Come up with a name for your character and its pet to add a few more turns, then unfold it together!

For older kids you can make silly stories by each writing a line, then folding the paper and just putting the first word or two words of the next line for the next person, and hand it around/back and forth. Once again, make sure the lines stay hidden until everyone has had a few turns and/or the paper is full. 

Get in the kitchen

Of course baking and cooking things together is endless fun. Bake some simple biscuits or cakes, then enjoy them with a cup of tea inside your cubby/fort! Here are just a few recipes you could make. 

You could also make some play dough while you're at it! Here's a recipe for it.

Get out of the kitchen - Pretend Master Chef

So, this a hit with my kids who are four and over and watch a show called Master Chef. Play pretend Master Chef with all the kitchen utensils, bowls, trays etc you are happy to let kids play with. Perhaps not real knives, eh? But safe things. 

Then set them up at their own cooking station, allocate a pretend oven, fridge, etc. and let them choose pretend ingredients for their pretend dishes, let them start pretending to prepare them, yell 'five minutes to go' or something other every now and then, then start counting down to get them to finish their dishes in a flourish of stressed plating up and presenting.

Of course they will have to present their dishes to the judges and tell them what they've created (you, and some of the other kids, they will love taking turns on judging each other's recipes) and select a winner. I have played this for hours in the last few years!

Of course you can re-enact a lot of tv games as long as you're happy to use your imagination!

Invent a play / Act out your favourite book

Bring out the dress-up box and let your imagination go crazy! 

Re-organise a cupboard or wardrobe

Ok, so it might not seem like fun, but with a favourite dinner for a reward or an outing somewhere fun,  you can make it fun. Choose a cupboard everyone uses, or a kids wardrobe and sort it out with things you love (easy access), things you use every now and then, and things that can go. Get three shopping baskets or washing baskets and place everything in a 'keep' 'maybe' 'go' baskets. You will all feel good when it's done.

Of course there is no end to the fun to be found on the internet, so google away and enjoy yourselves!