Ten Rainy-Day Games for Children

Jan 22, 2011
Lorelei Sieja

A Sheet Tent Will Be a Rainy Day Hit - pnoto by Eden Pictures

How to amuse young children on those days when they cannot go outside to play. Activities include dramatic play, literature, science, math and art.

Rainy days aren't much fun for anyone, unless you're a thirsty dandelion in a dry spring field. Maybe the kids are driving you nuts already, and they haven't even had their breakfast yet! With a little planning and foresight, you can make the next rainy day a special memory instead of a headache that just won't quit. Stock up on supplies now, and save them for your next rainy day.

Rope, Clothespins and Old Sheets Make Great Tents

Children love to climb inside small spaces. They love special hideouts, cubbyholes, forts, and clubhouses. Even if they have one in the backyard, they may enjoy playing inside a temporary tent that takes over the dining room for the day. In its simplest form, you can throw a couple of large sheets over the dining table – and you're done! Let them drag their toys, dolls and doll beds, trucks, whatever toy they want, under the tent.

You can get more elaborate as your children get older, until they are building the tent themselves. String rope from chairs, tables, doorways, even ceiling hooks. Pin up sheets and lighter weight blankets with clothes pins. Add fluffy quilts or area rugs for the floor, some throw pillows, maybe even a bag of popcorn or too. Tent-making is very messy, but oh-so-much fun!

An Indoor Snowball Fight Can Burn Off Some Energy

Many children love to throw things. At the beach, they throw sand. In the grocery store, they throw tantrums, and at the park, they may throw bread crusts to the ducks, but throwing is good exercise and can help them develop better eye-hand coordination. The trouble with throwing anything inside is that lamps and picture frames can get broken.

So first, you make want to do a little re-arranging. Remove anything glass from the target area. For snowballs, use wadded up sheets of old newspaper, or even pairs of socks. You stuff one sock down in the toe of it's mate, and cuff the outer sock so that it makes a puffy little ball. Have a start and finish time for the "fight". If you play in the living room, use the couch to separate the two teams. Or if you have only one child, set up a laundry basket for him to throw the balls into.

Paint the Windows to Brighten Up the Day

If it is not thundering outside, and your child could stand under an umbrella, moving the paint outside can eliminate some of the mess. Find a window that is somewhat protected. You might chose a sliding glass patio door, or the child's bedroom window, if he can reach it without a ladder. For paint, you mix one tablespoon of liquid dish soap to half a tablespoon of pre-mixed tempra paint (clear soaps work better than blue ones). Use a muffin tin, and you can give your child several colors at once. Have a separate brush for each color.

You can tape an outline of a picture to the inside of the glass, and let him paint it from the outside. Or let him create his own designs. You might go out with him, and paint a great big yellow sun and a field of flowers. The rain might wash the picture away, depending on the direction of the wind. Even watching the paints smear and run down the glass can be interesting. If the rain doesn't erase the painting, a moist paper towel will get it. If you don't have a window, you could chose to let your child paint the tile walls of the shower stall, but test a small area yourself to make sure the tempra isn't going to stain the grout.

Clean Out the Garage Whenever it Rains

Depending on the ages of your children or the condition of your garage, you could put the kids to work. Leave the garage door open if it's a warm rain with no lightning. Sweep the floors, sort the clutter, fill up some garbage bags. Watch the rain together. Listen to the rain. Talk about the rain, and where the water goes next. Do you live in town, so it fills the gutters and goes to the water treatment plant?

In rural areas you might be able to follow the rivulets the rain makes to see some wildlife tracks. If you do find tracks, you're in luck! You can come back when the rain stops and make a plaster cast! You can serve snacks in the garage (with a box of wipes for grubby hands). Doing chores together doesn't have to feel like work, and maybe, if you get a lot of rain, your garage will be company-clean! One of my favorite memories of my dad was the day he held me in his arms to watch a terrible thunderstorm from the garage. He didn't want me to be afraid of storms. In his arms, I wasn't afraid of anything.

Make Rainy Days Your Family Game Day

Many homes have a collection of games and puzzles they seldom use. Get out four or five of them and stack them on the dining table with a bowl of snacks. Pick one and play it with your children. Set it aside, then move on to the next. One game of Monopoly is enough, even if you play the quick-start method. Move on to Chutes and Ladders, or Labyrinth, or whatever games are in your collection.

If your children got a bunch of games for Christmas, you might even squirrel away a few of them that they haven't even opened yet for just such a day. If you have a large family, set up two game stations – half can play cards, while half play Clue, then switch. After a game or two, the kids will need to get up and move around, but you can come back for another game later.

Bake Something Together

As far as I know, the only thing you should never make on a rainy day is old-fashioned fudge. Something about the humidity can prevent the candy from setting. Otherwise, your choices are endless. How about a pan of brownies, or a batch of gingerbread cookies? Something a little bit unusual may be more interesting than the same-old, same-old.

Gingerbread men are fun because you get to cut them out, then decorate them before or after baking. You could make popcorn, if your culinary skills are somewhat lacking. Baking uses math, reading, science, following directions, and involves all five senses – taste, touch, smell, sight, and sound. No matter what ages your children are, kitchen projects are sure to be a hit.

Read a Book Together

You can crawl inside the tent with a flashlight, or sprawl on the couch and some floor pillows, but get comfy and read something a bit longer than they would normally listen to. Here's where the "plan ahead" part comes in to play. You may need to chose a book or two before hand, buy them and store them in the "rainy day" box. The same goes for movies – which I will not include in this list, because that's sort of a no-brainer. Have something on hand that the children haven't already read (or already seen), unless you want to take a field trip to the library every rainy day – which isn't a bad idea, either. Just crowded. A lot of other parents will be there with their boisterous brood. For school-aged children, consider The Swiss Family Robinson. For the preschool set, try The Cat in the Hat. As for videos, try to get something a little older, from your childhood, that they might not have seen before.

Wash Something. Water is an Inexpensive, Wonderful Toy.

Younger children might enjoy washing toy dishes in the kitchen sink. Older children could wash doll clothes or even their own clothes. My mom always set us to wash down walls when we got to squabbling. A little dish soap, a bucket half full of water, and an old rag, and the children can remove many of the marks they've put on the walls over the years.

Be careful! A young child can drown in a bucket of water, and floors and stair become slippery when wet. Have plenty of towels to catch the spills. If all else fails, you can put your child in the bathtub with some tub crayons, a toy boat, or other bathtub toys, and let him play until his fingers are pruned and the water is cold.

Host Your Own Indoor Olympics

How long can you stand on your head? How many push-ups can you do? How far can you throw a foam Frisbee? Hop on one leg? Do somersaults? Can you do a back bend? A cartwheel? Sit ups? Long Jump? Put some painter's tape down on the carpet for a "balance beam" and practice walking on the line forwards and backwards. You could have some paper ribbons to give out, or gold-foil wrapped candies. With older children, have them each select a country to represent, then sing their national anthem when you award their ribbon. With little children, make sure everybody wins. Young children are not mature enough to handle competition.

Set out the Craft Box

Putting a craft box together takes a bit of time, and you need to maintain it, but it could be the single most important toy for children. Making things helps them develop fine motor control, eye-hand coordination, develop creativity, explore physical properties, discover color, balance, shape and form, and so much more!

To start with, you need a box, or a dresser, or some thing to contain craft items. Then you need the items. You can buy some, but some you will find. Things to include are: tissue paper, construction paper, crepe paper, scissors, glue, paste, water colors, markers, toilet paper tubes, yarn scraps, ribbon scraps, paper straws, paper clips, magnets, magazines, newspaper, stickers, paint brushes, dry beans, dry noodles, rice, buttons, glitter, felt, and anything else you can imagine.

Children can make pictures, or draw roads for their toy cars. They might turn a paper tube into a periscope for a submarine or a spy. With paper clips, string and magnets they might make fishing rods or turn a row of chairs into a train. With young children, do not leave the craft box out. They do not have the maturity to use many of the items unsupervised, and they will make a bigger mess than they can clean.

With older children, the craft box might be available all the time, or only when they ask for it. Periodically, you will need to replenish the supplies, clean out the box, or replace it with a bigger one. Clear off your refrigerator – you're going to need lots of room for all the new pictures your youngster will give you!

Thankfully, we don't have a monsoon season in the United States. Most of us have only a few rainy days a year where we are trapped inside with cranky little ones. With some advance planning and a little organization, you can turn these dreadful days into cherished memories. Don't forget to take pictures!