Rainy Day Activities

With the fall rainy season in full swing, I thought it would be fun to share some of our favorite things to do when the weather does not permit us to play outside. Being a homeschooling family, we are at home all the time, which can get super challenging with a four-year-old who sometimes gets incredibly tired of being in the house. We also have the challenge of our family sharing one vehicle, and with my husband having to drive a lot for his job, we have had to get very creative with our ideas for entertaining ourselves without going anywhere. Though, when we can, we’ll never turn down a trip to the library and the thrift store to pass the time on a rainy afternoon. But when we are stuck at home, we have a few activities to help make these dreary rainy days a little more fun.

Bake Something

One of my absolute favorite activities to do on a rainy day is to bake something with Delilah. Whether it’s something from scratch or from a simple box mix, baking is a great way to brighten and warm up a chilly rainy day. One thing I love about baking is how easy it is to turn it into a learning opportunity. While baking, we practice early math skills, coordination, and food preparation. Baking also is a great way to work on our patience skills. We do all the work to prepare our baked goodies, but we have nothing to do during rise times and baking times but wait. However, all that waiting is worth it when our treats are ready to eat.

Movie with Popcorn

Finding a rainy day activity can really be that simple. Cold rainy days are the perfect opportunity to cozy up on the couch with a blanket and watch a movie. It wasn’t intentional, but we don’t have popcorn too often, so it feels like a real treat, and Delilah loves it. I usually let her pick what kind we make and fix a bowl just for her so that she can feel a little more special. Then we choose a movie together ( I make suggestions, but she gets the final say), and it’s the perfect way to spend the afternoon and sometimes the best way to get a nap in the day.

Break Out the Paint

I am a big fan of arts and crafts, but sometimes, the thought of painting is daunting. Setting up, dealing with water and mess, and then cleaning up at the end feels like a lot sometimes, but when Delilah gets restless on a rainy day, it can be just what we need. Painting is one activity where Delilah can show incredible focus. She’ll help me set up her supplies while telling me her ideas for what she wants to paint. Her favorite subject recently has been Blue’s Clues characters. Once she’s set up she will paint and paint until she runs out of paint or paper. When her paintings are dry she rushes to hang them up on the fridge.

Movement Games

Rainy days are notorious for making kiddos absolutely restless. On rainy days, when Delilah has a bad case of the wiggles, we break out a few different movement games to help get the wiggles out. One of our favorites is one we call the “Act Like an Animal Game.” It may have an official name, but that’s what we call it. We take turns naming and acting like different animals. The game doesn’t really have an end. We normally keep going until Delilah starts losing interest and wants to move on to something else. I especially love this game because it’s one I can play at home with Delilah, and it also works great in a childcare setting. Another one I like to do when we’re working at Delilah’s preschool, and she starts getting wiggly is flashcard hide and seek. I’ll take her uppercase and lowercase flashcards for the letters and hide them in a room in the house while Delilah covers her eyes. Then, when she finds each one, she’ll tell me what letter it is, if it’s uppercase or lowercase, and sometimes we add in the letter sound, too, for an extra challenge.

Puzzles

I absolutely love puzzles. I remember my grandpa always had a bunch of really cool glow-in-the-dark puzzles that I loved doing with him. It’s one of my thrift store treasure hunts to find some of them again. So, as soon as Delilah was old enough, I started introducing her to her own puzzles, hoping she’d enjoy them and want to do them with me when she got older. Luckily, it worked, and she enjoys doing them, too. She loves to help me when I take out one of my bigger puzzles to do. She’ll help me find the edges and sort the other pieces by color. With some of them, she even helps me see where quite a few of the pieces go. When she’s helping me work on a 500-piece puzzle, it’s an excellent way to make the time fly by on a rainy afternoon while also making a tradition of an activity we can continue to do together.

Board Games

Another activity I loved doing as a kid was playing board games. I particularly loved playing Clue and would make my grandma play with me over and over when I visited her house. It always felt special to me as a kid when my whole family was playing a game together. When I became a parent, I knew I wanted to do it together as a family. When Delilah was old enough, we started with Snakes and Ladders and Candyland to introduce her to board games. Since then, she’s learned Tic-Tac-Toe and a few card games. Once she gets the hang of a game, she likes playing when we have free time in the afternoons. One of our plans for the rainy days ahead is to start teaching her how to play Uno.