4 Rainy Day Activities for the Family

Not many kids enjoy being stuck in the house when the sky is pouring down rain. It gets boring, and for kids, boredom and torture are one and the same. However, there are tons of entertaining things that the whole family can enjoy together! Here are some fun rainy day remedies for your family.

Indoor Camping

Start setting the scene with two chairs set a few feet apart with the chair backs facing each other. Drape a large flat sheet over them and place something heavy enough to hold it in place into the seat of each chair. Get the kids in on the fun with red, orange, and yellow paint, a brown marker, and a sheet of paper. Put each of the paint colors on a separate container, such as a plastic lid, then one hand goes in the red paint and pressed against the paper. Repeat the process with the orange and yellow paints, but be sure that clean hands are going into the next color. Finally, use the marker to draw an elongated "X" with a horizontal line in the middle for the logs under the fire.

To complete your indoor camping experience, place a lamp in the center of the room where you've set up your tent. Have the kids color several pieces of paper completely with black, blue, and purple markers. Tape the colored pages together and over the top of the lamp and all the way around the shade. Finally use a pushpin or sewing needle to poke many holes in the paper. When you're done, bring everyone to the tent, shut off all the lights and close the curtains so that the room is as dark as it can be, and then turn on only the paper-covered lamp to reveal an indoor starlit sky.

Indoor Olympics

A little competition can be a lot of fun, even if the games are indoors. Cut a circle in the center of six to ten paper plates, and have each player color their plates uniquely. Make sure everyone has the same number of paper plate rings. While the kids color their plates, tape cardboard rolls together vertically to make a pole. Next secure the cardboard roll onto a box lid or similar flat surface. After everything is done, take turns tossing the rings onto the pole. Whoever gets the most rings onto the pole wins. Other games include Jumping Jack races, Paper tape hopscotch, and volleyball using a huge wad of paper for the ball.

DIY Decorations Day

Bring everyone together to create decorations for their rooms. They can also be used to personalize common areas in your home or wherever you chose. Use Washi tape to create a striped or patterned wall without damaging it should you decide to remove it later. Create fun banners by gluing fabric letters onto triangles of paper. Just fold the top of each triangle over a long piece of yarn, fishing line, or even dental floss. Staple the fold into place and make a looped knot on each end of the string. Use pushpins to hang the banner.

For a whole family project, find a tree branch with several twiggy protrusions. A live limb is best but make sure you have permission before cutting anyone's tree. Once you have your branch, however, paint it entirely. As it’s drying, have everyone in the family use buttons, beads, washers, broken jewelry, or any other little items and run a piece of string, yarn, or similar material through them. Give everyone two or three pieces of string to adorn, depending on the size of your branch. Be sure enough room is left to attach the now beaded, buttoned, etc strings onto the twigs stemming the branch. After they're all secured, use sheetrock hooks to hang your family's artwork from the ceiling.

Paint and Paper Garden

Create a beautiful indoor garden that you don't even need to weed or water! Gather plastic lids from jars or jugs to paint or draw on with markers to look like bugs. Paint rocks to use as garden markers. Recycle bottles and jugs to make birdhouses or flower pots.

There are also many paper craft ideas that you can explore and use in your indoor garden. Some of the most amazing and easily created are paper flowers. You can find templates to make paper tulips, peonies, lilies, roses, sunflowers, and many other types of flowers at abbikirstencollections.com You can also find other beautiful project ideas such as sound wave art and dump painting, guides to using a Cricut machine, supplies list and much more on the site.

Have Fun In There

No matter how long the rainy weather has your family cooped up inside, there are still plenty of things you and your kids can do together to make the most of it. Be sure to try new things and have fun as you enjoy your time together.