Rainy Day Activities for Kids of All Ages

Spring is upon us, and it's been one, cold, damp rainy week here in Wisconsin. What are the kids to do for entertainment, especially during National TV Turn Off Week? Read on to see how your children can stay busy this and any other rain (or snow) filled week! (I have intentionally omitted video games and things of this nature in honor of TV Turn Off Week.) In the interest of organization I've grouped the activities by age groups and types.

All Ages Craft Activities.

Craft Kit

This is something I have for my own son, and he is always drawing from it for his creative ventures. Either you, the parent or guardian can put this together for the kids, or they can collect the items themselves if they are older aged.

What Is It?

A craft kit is a box, container or other enclosed storage device filled with varied materials that the kids can use for arts and crafts. I suggest offering a nice mixture of mediums, textures and items for their ventures.

What To Put Into It?

You can really put anything at all into these kits. Things you no longer need, things you think the kids will like, anything at all that could have a home in a piece of artwork can be included.

What's In Our Kit:

Here's a listing of what we have in our kit to get you started thinking (and looking) for items for your kit. Glitter, Glitter construction paper, copy paper, beads of all colors, sizes and materials, bells, google eyes, socks (sock puppets!,) pipe cleaners, glues, stickers, foam craft sheets, foam stickers, patches, ribbons, felt, fabric scraps, yarn, string, gold charms (like those used in necklaces,) buttons, holographic papers, pom poms, decorative erasers, rubber stamps, confetti, sequins, plain cardstock frames (made out of manilla folders for decorating with items,) decorative note papers, markers, pens, crayons, colored pencils, watercolors, oil pastels, scrapbook paper, modeling clay, and glitter and confetti glues.

As you can see you can offer almost anything for your child's kits. Their creativity is endless, and the possibilities of things that you can offer them in the kit is, too.

Beaded Fishy

This is a project that my four year old loved doing. It doesn't have to be a fish, it can be whatever animal your child would like it to be. We made ours a fish to go along with a book that we had read for the library reading program (The Rainbow Fish.)

What You Will Need:

Cardboard or cardstock (You will probably want it to be fairly thick weighted)
Beads of all types, shapes and sizes. (The more variety, the better)
Glue (We used a hot glue gun)
Pencil (to draw the animal shape with)
Scissors or a craft knife
A small metal office clip
Crayons (optional)

How To Make It:

1. Take your piece of cardboard and either freehand draw or trace an animal shape to it. Cut out the shape. Depending on the age of the child doing the craft and the thickness of the cardboard or cardstock, an adult might have to do this step.

2. Allow your child to choose the beads they would like to add to the cut out animal. If you are using glue that is child friendly (unlike the hot glue gun we used) you can let your child glue the beads on by themselves. If you, like me, use the hot glue gun allow your child to show you where to place the beads. This way they are still involved in the creation process. You can also glue down pieces of paper, gift wrap or even color with crayons. (My son colored the back of his fish with crayons.) Keep an area a bit clear near the top of the animal for hanging.

3. When the project is complete take a small office clip and clip to an outer edge. This will enable you to hang your project from a nail in the wall in your child's room.

4. Enjoy! Your child will love this (or at least mine did since he was always fascinated by my bead collection) and they will take pride in their creation.

Read, Read, Read!

Reading is traditional activity on cold and rainy days. Why stop now? Losing oneself in a book is the best way to ignore the dreary weather and one of the best ways to spend time together with younger children.

See Here For My Top Picks For Interactive and Fun Preschooler Books.

Activities For Older School Aged Children

Reading and Writing:

If your kids have an interest in both reading and writing you'll want to have them check out Kids Write! By Rebecca Olien. This book is a cherry illustrated, fun guide for kids to write and plot their own stories. It's broken down by genres and includes craft activities to go side by side with the writing. This book could keep a child busy for a very long time.

Board Games

Board games are another classic past time and there's a reason they are still popular today. I know the kids will want to reach for those game consoles, but see if they wouldn't be up for a nice fun (and maybe even educational) board game instead. They can play with friends, or you can play as a family and enjoy the time spent together.

This is just a partial list of things you and your kids can do, I'm sure you can think of many more things I'd left out as well. As much as kids like to think that life without TV, video games or the PC is dull, these kinds of activities just might renew their interest in other constructive past times, perhaps they might even pick up a new favorite. May you and your children have many fun days and nights waiting for the nice weather to come back.