fbtrack

Wet Weather Ideas

With the summer school holidays still in full swing, we know many parents will be pondering how to keep their children amused during the time off school. Should you find yourself stuck indoors waiting for the rain to stop, there is plenty you can do to keep yourselves busy. With just a little imagination, you can not only turn rainy days into fun days but learn a little something along the way.

Have a Craft Day

If it’s really pouring down outside, one of the best things you can do to keep everyone busy is have a craft day. It’s amazing what you can find in the house which you can use to create fabulous works of art, use everything from paints and crayons to scrap materials, recycling materials and paper. This is an excellent way for both children and parents to get in touch with their artistic side. Our advice is to collect bits of card, plastic and other materials in a box for that special rainy craft day.

Traditional Boredom Busters for Adults

It’s not just the children that need to be distracted during poor weather. For adults there are plenty of traditional ways to beat the boredom when the rain is falling. You can try the newspaper crossword, read a book, listen to music or simply watch a film or boxset. Or indulge in some pampering, soak in the bath, try that moisturiser you received at Christmas but just haven’t had the time to try.

If you’ve recently decided to take up a new hobby, now’s the time to get on with it – pick up that guitar, write that novel or start that major art canvas. You can even think about getting on with the DIY project you’ve been planning for a while.

Find Indoor Activities

You are only really limited by your imagination when it comes to finding indoor activities the children:

  • Why not recreate favourite TV characters and put on a play, the children will have hours of fun dressing up in mum and dad’s clothes and creating costumes.
  • You could hold a talent contest with fake microphones.
  • How about building a couple of forts in the living room and take turns to conquer the flag?
  • Or you could set up an indoor sports day with competitions for the children. Using tape on a hardwood floor can create great challenges like standing jumps, you can have egg and spoon race down the hallway (we recommend using boiled eggs to save on a sticky mess)
  • Resurrect some traditional games like: sleeping lions, hide and seek and eye spy.

Try a Bake Off

One thing all children seem to love is cooking and getting them involved in the kitchen is a great way to distract them from the poor weather. Baking cakes is the traditional approach but there’s really no limit to what you can do. Homemade pizza, pasties or bread are also fun baking activities. You can turn it into a competition or make it an opportunity to discover what healthy eating is.

Get Out in the Rain

While many parents may well close the door and write the day off because it’s raining, others are more than willing to get out there. Put on those wellies and jump in some puddles with the children – it’s not only great fun, it’s a brilliant stress buster too. As long as it’s warm enough, getting wet and splashing about should be top of your list during a summer shower.

You can throw in a bit of science as well. How about gathering different materials and asking your children how they think the rain will affect them? You could have a kitchen bowl, some clothing material, cardboard and a bit of plastic, for example. Put them outside and see what happens. Rainy days are also great for children to take their art work outside, let rain splash on those pictures and see what patterns they make. Bring inside to dry and marvel at the new artwork you’ve created.

Just because it is raining doesn’t mean the fun has to stop!