Rainy Day Activities To Keep Your Kids Active

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Rainy days are tough on kids, especially in the summer, but they are equally tough on Mom. What is there to do when your children are bored and can’t play outside?

Here are some great ways you can keep your kids busy, active and engaged when you’re stuck indoors.

Managing Screen Time

A rainy day to a child is a good excuse to spend all day on their phones or tablets. But too much screen time is not good for a child. We don’t recommend eliminating these devices, however, wise management of screen time will teach them valuable lessons. The American Academy of Pediatrics has some helpful guidelines for families. The best way to use screen time is to make sure your children are learning or getting active while online. You can also check out the Family Media Plan page at Healthy Children, which even features a media time calculator.

Time To Teach

Rainy days provide a great opportunity to teach your kids. You can use this time to help them engage with things they don’t learn in school, such as manners or money management. It’s also a good time to make fun activities out of challenging concepts or to add a new dimension to something they are learning.

For example, real estate is a complex field that requires skills in math, science, English, social studies and home economics. By incorporating real estate-based lessons into your curriculum, you can help students gain valuable skills in practical math application, presentation giving, forming a persuasive argument, earth science and so much more.

You can also allow your children high-quality screen time. Search YouTube for online music lessons, drawing tutorials, cooking lessons and more. If you need additional lessons, check out this list of free online courses for children.

Arts and Crafts

Soggy weather days are perfect for engaging in arts and crafts that can help kid develop motor skills with tasks including cutting and sewing. Crafts can inspire their creativity and teach them science. Be sure to stock up on craft supplies before the bad weather rolls in. Keep paper, crayons, glue, markers, crayons, yarn, felt and other craft supplies or kits on hand.

Don’t stop there. Lots of arts and crafts can be done with food, such as making edible marshmallow snowmen like the ones in this article from Babble. You’ll also love this tutorial on how to make Elephant’s Toothpaste or rainbow magic milk for a fun and crafty science experiment from Earth Science Jr. For more ideas, check out these neat craft lessons from Parent Map.

Games

It’s never too soon to teach your kids how to play a game. Gameplay helps build socialization skills like taking turns and cheering on teammates. Board games are great as long as you make sure they are age-appropriate so your child can play.

You can make your own games, too! Hide and Seek or Hot Potato require very little and will have everyone laughing. Check out more ideas for indoor games you can make at Today’s Parent.

Keep Them Active

Without outdoor play, your kids may be less active. That can make it hard to tire them out and sleep through the night. What can you do?

• Search for kid-friendly exercise routines on YouTube. You can find everything from jumping jacks to yoga!
• Create an indoor fort from blankets and couch pillows. Use flashlights to light it up.
• Use foam toys and pillows to have play fights.
• Here are 15 more ways to keep kids active, even in a small space.

Rainy days are no excuse for kids to be bored. Engage your children in activities that keep them active and engaged rather than glued to their screens.

Written by Jenny Wise