Rainy Season Ideas to Keep Kids Busy Indoors
Just like it’s not possible to keep a cat indoors, it’s not possible to keep the kids inside from their outdoor games & activities. But during the rainy season, keeping them inside and safe becomes essential.
It can just get tiring to keep kids occupied on rainy days, stuck inside—or, for that matter, at any time of the year when cabin fever starts to creep in. Your goal will be to engage their minds with something creative to do and put their energies into productive activity. This blog will transform those dreary days into lots of fun, learning, and bonding times that will last with your little one.
Beansprouts has covered some really smart, creative rainy day activities for children that will keep them busy and engrossed without peeping into a screen the moment they get free.
- Building a Fort
The good old blanket fort never goes out of style. Take blankets, sheets, chairs, and pillows to build an inside fort, just like you used to in your childhood days. But instead of just calling it a “fort,” try to get your kids to imagine it’s something more—maybe like a magic kingdom or a warm reading nook, or even something like being a jungle explorer in his secret hideaway. Add some flashlights or even string lights to really make it magical. Better yet, let the kids decorate it, and then time inside the fort can be set aside for reading, storytime, or having a light snack inside the fort.
- Crafts for kids on a rainy day
Rainy days are the best time for DIY creations. Here, gather the essentials for making the crafts: paper, markers, scissors, glue, or whatever you find inside the house. A box with a lid with recycled materials would do just fine. Let’s see what a few easy but fun crafts would be.
Nature-Inspired Art: Just because you’re indoors doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the outdoors. Round up some leaves, small twigs, and stones, and create yourself a nature collage.
Sock Puppets: You can do almost anything with some buttons, yarn, fabric markers, and an old sock. Voila! You have your own puppet show!
- Indoor Obstacle Course
Design an obstacle course with the kids when they have had three days’ worth of energy banking up inside them and needing some movement. Use whatever you have available: couch cushions, chairs, tape on the floor, hula hoops,etc. Some ideas for the course include the following:
Crawl through an “under the chair” tunnel | Pillow hop—no touching the “lava” on the floor | Five jumping jacks | Run around the outside of a tape line on the floor.
Time the children to encourage them to beat their previous times, or take part yourself to set that powerful active role model.
- Experiments in the Kitchen
So, it’s time to turn your kitchen into a mini-laboratory with some quite simple yet wow-worthy science experiments. Great learning, too, seeps in when it gets too much fun. Here we go with a few easy experiments to start with science:
Baking Soda and Vinegar Volcano: With just baking soda, vinegar, and food colouring, a mini explosion is in the bag. You need only a small, self-made clay mountain or a cup and let the “lava” flow down.
Homemade Slime: Slime, singly, is interesting to children. With so easily available ingredients such as glue, baking soda, and contact lens solution, you can whip up some gooey fun.
- Themed Cooking or Baking Sessions
It’s edible education for all involved. Cook up a theme: say “Around the World,” “Healthy Snacks,” or even “Rainy Day Comfort Food.” Let the kids measure ingredients, mix, or even pick the recipe. Here are some ideas to try:
Let them make their own pizza with toppings of their choice | DIY Trail Mix: Lay out nuts, dried fruits, pretzels, and chocolate chips & let the children make a mix that is theirs | Decorate Your Cupcake | Bake cupcakes in advance with a cake mix.
Let the kids use all their imaginations to decorate the cakes or cupcakes with frosting, lots of sprinkles, and other edible, coloured decorations.
- Play Family Classics of Board Games and Puzzles
Bring in some old board game classics. What could be a perfect time to bring back those old favourites than on rainy days? Monopoly, Snake & Ladder or Connect Four. The other perfect choice would be a puzzle with the largest pieces for younger kids and the most challenging designs for the older ones.
- STORYTELLING / IMPROV
Turn story time into an improv activity! Start with something simple, like having kids play a game where one person begins telling a story and the next person adds a sentence or two to continue that story. It usually ends up being very silly and out of the blue!
Definitely, a rainy season can mean more time spent inside our homess, but it never has to be boring. With these fun indoor games for kids, creativity, thinking out of the box, and involving children in various activities, these stormy days can be filled with much fun, learning, and bonding. Getting creative with arts and crafts, energy-burning obstacle courses, and cooking up a storm—it’s just perfect for a rainy day.