Crafts for rainy day fun
Summer may be around the corner, but that’s no guarantee of sunshine. It’s easy to insist that your kids won’t be parked in front of the TV or devices during the holidays because you’ll send them to play outside, but what if it rains? You’ll have no reason to limit their TV time then, as far as they’re concerned. Not to worry. Here are a few activities you can keep hidden up your sleeve to take their minds away from the electronic babysitters. Even an hour away from their devices is a victory.
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Laser maze
Got any budding secret agents at home? Give them some special training by building a laser maze all around the house – or at least in places where they won’t be in the way. All you need to make this happen is some crepe paper (ideally red, or some other colour that looks like a laser), and some masking tape. Stick the strands in a corridor and tell them to work their way to the grand prize. This could either be a treat of some sort, or the control to the TV if you’re feeling particularly nefarious.
Cooking
Cooking in general is a useful skill to pass on to your kids, and it gets everyone to spend some time together. As an added bonus, kids are more likely to eat what they make, so even if you set up an entirely vegetarian pizza station, they will load it with veggies and eat every bite. Your options are endless; you can have them help you make the family’s favourite dinner, you can choose a new recipe to try together, or you can teach them how to make a really easy dish so they can begin building their cooking skills. If you’ve been growing vegetables in the garden, you could incorporate them into your meal.
Scrapbooking
It’s now six months into the year, so you might have some family snapshots that you want to stick in albums or in frames. Get the kids to help you out with this; together, you should decide which photos are going in the albums, and which ones deserve to be framed and displayed somewhere in the house. If you want to get really creative, you and the kids could build your own custom frame for the really special photographs. Even if the pictures get swapped out in the future, you can always reuse the frames to remind you of the rainy day fun you had with your kids.
Balloon ping pong
The toughest thing about rainy days is the lack of exercise available. Kids have a lot of energy, and if it doesn’t get used up they have a difficult time settling down in the evenings. One way to get them moving is by playing balloon ping pong. Make the paddles out of paper plates, ice lolly sticks, and masking tape, then set a balloon loose. There are plenty of other great indoor exercises to try, so keep them moving as much as possible.
