Rainy Day Activities

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

07 Apr 2008 07:33 AM

April showers may bring may flowers, but they can also bring bored kids. Here are some great ideas for entertaining your crew when they can't play outside and you are out of ideas and supplies.

Frugal crafts

Raid your home for inexpensive items that can be used for fun crafts.

Cotton balls can be glued to paper to make wintery landscapes, snowmen, ice cream cones and more.

Egg cartons can be turned into spiders with a little craft paint, wiggly eyes (or draw them on) and some pipe cleaners. Out of pipe cleaners? Try baggie twist ties for legs.

If the kids are tired of their coloring books, or you just don't have one at home, you can print coloring pages from the Internet. Or try this trick that my father used for me. Draw a loopy scribble on a piece of paper and have your child color in the loops for a cool abstract piece of art.

Make some instant pudding and allow the kids to "finger paint" with it. Make sure they are in a high chair or protected surface, or pop them in the tub. It is messy, but definite fun.

Frugal games

Create your own scavenger hunt. Challenge the kids to find something round, something square, something shaped like a triangle, etc. Older kids can hunt for letters or words.

Print out free games or learn about games you can play with common household objects. Click here to learn more.

Rainy days are a great time to teach your children some valuable independent skills. Teach them how to crack an egg and make a simple omelet or mix up a cake mix. Challenge them to sort the laundry. What may seem like work to you may seem like fun for your kids, especially if they are younger.

Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.

Related Articles:

Frugal Kids: Make Your Own Play Dough

Create Your Own Kid's Building Bricks

Frugal Kids Birthday Parties: Ways to Save

Learn more about Mary Ann Romans

Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat.

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thequeenofthecastle (413) 17 Aug 2009 01:06 PM

We've been stuck in the house a lot of this summer because it's been a record hot summer with the majority of the day being close to or even over 100 degrees outside. We've discovered a lot of fun things to do inside the house to stay out of the heat. Today we spent the whole day playing Christmas in August. I put on Christmas music and grabbed some colorful socks and filled them with little toys from around the house and hung the on the door knobs. We also wrapped little toys from the toy box and put them under our tree... which ended up being my vacuum cleaner wrapped in christmas lights from the garage. We even made Christmas cookies and decorated them with leftover valentines red sprinkles I had from clearance shopping my grocery store. It has been a fun day "stuck inside" with my little ones.