A Quickie - and a Contest!

 

It's Friday! It's still raining! Ack! I need rainy-day activities for the kids, stat! Leave me a comment with your favorite indoor activities for the family and I'll pick one winner to be the lucky recipient of some of the destashing going on around here. :) You have until Monday at 9 AM eastern to share... winner will be announced Tuesday!

Comments

[Marty]

Putting sponges on their bare feet (tied with rubber bands or string), pouring water and soap suds on the kitchen floor and letting them clean for me. Great memories and photos! And put on a bathing suit, of course.

[René]

Baking chocolate chip cookies. Then eating them warm with a cold glass of milk. So much fun on a rainy day!

[SusanC]

Good "old-fashioned" coloring in coloring books with crayons! That brings back so many memories!

[Rebecca]

doing a craft of some sort or making blanket fort!

[Donna]

I like to kick it old school with some good old playdough. You're never to old!

[Kimberly S.]

I love playing family games.

[Andrea Adams]

Dominoes and homemade cookies or popcorn. fun- but I still don't like the rain.

[Laurie T]

Run (or drive) as fast as you can to your nearest Target store and buy Bananagrams. It's a word game with tiles where each player builds their own crossword. Totally addicting! My kids are a bit older (19 & 22) but we have been playing it all summer whenever we have a chance. I stayed up late playing last night with my daughter and her boyfriend - we were yelling and laughing! Sometimes you just keep picking up vowels (that was me) and you just don't know what you can with another "i". For your kids it would be educational too (of course they don't need to know that - right?) :)

[Crystal]

We're heading to the library to sign up for the summer reading program and stock up on books, plus there's a great play area for them!

[Dana]

sheet forts and games. so fun!

[Cara S]

It's just me and my husband right now, so something on the Wii is pretty entertaining. When I was younger, my favorite indoor activity was board games, any kind!

[tammy b]

the perennial classic: games! right now we are into payday, clue jr, racko, rummikube, & shut the box

[Michelle (from KY)]

Try planning a theme dinner (all green food, all red food, all Boston food?). Them let the kids in on planning, preparing, etc. Decorate the table, maybe dress up.

Hope that helps, my niece loves to cook, so she would love to do this.

p.s. I am soooooo sick of rain (and my perma ponytail hairstyle =) )

[sockiepuppetsmom]

Indoor camping:) Set up a sheet fort or an actual tent in the living room let them pack back packs with snacks, books, games, and flashlights. Then for lunch and dinner fun camp style food and smores (you can make them in the microwave if you have to)! You can also set up a treasure hunt as part of their camp "hike" and they can tell ghost stories:) Good luck!!

[Samantha]

Soap up the dining room table with dish detergent and grab some straws... blow bubbles with the straws onto the table! :-) Try to blow a bubble inside a bubble!

[libby]

My suggestion is to go to the library. I am constantly amazed by all of the resources available at the library. And where we live you can get free passes to local museums, which could be tomorrow's rainy day activity.

And to add an extra spin to the library, pick a location you have always wanted to visit and then have the kids find information about it. Once you have the information, go to the store and buy foods from the place and while you are eating foods from your location, talk about the other things you learned.

[AnnieB]

Finger painting with pudding. It's a hit every time!

[LisaW]

I had a great big roll of butcher paper. I mean BIG industrial roll. I used to unroll a length all the way across the floor from one wall to the opposite and toss crayons, washable markers, and waterbased paints down and let them go to town!

It was such a hit, they still talk about it :-)

Spring & Summer rain days are good, "put your swimsuits on and go play in the puddles" days.

Cold rainy, snowy, icy days (or lightning storms) were art and cooking.

[Ann Grounds]

Have an indoor picnic...have the kids help making the lunch, spread a picnic blanket or tablecloth on the floor of the livingroom and eat your picnic. Use whatever plates, cups, utensils you would normally use on a picnic-if you are a paper/plastic use those, if you take the real thing, use those.

Have an "Un-birthday" Party with party games, and some simple decorations, and homemade cupcakes. That would be fun!

Have the kids make a summer journal by covering composition books with scrappy paper. Have them journal about their feelings of the recent move and goals they have in the up coming months.

Have fun!

[Michelle Moore]

Puzzles! We don't get to sit down for "downtime" often, but when we do we break out the puzzles. My husband and daughter love them, but I usually get frustrated and have to step away. :-)

[Etta]

RAIN?? We would LOVE some rain! It hasn't rained in WEEKS here. Our water bill was DOUBLED this month due to all the grass-watering we've had to do!

Rainy day activities...hmmmm...I would say TV, but that won't really work for you. :)

Well, since you are doing all that de-stashing and unpacking, I say PUT THEM TO WORK! :)

[Beth]

I don't have kids, however I get to "hang out" with my nine year old nephew for awhile this summer. Here the issue isn't rain, but HEAT (blah). I spent a little time searching the web earlier this month and stumbled upon the Lakeshore Learning website that has great activity suggestions for teachers and parents. Here's a link: http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/general_content/free_resources/parents_corner/parentsCorner.jsp?f=hpsb. I TOTALLY plan on making rock monsters and ice cream in a bag with him!

[Dana]

My sister and I used to take advantage of the rain, and go out and wash my parents' car - no rinsing required, LOL. Of course, the neighbours thought we were nuts, but we used to go out in our bathing suits and have LOADS of fun, and Mom would have towels waiting for us at the door.

[kate]

Have a marbles tournament, or another indoor games tournament. Complete with trophy (homemade of course).

Bake.

Put on a play.

Read.

Definitely the forts. (They can each have one even. Where they can then read.)

[Abbie]

we play UNO so much that my 3 year old can now beat me at it! look out world series of poker in 19 years....