This article is about fun and engaging indoor activities for rainy days that you can do with your kids when the weather is just really not in your favor and just stuck inside! I will be covering activities that you can do for kids of all ages 0-17 years old. Whatever age your child happens to be, there's going to be something here for you today.
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Outdoor enthusiast disclaimer:
There's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing, choice of clothing, right? If it's raining, or if it's snowing, you know, don't hesitate to actually go outside and play my toddler. If there's a rainy day, she loves the puddles. Just prepare for the elements outside, and you'll be able to really take advantage of something fun for your kids to do. They're very used to playing outside when the weather's nice right? So to go outside in rain or snow is a totally different environment to engage with and be stimulated by!
So nothing here against rain or snow, it's just sometimes you're stuck inside, or you just don't feel like going outside. And that's okay. But your kids are still going to need to be entertained, they're still going to want to play.
And so here are some unique, engaging activities that you can do with your kids indoors. And these are all things that I have tried, and I even went to the dollar store and found all the supplies for everything I'm going to talk about. And there's even going to be a very fun dollar store shopping list for all of these activities that you'll be able to download.
So let’s get started on some inspiration and ideas all within a very low budget and easy prep
Fun Indoor Activities for Infants:
So the first thing for a baby you can do inside is to create a texture tub or a texture box.
Something where it's big enough where they can sit inside and be surrounded by all different kinds of things. What kinds of things? Examples include different kinds of pasta.
You have the spiral pasta, penne noodles, macaroni noodles, etc. I wouldn't recommend spaghetti because the spaghetti noodles can easily break and you don't want little pieces everywhere. Also, be sure to always supervise if you’re putting young infants in the tub as you don’t want them to eat the uncooked pasta or beans.
Grab some dry beans. You can also get these little fuzzy pom-pom craft balls that are soft and fun. You can add playpen balls that you can also add other toys of different shapes, sizes, and textures.
And put them in this tub and then put your baby in the tub and see what they do. You can give them plastic funnels to play around with and different plastic containers where they can scoop up and pour into basically like a dry bath full of very fun things, I encourage you just to put the put them in their diaper, put them in there so they can feel the textures on their skin and really get stimulated that way.
Honestly, I think my toddler would really love this, I'm probably going to do this with her and the next rainy day. So reuse those boxes from Amazon, pour a bunch of fun, cheap materials in the texture box, and then you can just seal it up and put it away for the next rainy day!
Rainy Day Activities for Toddlers
Okay, we're gonna go up to now the toddlers. So I'm talking, you know, one and a half, two to two and a half or three. And this is a great activity that you can do, again, all the supplies you can get from the dollar store. I'll link to that in the show notes. But basically a mess-free painting. If you haven't done this yet, it's super fun and very easy for you as the parent, because you don't have a big mess to make or mess to clean up.
So all you need to do is you can get these canvases, little small canvases from the store. Or if you don't want to go to the store or if it's bad weather or not driving, you know, any kind of paper is fine. But you're going to put that Canvas in a plastic bag that's obviously large enough to be sealed once the canvas is in there.
Have your child pick out different paint colors that they want to use, pour those colors in the bag with the canvas inside, seal the bag and hand it over! Your little one will push, mush, and slide the paint using their fingers to draw designs in the paint and all the mess stays inside the bag!
Rainy Day Activity for Elementary Kids
So these are your five to eight-year-olds. Visit your local dollar store (or any store) and purchase some stickers (or maybe you have a bunch of stickers laying around and didn’t have a purpose or focus with them).
You can use these stickers to come up with games! Have them draw shapes and sort the tickers by what colors are in the picture, types of animals, shapes, etc. It could be if they're learning how to spell and they find stickers that start with a particular letter.
There are infinite ways in which you can sort stickers in they are very fun for kids to play around with. So I recommend sticker sorting for those five to eight-year-olds.
Another thing that you can do with it is this age group (and my daughter who's only one and a half really loves this too) is to use some painter's tape and let your kids make some designs with the tape on the floor.
You can have them create different shapes on the floor. You can have them create their own road on the floor. It works with carpet or with hardwood I have a lot of hardwood in my house.
Let them build roads or maybe their little towns on the floor and then let them play on the floor. This will definitely keep them busy for a while and what I do with my toddler with the shapes on the floor is I'll say, “can you sit inside the triangle? Can you sit inside the square?” and she will scoot her butt to the different shapes. She has a lot of fun doing that!
We also give her objects. So I would say, “can you please put this, this teddy bear inside the square?” and she can go and put whatever items we give her into the different shapes.
Painters tape is very easy to clean up, you just pull it off when you're done with it and it's not going to leave any sticky mess on the floor.
Fun Indoor things to do with nine to 12-year-olds
I highly recommend that you just do a screen-free day. So you're just not looking at the technology whatsoever. That includes parents...(that would be so hard for me to do, I admit) but I recommend it because then that it can give you an opportunity to bond with your child.
I don't recommend saying “okay, in 4 hours, we're gonna give you your screens back” I would just let them get lost in the activities without the screens, and then when you feel like the time is appropriate, you can return the devices.
One thing that you can do with older kids, nine and up, that is engaging for a rainy day is baking. Give them the freedom and opportunities to research a recipe that they'd be interested to make, whether it is baking or cooking. Allow them to do the entire process and just be there as a coach and be there to help ask questions or open things that they can't open.
Allowing them to really take ownership of that experience is something that they can really engage in that day, and then also feel rewarded at the end of the experience. If there is a holiday coming up, baking and decorating cookies is also an excellent, fun thing to do, when the weather is not looking that great.
Another thing that you can do with this age group is having your child actually plan their own trip or a mini trip or a mini activity that they'd like to do. Help them research where they want to go, what they want to do, and include things like cost and travel logistics.
Here are some questions to help inspire conversation and research with your child.
How much is it going to cost here? Do they understand the cost of gas to get there? What is the cost of the food? Do tickets need to be purchased? Where does that money come from? Are there some chores that they can do in the house to earn their ticket money?
Take advantage of the whole process!
“How long is it going to take to drive? When and where do we stop for breaks?” Also prompt them to figure out what to pack, what is the weather forecast? Have them use google mats to calculate the route. Create a checklist for the trip, have them do EVERYTHING, and be there for support if there are questions.
Truly allow them to take ownership over that researching and preparation of a trip will be an engaging rainy day activity and be very motivating for you and the family to eventually go! They will feel rewarded because they worked really hard to get here.
Things to do with Teenagers
13 to 16-year-olds. This is the age that I teach, so had I've had a lot of experience working with this age group and could give ideas for days! I highly recommend a screen-free day that is full of gamification. You can pull out your old board games, teach them a card game, but the true thing that I recommend that my students have loved in the past is actually creating their own board game.
The sky's the limit with their imagination. So having them create an actual board and the different cards and figuring out the overall goal and how the gameplay helps players get there and what challenges they may come across is a whole new level of stimulating that brain of theirs!
What is great about this activity is that they can create a game based on whatever their favorite thing is! If they are having trouble, then you can always use other games in the house to use as inspiration and think about how you can modify that game to match the theme of their interest.
Get crafty, bring out the paints, or construction paper and markers and, and allow your teens to be kids again and just CREATE.
Teens have so many great ideas, but they don't have that many opportunities to really express them and taking the time away from the screens away from social media, and giving them something to craft with their hands, and actually play later together as a family is going to be really fun.
In the classroom. I've done a lot of educational games in the classroom where the kids actually create games based on what we're learning. I remember one time when I was teaching sixth grade, the kids created natural disaster games.
So we were learning about earthquakes and volcanoes and all these plate tectonic ideas and the kids would create a board game to try to survive all these natural disasters that they come across. They loved it, and they had to apply what they were learning and could discuss it in a fun way.
Ideas to engage with your older teen
But one thing that I feel is a great opportunity to engage older kids and things, and especially with family discussions, is creating some kind of social impact project. And what I mean by the social impact is creating some kind of change or movement towards a better future and to help with that you can actually the 17 UN Global Goals as a framework.
Those of you who know me might be rolling your eyes because I've talked about these goals a lot in my life, but I just had to bring them in and this in this discussion of engaging with older kids.
If you're not familiar with the UN Global Goals, they are 17 Goals for a more sustainable future. Check out the UN Global Goals Website Here to learn more.
So explore these goals together with your teenager and ask them which goals look interesting to them. There is something for everyone. So you can dive into issues with poverty, issues with hunger in the world, life on land (if they love animals, or if they love plants), If they love the oceans, if they are interested in politics, if they're interested in higher education for everyone, if they are interested in technology, or
innovative solutions for renewable energy, there's something for EVERYBODY.
Encourage your older teen to create some kind of action impact plan or project where they can actually make a measurable difference towards one of these goals (it doesn't have to be one of the goals but it can just be towards something socially good).
Having them take the time to think about other people's needs for a little bit, and think about how they can help another person by doing something that they're passionate about or skilled at, you can definitely get a lot of great value from that time with your child.
I do have a project planning guide for these kinds of social impact projects that I've shared with my students and I am very happy to share them with my listeners here.
Alright, so there are a couple of things for every age group from infants to 17 and older just So I hope you enjoyed this article on different things that you can do with your kids inside no matter what age they are. There's something here for everyone today!
Resource Links mentioned in the article
Project Planning Guide for Social Impact Projects: https://www.stemtactics.com/projectguide
I'm really excited to head to the dollar store and just get a couple of these different things. And I'll take some pictures. You can follow me on Instagram at @wandermomdiaries, I will post some pictures of these different ideas there.
All of this info is connected to Episode #10 on the Wander Mom Diaries Podcast! Be sure to check it out and follow the show if you find the information valuable!
ALSO: if you're a fellow wonder mom who would like to share your story on the podcast, reach out in the DMS on Instagram @Wandermomdiaries or you can email me at WanderMomDiaries@gmail.com. I would absolutely love to hear your story!
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