Rainy day activities at home with Toddlers

I am so in love with the season of Spring! Bright blooming flowers, warmer days to play outside, hours of freedom at the playground (really anything to get me out of the house during the day, I get excited). But with spring comes the dreaded rainy days. Here in Maryland we are on day 3 of constant rain and let me tell you, both my daughter and I are starting to go crazy. You can only go to Chic-fil-a so many times before it stops being fun. So, I have created a list of fun & simple rainy day activities that you can do at home with your child. Most of the supplies you should have in your homes already, or you can hit your local dollar store (I LOVE the dollar store, use it for everything) to get some supplies for these fun activities!

When the weather prevents the kids from playing outside, it can be tricky to figure out what to do indoors. I like trying to play indoor games that get my daughter moving so she can burn some energy, but the activities need to be safe so we are not injuring ourselves or breaking things inside! These fun indoor activities are sure to save your sanity, keep your toddler entertained & make it a fun afternoon indoors for all!

Pull these activities out one day at a time, really save them for when you need a moment of saving grace :)

Toy Wash

Pompom Drop

Pompom Colors

Sensory Box

Mailbox

Felt Alphabet

Felt Color Matching

Shaving Cream Play

Shaving Cream Cars

Shaving Cream Colors

1.) Washing Toys: One of the most basic water activities you can do is to wash the toys.Its a perfect indoor water activity for toddlers to do. Just make sure to prep just a bit so there’s not a complete mess to clean up. I laid down a shower curtain that I keep on hand just for activities like this. (You can pick one up at the local dollar store or you can do this in the bathtub). I get one of my Rubbermaid containers and fill it with a little soapy water and hand my daughter a sponge and a toothbrush and she goes to town giving all her toys “a bath”. This is a really good activity that you can do too with some barbie dolls are baby dolls that can get wet. Teaches your toddler different body parts and good hygiene. Have them wash their baby and ask them to “wash babies hands” and see if they can find the hands without your direction first. Great learning skill & fun bonding time for baby and mommy :) Grab a towel for when they are done and they can practice drying off the toys as well (although I’m sure the toys will need a good air drying time as well).

2.) Pom Pom Drop: This is one of my favorite activities I’ve pinned several times. A simple, oh-so-simple toddler activity using pom-poms (or cotton balls) and paper towel tubes and a little bit of tape (I’ve even used magnets before and let my daughter move the tubes around to create her own “tunnels” or “Slides” for the balls to go down). I taped a few paper towel tubes and toilet paper tubes to the wall using painter’s tape and handed her a bowl of pom moms. That’s all. Told you it was a simple pom pom drop. We like simple! If they don’t figure it out on their own you can show them a couple times how to drop it in. Super fun & will keep your child entertained for a good while! Another game with the pompoms can also be to get colorful ones and have your toddler work on matching color skills. Get some different colored bowls and have them put the matching colored pompoms in the matching colored bowl. Great preschool skill to work on with them and good gross motor skills of you want to use tongs or pinchers for older toddlers. 3.) Sensory Box/bin: This is by far my daughters (and mine) favorite activity that we have at the house. I keep it hidden in the closet and pull it out when I’m cooking dinner or when we are going crazy in the house all day together. Again, go to the dollar store and grab a Rubbermaid container (make sure its deep) and fill it with kidney beans, rice or sand and some bowls, utensils and little figures. Ours is filled with beans, 2 bowls, 3 spoons and a little bag of farm animals that I found at the dollar store. My daughter will sit there for 45 MINUTES and play QUIETLY AND INDEPENDENTLY while I cook dinner or clean the house, just filling up the bowls and dumping them back out, burying the animals and finding them again. We worked on keeping the beans in the box and now she is really good about not dumping it onto the floor. Sensory boxes are amazing for kids to just move their hands through and dumping/filling. Really is great for kids with sensory issues who will just stem on the texture of whatever you put into the box. 4.) Pretend Mailbox Play: All you need is come construction paper, scraps of paper and markers/crayons. I just tape some “mailboxes” onto cabinets or walls (where ever your activity takes place, but a lot of times mine is in the kitchen while I’m trying to cook). Painters tape works the best so it doesn’t damage your walls. I give my daughter a bunch of index cards, scrap paper, pens, stickers, labels (‘stamps’) and she goes to town creating her own mail. Then she delivers the mail into the boxes, takes it out and repeats. She gets very involved in it and stays busy for a good 20-30 minutes straight, which is the best I can ask of her at this stage. Hope this can help at least one other mom out there. 5.) Felt Board activities: I actually found these are my local Target in the dollar section. They are AMAZING and my daughter loves them. They have a bunch of different topics for kids like learning colors, counting/numbers, alphabet play, states, shapes, etc. She sits and matches the colors and we are working on the alphabet and matching the picture to the letter that it starts with. The number one she doesn’t really get yet, but she still has fun just putting the felt pieces back on and pulling off again. 6. Shaving Cream fun: All you need for this is shaving cream, a baking sheet and a mat to under the activity (or I just stick my daughter in her highchair for less clean up. Just wash the tray when she’s done). I squirt the can of shaving cream on the highchair tray or baking sheet and i give her a couple bath toy figures (optional) to “jump” around in the shaving cream. You can also give them paint brushes so they can “paint” or they can just use their fingers. I have also used little hot wheels cars for her to drive through and put a couple drops of food coloring in as well, so when she moves it around the colors change and combine. Just a little extra fun for her, keeps her occupied for a little longer :)

Hope all these help you out during the rainy season this year! Check back for more activities you can do with your kids to help them prepare for school, independent play, learn concepts & more!

Motherhood: it takes a village! :)