what do you do on a rainy day?

[mummykayxx]

we are stuck! on the days my 2 year old isnt at nursery (he goes 2 days a week while I home study) and its raining or horrible weather, we don't know what to do! There's only so many cakes we can make or painting we can do or things we can make out of play doe or Disney films we can watch or excuses to walk to the shop we can think of. He's getting bored and I hate to say it but I am too! help!! xx

[mummyxtwo]

Wellies and mac and go puddle-stomping! You can have fun and waste a fair amount of time finding puddles and splashing about. Find a stick and get him to measure how deep they are - my ds1 loves doing that! A bit of mud and wet is character-building.

You can make things to play with small toy cars - we've made some not very good but ds1 enjoyed playing with ramps out of old cereal boxes and then drawn lanes on to race his cars down. Pipe cleaner creatures - Tesco sell packs of giant fluffy pipecleaners and you can get stick on eyes to decorate them. Make your own skittles out of empty small water bottles (we turned out to have an embarrassing number of these in the car from MacDonald's happy meals) and draw some pictures of monsters on paper to stick on the bottles, or cut out pictures of favourite cartoon characters.

Pop him on a stool at the kitchen sink with some plastic cups for pouring, a funnel or anything else entertaining and let him play and soak himself and the kitchen. Hope those few ideas help!

[fairylightsintheautumn]

definitely puddle jumping. Mine had all in one rainsuits from Millets, about £15. Completely brilliant and they can go on wet park equipment too. Its labour intensive but things like wooden train tracks are good, teddybears picnics in the living room, sweeping the floor, unpacking the Tupperware cupboard, hide and seek, a long, shared bubble bath is a fab way to spend half an hour.

[littlegem12]

I cant stay in im actually scared of spending more than a few waking hours without going out at all.
Mentally write off hes whole outfit before you leave the house and enjoy having your local park/ beach/ woods all to yourself. My boy spent ages today pottering the park splashing puddles and loading up hes bucket with wet leaves and twigs. the slide is much cooler when its slippy too.

[Artandco]

Out here also. All in one rain suit/ hat/ wellies for kids, wellies/ umbrella and Themos cup of coffee for you. Then they can still go down slides/ run in woods/ sit in puddles/ play with sticks as usual

Maybe not hours at a time as in summer but an hour morning and late afternoon is fine. End up in cafe if you can afford to

[bangersmashandbeans]

Toddler group? Soft play?

[bigwellylittlewelly]

We're slightly constrained at the moment as we have a small baby who gets cold easily so know where you're coming from!

But I split up the day by meals, breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner. That means four activities. We don't have a TV but I do use the laptop for the last slot when needed. Try to get out round the block unless absolutely hammering it down for first slot. Second slot craft or library or children's centre. Third slot pretend play, tents, kitchen with pasta and tubs.

We have regular meetups with friends who have similar age children as well.

[valiumredhead]

Wee used to go out whatever the weather.

[notadoctor]

Library is a good rainy day activity. My DD is also currently really going to cafés for an outing- we'll go somewhere cheap and get a tea cake or similar. Indoor activities that are popular with her are: play dough, stickers, daytime baths including bathing her teddies, tea parties. Does your son like reading stories? Does he have much small world play? My DD will happily potter with little people and animals for quite a while - although she does need me to join in. She also really likes 'helping' to sort the washing!

[KatyN]

When you are getting your little one an all in one.. make sure you invest in waterproof trousers for yourself! Then you aren't itching to go home because you're cold.

Once you are both waterproofed up you can go to the swings as normal.. but be warned the slide might be really fast with the water acting as a lubricant.

My current favourite activity inside is throwing a blanket over the dining table and playing tents.. at least an hour or two in our house!