How do you fill your afternoons when it's raining?

[CravingSunshine]

I've got an 18mo and a 4mo to keep entertained till bedtime and as they nap right now I'm listening to the rain pattering on the roof YET AGAIN! Come on summer...

bit of mn and fb, put dinner in the slow cooker, clean up, do paperwork, make phonecalls, sort washing, check the bank online, do online food shopping, put my paintings for sale on folksy, update my blog.........tbh there isn't enough time......shouldn't be here

raingear on and out to jump into puddles.
rain is not a good excuse to stay indoors all day...

I know MousyMouse; but I can't find his darn wellies!
Xroads, what a lovely day of pottering you're having. Kids asleep / away?

idea's for when they wake up.......

18mths is a fab age for treasure baskets so you could make up one from items around the house (but make sure it's all suitable to go in their mouth/ not a choking hazard of course)

make a den

cornflour

paint dry pasta

have a disco

I haven't done all that today, just a general list of what i do on the days when I do have lo's napping - no lo's today just got 4 older ones and they are watching a dvd so im on the laptop/ cleaning the kitchen

We have been out all morning to a toddler group (sounds babyish but we took crainum dens for them to build and playdough, colouring, lego building stuff and some board games plus it was big and dry and cheap and they got juice and jaffa cakes) then we went to the library, when the film finishes we are going to do junk modelling/ painting

Xroads that sounds amazing. You should open a nursery yourself. Thanks for the ideas. I like the disco. I DO like the treasure basket idea and have come across it before, However my 19mo won't sit still to look through it unless he's strapped into his high chair!

What's the cornflour bit for, by the way?

Guessing cornflour - mix with a teeny water and watch with amazement as it goes from firm to gloopy? We love that!

Im a childminder so I look after up to 10 dc's (7 at a time)

Cornflower is fab, it's chjeap you add water then you can add food colouring or glitter and you the kids play with it, it's a nice feeling and odd texture, hard to explain but the kids love it and it's not that messy it wipes off quite easily though I wouldn't do it on carpet tbh.

Right I'm off to the cupboard. I'm sure we have some when my DH makes cheat's cheese sauce and I sneer at him. Hats off to you for minding 7. Lordy.

Fab idea for a thread! Very helpful as it's raining AGAIN here too. Will give cornflour a go.

I get a lot of my ideas from The imagination tree

This afternoon my dc (20 months & 3yrs) have a small world play construction site set up.

A long shallow tub filled with dried pasta/rice/lentils and small pebbles,a couple of toy JCB tractor/diggers and some plastic cups.

Cbeebies was invented for rainy days. Obviously not all day just about 7/8ths of it

More seriously, you can start doing fun stuff like baking with them at around 18 months old. Very messy tho. Your little one won't care what you're doing, as long as you're around :)