Rainy day ideas ?

[linniewith2]

Hi all just wondered if you could give me creative play ideas for when its raining (as it is now)
Done the usual play dough & painting/colouring anything else I can try.
Cheers

What ages?

sorry I have a 2yr old dd & a 4 wk old

I usually end up doing baking with dd (nearly 3) when it's raining. Yesterday it rained most of the day and we did a lot of gluing and sticking (must buy more glue.....) made umpteen 'cards' for people....made a cake....and jello.....had a picnic for teddy and her dollies....and watched a little tv of course.
The rain makes the day seem much longer though

I confess that I do plonk them in front of a video most mornings. But I did have a 'good mother' moment yesterday: I've had some croissant-making packs sitting in the fridge for some weeks. I got them just-in-case, and am I glad that they were there and ready to use!.

All you do is open the carton, unroll the pastry, separate it at the perforations and re-roll in croissant shapes. We made them a bit fancier by putting things like chocolate spread or graated cheese inside before rolling the pastry up. Put on baking tray and bake for 15-20m. Perfect for toddlers as there is virtually no mess and nothing complicated. Best of all, by the time we had wiped down the table, put away aprons and laid plates and drinks, the croissants were ready to eat! Result: 1 contented infant, 1 very happy boy and 1 unfrazzled mother .

2yo is a difficult age to keep occupied, I find. Too young to do complicated things, yet old enough to get bored.

I found that something physical was always useful, probbbably because of not being able to get out to the park! I send my two racing up and down the corridor chasing after (or being chased by) my birthing ball. Or I get a plank of wood that I keep under the sofa for just this purpose, and balance it on couple of building blocks so that they can 'cross the balancing bridge', or I put it across one cylindrical block to make what we call a 'teeter-toter' for them to cross over.

Dd is 22 months. She likes baking, finger painting, general role play stuff with toys. But as we're in a flat I try not to remain confined all day and take her out to the library, a museum (we're in London so lots of choice), a 1'oclock club etc. I've also been known to wrap her up in raincoat and wellies and go out and get thoroughly wet in puddles. It doesn't matter about being wet if we're not far from home and the weather's not cold.

Baking bread - sticking pictures out of magazines - collages with wool and buttons and sweet wrappers etc - dancing to music - making your own musical instruments - playdoh - skittles...

...and if you can stick on wellies and raincoats then that can be fun

One good sticky thing is to do a paper-mache bowl. Blow up a balloon and stick LOTS of newspaper and gunk on it, when dry paint it and pop the balloon. We atill have dd's bowl from Easter

Also baking, i tell you what i do, make a big lump of pastry and give her a few little boxes of raisins andabout a third of a bag of flour. The kitchen gets a mess but it's great fun (even funnier when you tell her not to use ALL the flour knowing sj=he will- she seems to find that hilarious!!!)

Another favourite of mine is a roll of wall paper and paints. (have a bth waiting)

Find it quite easy to keep my 4.5 year old son occupied.

He now has one of those pop-up in door tents, that keeps him amused for hours, if you dont have that how about a clothes horse and a sheet.

We also got a few art and crafts thing (a box from asda) blew up balloons and stuck things to them to make faces.

Also we went up the road to the beach and collected shells which he has bought home and painted.

I have even got off the computer myself and let him visit the cbeebies site, although not for long as I was getting itch feet

went out today and got a load of craft stuff & some face paints & balloons to follow your advice.
All i can say is she has a sml attention span.
I ended up making 2 balloon clowns with tissue paper etc as she got bored after sticking a few bits on the nose, then she insisted on having one and promptly pulled the hair and the nose off! all my hard work wasted........ I was very proud of my clown
Oh well time to try a different suggestion tomorrow, lets see if I have more sucess then.

Also got her an indoor ball pool so heres hoping that keeps her amused !
btw had a no tv day today and after a short protest this morning has been coping without cbeebies very well.