Ideas for U5s on wet days

[GrannyGoo]

Any ideas for amusing a 3 year old and a 1 year old on a day of driving rain please? 3 year old isn't into craft but loves to pretend. Both are miserable today. It's relentless rain where we live. They are fine on sunny days as they go outside or even on drizzly days they go outside but today is already a challenge!

A tray with cornflour and a bit of water? It's a kind of runny play doh.

sponges, a funnel and food colouring in a sink full of warm water.

make washable window paint (Mix equal parts of washable paint and dish soap, you can add flour if you need to thicken it up). You could paint a NHS rainbow or just do some finger painting. You paint straight onto the glass, but put a towel on the floor as it can get a little messy.

• long bubble bath with loads of toys
• blankets over table and cushions under as den.
• masking tape hard floor as track for cars/ animals
• some simple baking. ie biscuit dough they can play with like playdough then bake into random shapes

there is also a skyscanner competition where kids draw their favourite holiday memory which your 3 year old could enter link

I used to take all of the cushions off the sofa and chairs, grab some extra pillows and lay them out in as big a trail as I safely could around the house and the children would then bounce along the trail. They always enjoyed leaping off the sofa onto a pile of cushions too.
(My sofa was already past its best so the 'leaping cushions' game wasn't going to wreck it anyway!)

Den building under tables with endless blankets.

Inside picnic - snack on a blanket with extra teddy guests.

Supervised water play in the empty bathtub.
Washing dolly clothes (for the older one anyway)

Will come back if more ideas strike!

Make a tent/fort with blankets.

Do a treasure hunt with drawn pictures....eg draw a picture of the tv and put next clue there and so on.

Play animal pretend.

Have a pretend tea party with cuddly toys invited.

Thank you already for all these ideas. It's actually for my two daughters in the same boat. Will pass on all ideas. I wish we could have them for a few hours change of scenery. This is hard on wet days!

Please do send any more ideas anyone. Many thanks.

I saw something where you cut out slips of paper and write the alphabet on them and find objects to put next to the paper ie apple next to a.
My 3 year old loves an obstacle course with cushions to jump on and rolled up towels to balance on like a beam.

Ive found ideas on pinterest, and the five minute mum is very good for this sort of thing. I've made jellies with little toys hidden in them, a tray of porridge oats, with toy animals in, home made play dough, printed off colouring sheets, dug out toys ds hasn't played with for months, put music on and had dances, pushed all the furniture back and played ball in the house (not normally allowed) and when all else fails, chuck them in the bath for a bit. Also ds has an all in one waterproof and wellies, so sometimes we go out and play in the rain for a bit, usually after that is when I chuck them in the bath.

It's tough, getting outside even for half an hour, makes a big difference for all of us st the moment. Cabin fever creeps up quite quickly.

They go outside in waterproofs a lot but today it's torrential here. Some good ideas there and we are designing a treasure hunt right now! Thanks

There’s a variety of short videos on our local children’s centre website of stories read by early years, music sessions and nursery rhymes. I can send the link to you if you’d like.

go out, jump in the puddles, come home for a nice hot bath, and blankets with a film?
Indoor scavenger hunt.
Facetime relatives (has anyone got books they could read to them?)
Do you remember that party game with items on a tray and you cover it up and take something away.....the 3 year old might manage that with some familiar objects.

Do you have balloons? Blow some up and bat them about or even better put a desk or floor fan at one end of a corridor and they can chase them (one at either end is even better!).
Play fun music and add instruments, if they don't have any pots, wooden spoons, bottles with rice in etc do the trick.
Treasure hunts or scavenger hunts.

Yesterday's indoor treasure hunt was a great success thanks so much for the ideas.

If you want to plan for these, can you get a plain paper table cloth from somewhere online) then use whatever you have to hand to make prints around the edge of it (from memory this can be blocks with shapes on, or duplo bricks, biscuit cutters, ends of cotton reels, leaves and whatever). They can sit on the middle if they want. Put it on a floor that can be mopped after if need be.
Can be used when dry for all sorts of things.

Hi OP! If you're still looking there are lots of ideas on this thread we started.

Thank you HebeMumsnet!