Having your children at home on a rainy day can be hard if you are busy with some bored kids hanging around. This is why you need to make some rainy day plans and have some great activities for them to do if they can’t go outside. The problem kids seem to have with rainy days is that they are restricted to being inside, and while you can turn to television or video games to cure their boredom, you still want to help them to use their imagination.

Great Kids Toys for Indoor Use

The best toys that you can find for a rainy day will involve a lot of imagination as well as interaction from your children. This can include:

• Toys that have a ‘construction’ element within them, such as blocks.

• Simple role-playing toys that will have your child off in imagination land.

• Storytelling props such as finger puppets.

The common trait of the three toys mentioned above is that they all require an interactive playtime rather than a passive one that is provided from Television.

Switching off the Television

While some DVD and other television time are normal for a growing child it is important to set boundaries and not use it as a babysitter. If you want, set out a television viewing schedule for your child and try and be selective as to what they watch. Do some research yourself on what elements you want in a children’s television program and what educational as well as entertainment value they hold. You will find some very clear themes and structures in good children’s television programming:

• An educational element, even if it is basic numbers and letters.

• Short segments to hold a child’s short attention span.

• Some basic interaction between the show (usually through presenters) and the children.

• Encouragement for children to create and imagine on their own.

So use your TV wisely and remember you don’t have to ban it completely, just use it in the right way as an education and entertainment tool.

Reading in the Rain

Reading is one of those great failsafe rainy day activities for children and adults alike. Even if your child is not at a high reading level yet, a rainy day allows you the opportunity to help them improve their ABCs through playtime. This can be done through educational puzzles that feature words and pictures or just the alphabet by itself.

While a puzzle is not technically ‘reading’ it does fire up the problem solving part of the brain that can help with your child’s development. There are not many adults that can say they didn’t have some form of puzzle to teach them ABCs or even just animal names when they were young. If you can, it is best to have some supervised playtime when dealing with reading so that you can assist your child through any trouble spots.

Kids Arts and Crafts

Arts and crafts are the standard tool for many parents that need to fill in some time with their child. Make sure you have a good arts and crafts box on hand because sometimes a few colouring books just won’t cut it. There are plenty of art project ideas online for kids at home, so put together a folder with a few different ones (as well as the materials) so you always have a backup plan for a rainy day.