When it has rained for days, and you’re running out of fun things to do with your kids, what would you do?
If you have young kids at home, it’s important to have a back-up plan so that they don’t sit moaning about how bored they are and start bouncing from the barstools to the walls.
Here are some of my favourite indoor activities for the rainy days, and I hope you have fun with them too!
1. Board Games
Board games can keep children occupied for hours, while teaching them valuable lessons like following rules, fair play, taking turns, etc.
We like Monopoly, as it teaches Edison about counting money, owing, selling and renting properties. Scrabble helps to perfect his spelling and develops vocabulary. Snakes and ladders game, on the other hand, teaches him to count spaces, and accept rewards and consequences.
2. Indoor Sports
Even if it’s raining and you’re dying to do something physical, you can try the following indoor sports. Bowling and indoor golf are our favourites!
- Go bowling
- Indoor golf
- Basketball hoop games
- Hula Hoops
- Jumping on a trampoline
Some of these indoor sports games may cost a little more, but sometimes it’s worth paying it to end the boredom of being stuck at home.
3. TV
Sometimes, you can’t avoid it and you just have to let your kids watch TV. I can totally understand it. Instead of giving them unlimited access to cartoon channels, why not choose some educational programs for them?
Some educational programs that I always encourage Edison to watch are:
- Leap Frog Learning DVDs
- Word World
- Super Why
- Ni Hao Kai Lan
4. Hand crafts and paintings
Simply grab some papers, glue, scissors, paints or colour pencils, and set up a table. Hours can be spent making really fun crafts and paintings with our kids.
5. Put together a puzzle
Puzzles have long been a favourite learning toy for children. Puzzles improve a child’s problem solving and reasoning skills, colours and shapes recognition, fine motor skills, and hand-eye coordination. It’s also a great tool for fostering cooperative play.
6. Indoor toys like Lego and PlayDoh
You might be surprised at how these simple toys can bring joy to our children when we really sit down and play together with them.
7. Play dress-up
Let’s play some dress-up games at home, while we’ll be the photographer and let our children pose. Be ready to capture their natural smiles that best reflect the blissfulness of their childhood.
8. Read a story book
Rainy days are made for curling up in a good book. Read a story book and enjoy a cup of hot drink with our children, it’s relaxing and promotes good family bonding.
9. Organize a family album
Many happy hours can be spent going through old family pictures with our kids and re-organize them.
10. Hide and go seek
Never under-estimate the power of this old-fashioned game. They may not hide well, but they just love doing it.
11. Pull out an old toy from the store
If your kids are like Edison, they probably have boxes of old toys archived in the store that are no longer being played with. It can be great fun to pull out some old toys or let them rummage through them. There is something in these old toys that will surely delight them.
11. Electronics games
Living in the technology era, computer games are inevitable. Choose the educational games that are suitable for your kid’s age.
12. Cooking together at home
From baking cookies to cooking a meal, there are so many fun kitchen projects that will bring family members together. Start out slowly by having them to wash the vegetables or peel the potatoes. You can also ask them to taste the food and what they think the “recipe” is lacking, and then let them pick the spices or sauces that they think would make the dish even better.
It will bring the growing excitement about preparing a meal together on a rainy day!
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I hope these few ideas will help you and your kids on one of those boring rainy days. Spending time with our children at home, and finding activities where everyone enjoys doing it together can bring a family closer together, and promises a healthy and happy family for now and the future.
Lastly, don’t forget to keep our family germ-free and stay one-step ahead of infections by using Lifebuoy antibacterial body wash and hand wash!
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