Rain rain go away! Or stay, whatever. With these fun activities for every age, you won’t have to dread those rainy, icky days stuck in the house.

Toddler

The Indoor Obstacle Course

Push back the furniture and get ready to have some fun. You can tape zig zag lines on the floor for your toddler to walk. Build obstacles to climb over with cardboard boxes. Set up stuffed animals for your toddler to escape and dodge as they run through them. Place a broom between two chairs for your toddler to crawl under. Get creative and come up with as many obstacles as you can to create a fun and engaging course your toddler will want to run through again and again. Be sure to set up a tape or crepe ribbon for them to run through at the end to complete the experience. 

Sticky Pitching

You’ll need plenty of scotch tape and cotton balls for this one. Wrap Scotch Tape, sticky side out around doors, the side of cardboard boxes of different sizes, or any flat surface at an appropriate height for your toddler to throw things at. Tape off a reasonable distance from the target for your toddler to stand at and give them a bagful of cotton balls. Challenge your toddler to see how many they can make stick. You can also use different lightweight objects like paper airplanes or Q-tips, to switch it up a bit and fine tune motor skills.

Ball Pit Slide

This activity requires having a few special toys on hand for the occasion, but is well worth prepping for. You’ll need a kiddie pool, a toddler slide, and a ton of plastic balls. Fill the kiddie pool with plastic balls and position the slide to slide into the pool. Your toddler will spend hours jumping in and out of the balls. You can even make this a part of an indoor obstacle course for added fun!

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4-8 Years Old

Scavenger Hunt

This one is an oldie but a goodie. Make sure you’ve selected items that are safe to get to and age appropriate. You can create a theme like Pirate’s Treasure or SchoolHouse Rock. Don’t be afraid to make it a bit challenging too! The more challenging, the more engaging!

Box Fort

We always joke about our kids enjoying the boxes more than the toys, and it’s true! Challenge your kiddos to build a super fort or an entire fort city out of cardboard boxes. With some markers, glue, and a little imagination, you’ll be surprised what your children will create! Think out of the box with this one; you can create cars to drive around your cardboard city or trees to give the fort a little shade!

Crayon Crafts

If you’re like most parents, you probably have at least one pencil box filled with broken crayons. Why not put these to good use and help your kiddos create custom crayon crafts? You can try melting crayons onto canvases for unique pieces of art or melting your kiddo’s choice of broken crayons together to create one giant custom crayon just for them. This activity will obviously require very close parental supervision though!

Kids Choice Recipes

Have your child pick out some simple recipes like fruit pizza or sugar cookies and spend the day making a few dishes. Take pictures as you go! Create recipe cards and add it all together to create a rainy day cookbook! You can add to it on future rainy days and even start a rainy day tradition!

8-12 Years Old

Catapult Target Practice

This activity will give you a great balance of education and fun! Have your kiddo look up ways to make a catapult using materials they can find around the house. Once they’ve built their creation, set up targets at varying distances from the catapult and challenge your kiddo to hit the different targets with various objects using their catapult.

Indoor Putt Putt

Strategically place plastic cups around the house, grab some ping pong or golf balls, and gather anything you can use to putt the balls around with (sticks, brooms, golf clubs). Create your own miniature golf course throughout your house and get ready for hours of Putt Putt fun!

Rainy Day Film Festival

Have everyone pick a movie for the family film festival. You can select a theme, create red carpets, hang Christmas lights for dramatic effect, and lay out a big bowl of popcorn! The catch is that each family member has to tell why they picked their film and maybe even share a few facts. If you really want to make the day super educational, limit film choices to those based on favorite books or documentaries.

How do you and your kids pass the time on rainy days? What rainy day activities would you add to our list? What tips do you have for parents new to spending rainy days indoors with children? Please connect with us on Instagram @MapsCookingKids or on Twitter @MapsCookingKids. Until next time, agape, be kind, and happy parenting.