Even on vacation, rainy days happen but you can avoid the chorus of “Mom, I’m bored” and pass the time with this long list of rainy day things-to-do.
Most of these rainy day activities do not require any special equipment and I tried to link to tutorials, instructions, and printables where needed.
Need more face to face time with your children? Read these great tips for one on one time with each child.
Here’s hoping that your next rainy day is a FUN rainy day.
Activities for a rainy day
- Fold a paper airplane
- Jump rope
- Build pom-pom/marshmallow shooters
- Set up a pretend cooking station
- Create an animal sounds obstacle course
- Make it rain in a glass
- Explore with magnets
- Indoor fishing
- Taste-test different colored grapes
- Learn to sew (for beginners)
- Have an indoor snow day
- Play Math Sorry
- Create newspaper play structures
- Read stories aloud with silly voices
- Put together a puzzle
- Set up a pretend ice cream scoop shop
- Make wooden spoon puppet people
- Bake chocolate chip banana bread
- Make a cat craft from paper plates
- Build a tent in the dining room
- Play dress-up
- Have a shaving cream car wash
- Stir up some homemade play dough
- Pull from the ETC Cup
- Repurpose kitchen utensils
- Create secret messages
- Build a cardboard castle and unit study
- Bake sun bread
- Have a face painting station
- Put toys on parade
- Complete some rainy day printables
- Make blown paint art
- Give them a DIY Find It game
- Bake cookies
- Create a summer memory book
- Make shadow puppets
- Taste-test apples of different varieties
- Listen to audiobooks
- Have a marble shoot
- Play a board game
- Create a cardboard box tunnel slide
- Finger paint with pudding
- Play a game of Dominoes
- Create faux stained glass
- Teach the kids to tap dance
- Play in a sensory bin
- Make salad spinner art
- Wrecking ball block play
- Complete a mosaic craft
- Play Doggy, Doggy Where’s Your Bone?
- Have a tea party
- Make a raining cloud craft
- Indoor balloon badminton
- Have a mini treasure hunt
- Taste test eggs in three different ways
- Make your own matching game
- Paint with marshmallows
- Do some lacing and weaving activities
- Use kitchen tools to make music
- Play a math dice game
- Decorate a 100’s chart
- Create a family timeline
- Host a video game tournament
- Have a marble track race
- Connect the dots
- Play stair ball
- Go on an indoor Pirate Scavenger Hunt
- Color masking tape letters
- Create monsters
- Play in a cardboard box
- Work a maze
- Marble painting
- Play a spider web game
- Make a texture runway
- Decorate paper plate watermelons
- Skip count by tens
- Jump on an indoor trampoline
- Have baking soda and vinegar experiments
- Play with gel water beads
- Pop popcorn on the stove top
- Create a themed bubble bath
- Set up a Nerf shooting range
- Make and record rain sounds
- Design your own robot
- Listen to classical music
- Pretend you at the beach
- Make a fruity cereal rainbow
- Play a file folder game
- Bake rainy day cupcakes
- Play with shredded newspaper
- Make muffin tin crayons
- Make your own coloring book
- Play with window clings
- Make a seaside windchime
- Eat dirt
- Play rock, paper, scissors
- Have a “long and short” lunch
- Stuff homeless blessing bags
- Learn about primary colors
- Watch an interactive movie
- Decorate a zebra
What does your family do on a rainy day?
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Great list! Thanks for including my post. Next time my kids are bored I’m pulling up this list. There has to be something there they want to do.
Great list! I think we will work our way through each starting from the top. 🙂 Thank you for spending the time to put this list together, it will be super helpful on rainy days.
What a great list. We’ll be using this during our July and August months when it is 118 outside. 🙂
118 degrees! I would melt!
What’s a good cookie recipe I can try?
Hi Tabitha. My name is Paul and I recently started up a blog that is also partially about childcare. It is called PostedbyPaul.
i was wondering if I can join your board on pinterest so that I can add material to it as well. If so that would be awesome.
Thanks!
-PostedbyPaul