Rainy Day Activities

It’s raining here, and it’s a little too chilly to go play outside in the rain, so it got me to thinking about rainy day activities that Aiden and I can do.  I have a few ideas myself, but I was also wondering what ideas are out there on the web.  I was looking for easy activities that we can do at home with the materials I have.

Here are a few of mine and Aiden’s ideas:

1. Snuggle on the couch while watching Sesame Street.
2. Make a fort of a blankets and play peek-a-boo and hide and seek.
   
3. Have a large box lying around? Make a tunnel and explore.
   
4. Have a puppet show.  We have a bunch of animal puppets that Aiden enjoys playing with.  If you don’t have puppets of your own, you could always make them.  You can use socks without adding anything to them but your imagination.  You could also use old socks and decorate them with markers or whatever materials you have available.  Do you have any small paper bags?  Be creative and turn them into puppets.
   
5. Read a book (or several).  Aiden loves reading and could do this all day.  How about your little one?  Grab your favorite books and have a read-a-thon!
6. Color a picture.  (Not a very novel idea, but it’s an Aiden favorite.)  Give your little one a different medium to color on.  How about a paper plate or a coffee filter or a piece of cardboard?
7.  Make edible play dough.  Try my recipe made with oatmeal here.
8. Sing songs and dance together.
9. Pretend to be animals.  Crawl around and make animal sounds.
10. Be a kid and just play with your little one.  If your little is playing with blocks, join him.  If she’s playing with the toy farm, join her.  Let your imagination run wild.

Upon googling rainy day toddler activities, I find this site from toddlertoddler.com  at the top of the list.  They have a list of 94 ideas!  The flashlight hunt looks right up Aiden’s alley.  Searching for favorite objects with flashlight – what’s not to love?!  Perfect for when it’s dark and dreary outside.  The big board book house is another one that caught my eye.  Building a house using books?  So cool!  You could expand this idea to just about any type of tall toys – blocks, stuffed animals, etc.  Get creative, and have fun!  I am bookmarking this site!  I visited a few other websites, but nothing new really caught my attention.  

What suggestions do you have for rainy day fun?