Handling Rainy Days

I was not overjoyed to see the weather forecast for the week...

RAIN, RAIN, CHANCE OF RAIN, RAIN, POSSIBLE CLEARING.

Now being the person that usually can find a lot of things to do to keep busy on rainy days, it can be particularly more difficult to find things to do for children, especially if they are boys and more so if they are ADHD.

As a preschool teacher, I have spent countless times advising parents that, in the world of young learning, quality time with your child is the best teaching tool in the entire world. No matter how "busy" you can claim to be, spending just 15 minutes with your child/children can make such a difference with learning and relationship building. But after days and days of rain, even I can have my limits with restless children.

So, I've come up with a list of suggestions of cool things to do with your children on rainy days-whether they have special needs are not. Some take more time than others, but most are just 15 minutes of yor time-enough time to answer your email, make a few phone calls, or have a light snack. I hope this can be helpful to anyone who has to answer to the whiny chortling of "We're bored...!"

Ms. Holly's Rainy Day (or any day) Suggestions:

1. READ a book together

2. Build a fort with blankets, pillows, couch cushions, etc.

3. Watch rain through the window and see if you can see patterns in the drops, like cloud watching.

4. Go outside in rainboots and play puddle jumping.

5. Finger/toe painting

6. Bake and decorate cookies

7. Have a tea party.

8. Dress up and perform a story

9. Write a book and illustrate it.

10. Create a boardgame and play it.

11. Play with clay or playdough. Add things like to enhance creativity like toothpicks or cotton swabs.

12. Save empty food containers (cereal boxes, water bottles, oatmeal or powder drink tins, etc.) and use them as large blocks to build with.

13. Make sock puppets.

14. Go on a scavenger hunt in the house for typical items and make it fun.

If you have any other rainy-day suggestions, please respond in the comments area.

Happy playtime!