Rainy Day Games:
Keeping The Kids Occupied With
Some Fun and Games

What do you do for rainy day games in the house if the kids are home and the sky just keeps on showering buckets full of water?

This is a time when the tempers get short and boredom starts creeping in quick and easy. Check out some of the following for some inventive ideas to keep the kids happy and interested through the entire enforced confinement.

• Allergy-Friendly Play Clay

So for a quick recipe so your child doesn't miss out on all the fun of Play Doh, try this easy clay recipe instead.

Ingredients

• 1 cup cornstarch (substitute potato starch for some allergens)
• 2 cups baking soda
• 1 1/4 cups COLD water
• 1 T. vegetable oil (confirm it is allergen free for your child)
• natural food coloring if desired

Stir together cornstarch (potato starch) and baking soda and place in a saucepan. Mix water and oil in a small bowl. Add colorings if being used. Turn on the heat under saucepan, slowly pour in water mixture as you stir and blend well the wet and dry ingredients. Continue stirring until the clay mixture forms a ball in saucepan.

Turn off the heat, place clay onto a sheet of waxed paper or parchment paper to cool. When cooled to touch, roll the clay out flat onto the parchment paper until flattened. Roll up (like a jelly roll), rolling the paper into the roll also to keep your clay soft and pliable.

Tear off pieces and kneed a few times before use. Always store in an airtight container (or a zip-loc bag) in the refrigerator.

It's now ready to enjoy!

• Museum Shopping

• Science or History Museum - either of these are packed with opportunities for a young child's mind. Pick which one suits your child's interests the best, visit the museum and have them choose an exhibit that excites them the most.

  Now make it a project for them to research that point in time or that article and let them learn its history and uses. You may have to visit a local historical society, the local library, maybe a local trade school, a few local businesses and any where that his interest ties into present-day life. An example may be a type-setting machine used in making the early newspaper for the settlers in a remote territory. The museum itself, the library, the historical society, the local newspaper office and all the way to a present day printing company would be a great start to help your child understand the roots of typesetting all the way to present day marketing materials.

  If the theme of the project fits, have them make their own model of their project so they can realize how the early settlers had to use the equipment to supply a finished good ready for consumer use. (Your typesetting machine can be accomplished with a quick trip to the craft store and purchase some wooden alphabet letters. Take these home, allow your child to fashion handles for each letter (to keep their fingers out of the ink), set up a storage box (a shoebox etc. will suffice), mix up their ink and fill ink wells (craft store is great again for inks and small baby food jars), poster boards or tablet paper for the actual printing.

  It really does not matter what the subject is your child chooses. See what exhibit is most interesting to them and let them go with their own imagination. This can become an entire summer project for both you and your child. By the end of summer, have them summarize their entire project whether it's in their own book, a project model, a poster or whatever.

• Slime Time

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup warm water
• 1 cup white liquid glue
• 3 drops green food coloring
• 4 tsps. borax
• 1 1/3 cups warm water

Combine the first three ingredients in a small bowl.

Combine the last two ingredients in a second bowl. Pour the first bowl into the second bowl and allow to sit (do not stir). Allow to sit for one minute then separate into small portions, some for each child.

Pack each child's slime in a ziplock bag when finished to preserve for the next play date.

• Museum Quality Artist

Now you can quickly and easily make your own masterpieces to rival anything you see in that museum with just a few supplies right from your own home.

So for some soggy "stuck in the house" rainy day games or prints which were mastered by your own budding Picasso's or Rembrandt's, you will need the following:
Supplies Needed

• white card stock from an office supplies or art supplies store
• box of assorted color washable markers

Have the kids color over the entire page as much as possible with their choice of colors. Take the finished painting and place it outside in the rain laying face up until the colors have run. Return the paintings inside to dry on a flat surface and then frame and enjoy each child's own "national museum" work of art.

• Puddin' Cones This recipe works best if you have 2-3 kids or more. Each kid this way gets to take their turn being the "mixer".

  Supplies Needed
  

• 1 pc. heavy duty zip-loc bag, gallon size
• 1 large box instant pudding, your choice of flavor
• 2 cups cold milk

Open your zip lock bag and pour both ingredients into bag. Zip closed and be sure seal is completely closed.

Start passing the bag around between kids with everyone taking turns shaking the bag to mix. As it starts to thicken, knead the bag with your hands (try squeezing it up and down) until soft-set. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Cut off one corner and squeeze a small portion into a waffle or ice cream cone. Layer it if you like, with fruit, sprinkles baking chips etc.. Finish filling it to the top with pudding mixture and then decorate the top as desired. Refrigerate for 10 minutes (stand the cone in a drinking glass), or eat immediately. Enjoy!

• Become Your Own Shopkeeper
  

Pick a theme for your store, isolate an area in the house for the merchandise, fill it with shelves, bookcases, tables, racks etc. that you can use to display your goods. Add some shelf liners (scrap fabrics, towels, pillow cases etc.) and decorate your shelves.

Now go "shopping" in your own home, pick out extra items, outgrown selections which could be handed down to the next generation, sports equipment that you no longer use, personal and family books just collecting dust or just anything and everything as long as you believe it has value for someone else.Give all of your items a price tag (peel and stick labels) or safety pins with a small piece of paper works just fine.

Now the kids can take turns being the shopkeeper (with a shoe box for a cash register) or the shopper (use monopoly money). This type of rainy day games teaches your kids all about buying, returning, selling, lay-away and just the simple value of money.

• Einstein The Inventor

Supplies Needed

• empty ribbon or thread rolls
• toilet tissue tubes or wrapping paper tubes
• dixie cups
• cereal boxes
• stickers, scissors, glue, paint sets, markers, buttons or just anything which can be used as accents
• baby food jars
• aluminum foil, construction paper, gift wrapping paper
• ribbon or fabric scraps
• package bows
• the more unusual the supplies the better to gear up your kids imagination for fun.

Pull out your craft collectibles box now for the next rainy day games and dare your kids to come up with the newest and greatest invention. If you like, pick a topic of today's invention or just let the kid's imagination run wild with the trinkets you have collected.

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