Favorite 'Bad Weather' Activities (party, baby, games, boys)

[Sum1Else]

So we are stuck in this tropical storm that is not moving. The kids were only back to school for 2 days and then were off Wed, Thurs and also Friday due to the storm.

What are your favorite activities to break up the monotony on those days? (Please include the ages for which you feel it is appropriate.)

[Macbeth2003]

Originally Posted by Sum1Else

So we are stuck in this tropical storm that is not moving. The kids were only back to school for 2 days and then were off Wed, Thurs and also Friday due to the storm.

What are your favorite activities to break up the monotony on those days? (Please include the ages for which you feel it is appropriate.)

Potato painting, fun from age 2 and up. Cut potatoes in half, cut shapes into them and use them as stamps with poster paint.

[DubbleT]

Picnic or tea party in the family room. As elaborate or casual as you like. Let the kids help with planning the menu and preparing the food if they are old enough. An alternative is to present them with a "menu" you have already made up and let them circle their orders. Ages 3 to about 10 or 11?

[BusySocialWorker]

My kiddos are little so these are geared towards keeping her busy - especially in the winter when we are stuck inside due to weather-

Making cookies or baking or help the kids go through the cookbooks and plan and help cook a fun meal

we do potato painting / stamping too

playdough is aways a hit

art projects of any kind

pull out baby books and old pictures and tell stories - she loves to hear about herself when she was a baby and when she was born

movie and popcorn treat

my little one loves to set up a "grocery store" with all her play food and shop

cut pictures of of magazines

we are doing alot of olympic watching now and talking about the different countries which she is excited about

hide and go seek or hide an object and find it in the house

we sometimes do treasure hunts with clues that lead from one location to the next until you find the end treasure

make instruments and have a marching band

bubbles or sidewalk chalk on our unfinished basement floor

[little_thirsty]

Well it rained here a lot the past few days and we have been watching the Olympics. I took Painter's tape and made a "balance beam" and a "race track". Our daughter is two and has had a blast being an Olympian and using up all that pent up energy !

[mom2justynsarah]

I highly recommend "Perla Beads." They come with different shapes (stars, circles, butterly, flower, etc) that you cover with beads. Once completed, you can iron over them and the beads melt together. You get to keep the shapes you create. My 3 year old daughter can spend a very loooong time being immersed in her "projects." Another thing she recently got into is "bionacles?" I don't know if this is the correct name. But the pieces are metalic and you can make tons of different shapes with them.

Of course an old time favorite is painting! She has an easel with a bunch of paper to paint on. If she really wants to get creative, she will paint with her hands and feet (monitored by myself of course!)

My son and some of the other kids in our neighborhood (8 years and older) usually get together and go from house to house. Once they were bored in one house, they try the other. They usually end up at the neighbor's house with the largest square footage. They entertain themselves with computer games, electronic games, building tents and obstacle courses, runnning after each other, etc.

Originally Posted by Sum1Else

So we are stuck in this tropical storm that is not moving. The kids were only back to school for 2 days and then were off Wed, Thurs and also Friday due to the storm.

What are your favorite activities to break up the monotony on those days? (Please include the ages for which you feel it is appropriate.)

[PixiStix]

LOL, I feel your pain! Fay blessed us with a day off school (the 2nd day of school).. And originally coming from up north, we had our share of snow days as well.

I have 2 boys- 4 & 7. Spread a vinyl shower curtain on the floor & let them "create"- playdoh, clay, finger paint, etc... I always have cookie cutters in fun shapes like dinosaurs, or holiday themes. They would create scenes with the playdoh.

Legos are always fun too.

My youngest likes to draw pictures so we make a book out of his what he's drawn at the end of the day.

We also bake cookies which the kids help with.

[Outlander]

Riding bikes and "bowling" in the unfinished basement is a good way to burn off energy.

We also like the Hullabaloo game by Cranium (3 and up).

[mrstewart]

indoor bowling, hop scotch (indoor mat), painting, reading, dancing...I love rainy days!

[Tzaphkiel]

i was told and found it to be true that there is no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing. i send the kids out in all kinds of weather (with coats or boots or whatever) and they love it and it wears them out and lets off steam. So what, they get wet they get dirty, big deal, dry them off, the main thing is they wear out so everyone is happy and not driving each other crazy indoors. Plus they think it's way cool to go out when nobody else does.

indoor: the "pad room" an empty or nearly empty room with nothing in it but some thick foam pads. I don't know what it is with boys (i had 3 boys in two years) but they love to just roll around on the floor and the pads. totally bizarre to me, guess it's a boy thing. But again it wears them out and that's the main thing.

a sheet over a table for a tent or playhouse. Big cardboard box with door and window cut for going in and out of. I thought they'd outgrow this but for some strange reason they never did. I mean the three of them would cram into TOGETHER all 3 of them at the same time and just howl with laughter. What's with that?

big on tools too, taking stuff apart. Broken radios and tape recorders and old junk from thrift stores, save it in the garage, bring it out with screwdrivers and pliers, they spend hours taking stuff apart.

i am big on box games, card games, but usually those end up with people fighting or arguing. i try to keep hidden or set aside some toy or set that ONLY comes out at certain times, so the rare-ness of it makes it new again. letting them bake something and color it some god awful color (like blue or orange) and then EAT IT and then serve it for supper to everyone. Something about serving black food AND WATCHING DAD EAT IT has us all howling with laughter.