Five Fab Ideas for Rainy Days

With autumn’s dark nights and rain fully upon us, it can be tricky trying to keep bored kids entertained if you are stuck in the house.

Dragging them away from a Netflix binge can be hard work so here are five ideas that will hopefully help to get kids of different ages up and doing something a bit different!

 

1. Build a den

Got to start with the old classic but who doesn’t love building a den at home?!

Get together some clothes pegs, sheets/ blankets and a few chairs and you’re on your way.

Once your den is built don’t forget to make it cosy inside with cushions, blankets, some books and for extra excitement some torches! Make it big enough so you can crawl in too and a den makes a wonderful place for sharing a cosy story. If you’re lucky you might get chance to grab 40 winks while you’re in there too 🙂

 

2. Make a music video

 

This one can be great for any age but particularly for slightly older kids.

All you need is a phone camera and some imagination!

First pick a tune (the most crucial and probably trickiest part!) and then it’s time to figure out what you’re going to do!

Will you create a story and write a script to act out for the video?

Will you choreograph a dance for the tune?

Maybe you’ll show off your lip-syncing skills?

Even better maybe you can write and perform your own original music?!

Once you’ve got a plan you can get filming! Try and keep the camera as steady as possible so either prop it up on a table or attach to a tripod if you have one.

One trick you can do is attach your phone to a tin can (ideally something like a can of beans) using a hair bobble or an elastic band and place on a table or shelf. This will keep your shots nice and steady!

 

After you’ve finished filming there are lots of free apps you can use to edit your music video . ‘Capcut’ is a brilliant, free app for making videos and if you have older kids they will love mucking about with their clips in the app to create a video. Then they can show off their hard work with friends and family 🙂

 

3. Make a ‘train’

 

A game that I fondly remember playing as a child myself and has always been a winner with my two is building a chair train!

Grab a few chairs, place in a row and that’s it…you’ve got a train!

All the kids and adults can pile on, your driver can hop on at the front, blow their whistle and off you all go…where will you stop, who knows?!

Look out your ‘window’ what can you see? Are you whizzing through a city or the countryside? Maybe you could make tickets for the train?

When you’ve finished your journey, the train could now be an aeroplane! Don’t forget to do up your seatbelts and you’re way up in the air.

After you landed, the plane is now a bus! Time for a sing song of the good old ‘wheels on the bus’. Where are you headed next? Maybe on holidays? Don’t forget your suitcase!

Honestly the options are endless with this easy, free game that always sparks kids imaginations and they just love to play

 

4. Photo Safari

A photo safari at home can provide a great free activity to do with the kids on rainy days and is also one that you can all actually enjoy doing (unlike some of the tougher to enjoy ‘lets pretend we are both My Little Ponies and we are having a birthday party’ type play!).

 

It basically involves hunting for photos and is loads of fun. It is creative, child led and gives the kids a chance to use and improve their technology skills and run around like the little bosses that they are.

It will encourage your kids (and you) to start looking at your home and its contents with fresh eyes and see creative potential where before you just saw a pile of washing!

For some ideas on how to do a photo safari with your kids, including suggestions on what to photograph and how to prepare, pop to my blog post: ‘Five Fab Ideas for Going on a Photo Safari with the kids’

 

5. Karaoke Party

 

Karaoke is so much fun if you’ve got little performer in the house and is perfect for a rainy day!

 

The great part is that it’s not not essential to have a special machine to have a karaoke party at home.

 

There are tons of videos on YouTube with lyrics so you can sing along at home, belting it out into a hairbrush or whatever make shift microphone is at hand!

 

You could make it a themed karaoke party and pick a favourite film or band to base the party on…all the musical favourites like Sing, Encanto and Frozen will give you tons of mileage. You could even dress up as characters from the film to get extra entertainment from this one.

 

 

I hope this has given you a few ideas for the next time you’re stuck at home on a rainy day.If you need some more inspiration for rainy days, pop to my blog post ‘Five Fab Ideas for Open Ended Play’ which includes ideas from some of the many wonderful local businesses of Sale that work with children such as Manchester Children’s Physiotherapy, Love to Craft Mcr and Josh and Nelly independent children’s store

If you’d like me to capture your kids filming their own music video or snuggled up in a cosy den, then pop to my website and download a family photography brochure. I’d love to capture your clan! sonyasmithphotography.com

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