12 Things to do on a Rainy day when you don’t have a crafty bone in your body.
Yesterday it rained and rained with the forecast calling for rain all weekend. I had to come up with a plan or I would have a gloomy face staring at me all day. Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t have the room to have my own crafting space to store supplies so I went looking for simple ideas or projects that we could do with limited items already in the house. Ok, truth be told even if I had a craft room I would have no idea of what to make so I had to rely on our regular activities and do some research.
- Of course our normal activitiey ideas came up such as making it a special movie day-grabbing fresh PJ’s and popcorn and selecting a variety of movies to curl up on the couch and watch together.
- Oh but then there was the blanket fort that was always a favorite and my youngest is almost twelve years old. Still a Big favorite to take pillows and blankets and use the potato chip clips to clip the blankets around chairs/tables. Then we just sit down in our homemade tent or fort and tell stories, read a book to each other or play board games such as Dominoes-I will admit, I lose almost every time.
- Blanket tea parties on the living room floor are fun, but honestly my daughter has been into tea parties since she was three years old and I am just about over them at this point. I had bought a used old fashioned set at the Good Will for a birthday party and the set just kept growing. We fan folded tissue paper and made flower corsages to wear at our tea parties. Serving Pink Lemonade and cookies.
But what was something different that I had in the house. I started to look:
- Paper- colored and plain printing paper-Make scavenger hunts either finding a list of items in the house or for a twist, take the paper and colored markers and color in boxes of a variety of colors. Then the scavenger hunt is for an object that is the same color of the marker on the paper.
- Also paper is great for making a funny face book. Cut the paper into three equal sizes and put the paper in a three ring binder. On the top page draw a different set of eyes on each page. On the middle, draw a different nose, and on the last of page draw different styles of mouths. Then have fun turning the pages to see the different faces you have made.
- Paper plates- You can make games, grab a toilet paper ring and cut the center from the paper plates and you have a ring toss. Or there is a variety of animals you can make with some color markers and some scissors.
- Moon Sand-Flour 8 cups and 1 cup baby oil makes Moon Sand.
- Play dough-2 cups cornstarch and 1 cup hair conditioner.
- Foam Dough-shaving cream & Cornstarch makes Foam Dough
10. SLIME-4 oz, of glue ( a small bottle), ½ TBSP baking soda, food coloring, and 1 TBSP contact solution will give you the best slime- which is all the rage now. This recipe I found on the Elmer’s Glue site.
http://www.elmers.com/projects/project/elmers-colored-recipe
11. Paint from school projects, my daughter loves to collect rocks so why not create painted rocks or better yet, make something to keep in your collection or leave the special painted in places for other kids to find as a special treat. I just found a painted rock in the park where I walk. No one was around and my daughter loved it. Who left it there we wondered? Then I found one at my bank ATM. What a happy surprise.
- 12. Popsicle sticks and Glue. If you have these items, you can make anything. Let your imagination go wild making houses, boxes, and boats.
So now how do you pick one? The best idea would be to get a small can or jar from the recycle bin and create a holding place for the ideas. You can either just write the ideas down on a small piece of paper and fold them and put them in what you have created or paint one end of a Popsicle stick so that when you close your eyes and pull an idea out, it will be a surprise on a rainy day.
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