Rainy Days
Being cooped up in the house can help make some really fun memories with the most basic items. Toddlers don’t need the flashiest toys, and they definitely won’t sit still long enough for a movie marathon. Belle keeps me on my toes, and I love it! I enjoy looking through Pinterest, YouTube, and chatting with my mom-friends for play ideas.
A couple of things… These aren’t meant for unsupervised play (as if that exists with a young toddler- lol). A mess doesn’t scare us. Belle is a new-two. We want her to giggle, explore, try things, and imagine. I try to use whatever we have on-hand for activities, when we can!
Every house and parent is different; you just have to find your comfort zone. We also do the traditional coloring, bubbles, play-doh, etc. Sometimes it’s just fun to break out a new/different activity when a rainy day changes your plans. I’d love to hear about your fave inside rainy day activities too!
Toddler Activities
Window Anything – Our daughter loves looking out the windows, and they are the perfect height for her, especially the sliding doors to the deck. There are tons of activities with windows.
Belle loves window markers. Even though she just turned 2, she does a great job of only using them on the windows. When there is an accident, a magic eraser does the job. Really, if you aren’t in the market to buy special markers, regular crayons work too. The picture isn’t vibrant but she loves it just the same.
Window clings are also super fun! Belle loves creating pictures and rearranging the clings. Sometimes it’s tough to find the clings, so we just use regular stickers. I know that sounds bad, but it really works well. I just use my steamer to get them off when we are done. (Well, after she goes to bed.) The window clings can also be used during bath time on the wall of the tub.
Filling Ziploc bags with some non-toxic paint is a lot of fun too. Put enough paint for it to be fun swirling around, tape the bag shut, then tape to a window. It’s like making stained glass pictures with your finger. You can practice colors, shapes, numbers, or just have fun drawing crazy designs.
Plastic Eggs – After Belle’s first Easter I bought extra plastic eggs for fun games. Hit the clearance the day after Easter for all sorts of goodies. A rainy day is a perfect time to play with them! We do color mix & matching, which works on those fine motor skills. We also hide them around the house and find them.
Valentine Cards – After Valentine’s, I buy up all of Belle’s favorite characters. She loves to stack/sort them into all sorts of piles, color the spot to address them, and play with the different characters in imagination games (like dolls). You can also work on colors & matching.
Build a Fort – We grab a huge blanket and pillows to create our fort/den. We play imagination games or take in books to read.
Play Dress Up – Before Belle had her own play hats, crowns, aprons, etc., we played dress-up with mommy and daddy’s hats & shoes, cooking mitts, and sunglasses.
Selfies – Who doesn’t love a selfie with their toddler? I’m not big into Instagram, but Belle loves the filters! We take all sorts of silly pictures. The best thing is you can save the pics directly to your phone instead of having to post them on social media. We also use this to practice faces like surprise, happy, mad, etc. It’s a ton of fun!
Buttons, Pipe Cleaners, & Felt – There are these really big buttons on Amazon that are perfect for pipe cleaners. Littles can have hours of fun putting the pipe cleaners through the button holes stringing buttons and making “jewelry”.
One of my friends had the best idea of making a felt Christmas tree to hang on the wall. Felt sticks to felt so littles can reorganize and decorate away. You don’t have to stick to the Christmas tree. Just hang felt on the wall, make some shapes, letters, etc. Loads of fun and learning games with shapes, colors, numbers, letters, etc.
Other Rainy Day and Indoor Play Suggestions
- Busy Bag Ideas for Indoor Play
- Playdough and More Homemade Fun
- 20 Things to do with Kids When You’re Stuck Inside
- Crafty Fun for Inside Days
- Making Kid Treasures from Junk
- Guide to Indoor Play Areas in Columbus
