5 Fun Activities for Rainy Spring Days

We all know that April showers bring May flowers. On the other hand, being cooped up in the house after a long winter is no fun at all! Having a few rainy day activities up your sleeve can help make those days less of a headache for you and plenty of fun for your children. 

We’ve gathered some of our most imaginative ideas to help you kickstart a fun day inside whenever your plans are hampered by the weather. We’ve tried to come up with something for everyone, so whether your child loves arts and crafts, likes to dive deep into a story, or is the family comic, you’ll have an idea to make their rainy day a little less dreary.

We recommend taking a look at this list and see what inspires you. Then, keep the necessary items on hand so you know exactly what to grab when you wake up to gloomy clouds and raindrops rather than a sunny spring day.

1. For the Adventurer: Bring the Great Outdoors Inside

Whether you had a camping trip that was canceled due to bad weather or your child simply loves the idea of roughing it in the great outdoors, this is a great idea to try. Set up pop-up tents in a room in your home that has plenty of floor space to bring the camping experience inside! 

We’re pretty sure your child won’t miss the buzzing mosquitoes, but you can always put on a “Campfire Sounds” YouTube video to enhance the ambiance. To further amp up the camping feel, make some delicious s’mores and build a pretend “campfire” to tell stories around.

2. For the Jokester: Ask Alexa Jokes

Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistant can be a lifesaver in many situations in the home, including those boring rainy days when your little jokesters insist on telling you just how bored they are. Fortunately, when you run out of silly jokes and entertaining games, Alexa will be there to back you up. 

Here’s a quick list of funny things you can have your child ask (or demand of!) Alexa:

“Alexa…”

1. Do aliens exist?
2. How was your day today?
3. Can I have some money?
4. Do you know who Siri is?
5. Are you married?
6. Talk like a pirate!
7. Tell SillyThings to tell me to do something silly!
8. Tell me a knock-knock joke.
9. What’s better, Star Wars or Star Trek?
10. What do you want to be when you grow up?

And, if you have somewhere else in the house to hide, you can give your kids a little tip to try these:

“Alexa…”

1. Cry like a baby!
2. Burp!
3. Meow

And then just wait for the giggles that follow.

3. For the Curious Mind: A Magic Science Experiment

There’s nothing like a science experiment that seems like magic to get your child’s mind off of their own boredom. We recommend the “fitting an egg into a jar” experiment because it doesn’t require many materials and creates little to no mess. It does, however, require a bit of adult supervision since matches are involved.

All that is needed is an egg (or several, if you want to repeat the experiment), a small glass (NOT plastic) bottle whose mouth is at least half the diameter of the egg, a stovetop, and a pan to boil the egg, and matches.

First, boil the egg, let it cool, and then carefully peel it. Next, light three matches and drop them into the glass bottle. After a second or two, place the egg into the mouth of the bottle. The larger end should be facing up. 

This is when the magic happens! After the matches burn out, the egg will get squeezed into the bottle.

The final step is to have your child do a little research of their own to find out what magic (density! Air pressure! scientific principles!) causes this crazy result!

4. For the Artist: Cotton Ball Painting

Cotton ball painting offers a new sensory take on the normal painting experience. Plus, you don’t have to deal with those hard-to-wash brushes that always get so crusty after just one or two uses. Best of all, the cotton balls allow your child to make new patterns and shapes on the paper, giving a unique touch to the final masterpiece. 

To make dipping the cotton balls into paint easier, we recommend securing them with a clothespin to facilitate more comfortable gripping and keep excess paint from getting on little fingers.

5. For the Bookworm: Audiobooks

If you have a bookworm in your home, there may come a point when they feel like they’ve simply read all the books. All too often, this happens at the worst moment – when there’s almost nothing left to do besides to cozy up indoors with a good book and read. 

One way to breathe fresh life into old stories is to listen to the audiobook version. These can be even more fun than movies, especially when the narrators come up with a different voice for every character in the book! Turn on the audiobook for your child’s favorite story or series and watch them become enraptured as they hear the words they know so well presented in a fun, new way.

Rainy days can be tough, but boredom is often a necessary first step to making new discoveries. We hope these ideas can help your child find new ways to expand their imaginations and hold out until those May flowers appear!