We play outdoors in any kind of weather, unless safety is an issue. So in Southern California with street flooding, lightning, mudslides, and trees down – playing outdoors the last few days hasn’t been practical or safe (although we did squeeze in a walk to school when the skies cleared). In fact, a storm drain backed up right outside our house:
Here’s what we’ve been doing with our indoor time.
Cozy Reading Corner
My daughter crawled into a corner near the bookshelf to read. We decided to make it an even more cozy, reading corner by stuffing it with pillows and blankets. My little girl can’t read yet, but she flips the pages on her own. Maybe even grab some special books for the occasion? Or climb in and read to your non-reader? Have an older sibling read to the younger brother or sister?
Quiet LEGO Building
My son spent the extra time indoors this week building a “Freedom Flyer” — his name for his LEGO creation. LEGOs are my go-to quiet toy, even for girls. We’ve even held building contests in the past.
More ideas:
- Give the kids full access to their stuffed animal collection and see what they invent – mine made a zoo out of their animals
- Dara’s house has a long hallway perfect for indoor bowling. They set up any number of items to knock down with an indoor ball
- Flashlight games are another favorite at Dara’s house. Since it’s so dark outside most of the day, they make shadow puppets on the wall.
- Allow for periods of craziness and chaos – make up an indoor scavenger hunt, bake cookies together, have a dance party, scream into a pillow. Whatever makes you feel better.
- Check out my list of rainy day play idea posts here
Just a thought
- I find music to be a great substitute for television. I put on their favorite “play” songs (many from TV shows) and it inspires them to make up their own games to go with the music.
