Rainy Day Ideas from TopToyBox

Today I have a guest post from Sarah, who taking inspiration from the dreadful summer we've had this year, wants to share some inspiration for activities you can do with your children. The sun may be shining (on and off) at the moment, but living in the UK means that unfortunately rain is never far behind... I'll leave Sarah to introduce herself.

Hello, my name is Sarah, former children’s librarian, mum of two little girls and owner of educational toy shop TopToyBox. I am honoured this week to be Mrs M’s guest blogger and, due to the complete rubbishness of the summer weather so far, I thought I’d let you in on some of my family’s favourite things to do on a rainy day.

Five Things To Do On A Rainy Day

1) Ok, it might be obvious, but we can’t have a list of rainy day ideas without saying it. So get your wellies on (yes, you too mum and dad) and go and jump up and down in as many puddles as you can find. Soggy socks and boots full of water just mean really good jumping and are therefore to be encouraged! For added fun add a few drops of washing up liquid to your puddle and jump up and down until you’ve made lots of lovely bubbles appear.

2) Once you’ve got back home and dried off, you might prefer to do something indoors! One of our favourite games for little ones is based on the brilliant Michael Rosen book, ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’. Gather up all of the teddy bears you can find and then hide them around your home. The children then have to creep around the house singing ‘We’re going on a bear hunt, we’re going to catch a big one!’ until all of the bears have been found. We love this game in our house and it’s great because everyone gets to join in. It’s also brilliant in the garden if the sun comes out.

3) Now for a bit of creativity! Grab a piece of paper and draw a nice big bright red bus on it, not forgetting the windows. Now gather up some old catalogues and magazines and help your little ones to cut out lots of different faces and stick them onto the bus to bring it to life. This is lots of fun (in fact one bus is never enough!) and inevitably leads to us all singing ‘The Wheels on the Bus’ very, very loudly. We do this at Christmas too but stick toys we like on to a cut-out paper stocking.

4) Make a den! All children love having their own den and it doesn’t matter what you have at hand because anything will do - sofa cushions, bed sheets, duvets. Stack them on the floor, drape them over chairs or tables, then allow the children to make believe to their hearts’ content. My children particularly love having a picnic lunch in their secret den.

5) Last but not least, we love to do some baking on a rainy day. There are obviously many things you could make, depending on the age of your children, and you’ll of course find lots of recipes on Mrs M’s blog. Favourites in this house are Cornflake Cakes - just stir cornflakes into melted chocolate (with a good dollop of golden syrup and a knob of butter added) before spooning into cake cases - and also Rocky Road (noticing a chocolate theme here?) because it’s yummy and involves lots of stirring and testing as we go along, plus you need to smash up an entire packet of biscuits (emptied into a large freezer bag) with a rolling pin. What’s not to love?

Have fun in the rain everyone, and do let us know what your family likes to do in a downpour!

Some really great ideas there! I'm especially inspired by the bear hunt and have thought of my own game that I could try with the children. Thanks Sarah!