Rainy Day 5 in under 5

(Goblin is 33 months)

While I am sure there are parts of the world that are actually seeing sunshine this summer, our part of the UK doesn't appear to be one of them. So here are 5 ideas that can be activated in under 5 minutes to keep your kids entertained when its too wet to easily play outside.

1. Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles

We always have some bubble mixture lying around - but if you don't Lessons Learnt Journal has a great recipe. You need to be slightly more careful playing with bubbles indoors if you have hard floors rather than carpet, because it can get very slippery very quickly, but bubbles are a great distraction for kids.

2. Cloud dough

We have recently discovered the joys of cloud dough. Its incredibly easy to make with only two ingredients, oil and flour (or three for my coloured Cloud dough recipe). Goblin plays with it for ages digging, scooping, making mini 'sand castles' with a plastic cup. And he also gets into our tub and smooshes it with his feet.

3. Spaghetti Sensory Bath

While on holiday in Wales it rained constantly. One afternoon Goblin was at a loose end and playing a bit aggressively with the dog. So I dumped a whole packet of spaghetti into a pan and boiled it up while I ran him a bath. When the Spaghetti was soft (in under 5 minutes) I popped it into the bath and Goblin dived in too. He loved fishing for pasta. This activity gives him exploration of smell, touch and taste and he sees an object (pasta) outside of its usual setting (dinner). He also helped to tidy up the activity by scooping all the pasta into a bag before we pulled the plug out - we didn't want to block the drain. If you like this idea Growing a Jeweled Rose has a whole bunch of amazing sensory bath ideas.

4. Imaginary play

Goblin has recently started embarking on imaginary play. With very few props he is content for hours. This is him in Nanny's dog cage pretending to be "little dog" - he even insisted on taking his lunch in. We later fed him bone shaped sandwiches and played fetch with a crumpled paper ball. Other easy imaginary play props in our house include 2 feet of hose for playing Fireman Sam emergency rescue, and a bean pole for fishing. I actually quite enjoy running around pretending with Goblin. The only imaginary play senario I don't like is tow trucks. This usually involves me having to tie vehicles to each other only to then be asked to untie them. I need to teach Goblin to tie knots urgently (maybe that should be rainy day activity 5).

5. Painting

Painting is always a great go to activity when its wet. You could use some wax resist to make pictures of the rain. Or how about making a more sunny picture using bright sunshine colours.

But if all else fails, put your wet weather gear on and go play in the puddles.

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