Rainy Day Activities

My 3 year old loves to play with water so I let him play in the big sink with water and his toy boats. He loves it. I told my husband we should buy him a water table and put it in the garage for the days that are nice and we can leave the garage door open since we don't have a backyard. You could probably do the same for rainy days too. Other ideas we've done is play-doh, pretend cooking with using beans. My son could spend hours if I let him just pouring beans in and out of things all day. We also have a tree house tent that we use to play with. Hope this ideas help.

My favorite rainy day activity is getting dressed in rain gear (rain coat, pants, hat, boots) and taking the kids out to jump in the puddles. Even for your little one getting outside to run around (even if it's only for a short period) makes a huge difference.

For indoor activities campout inside, build an obstacle course, I have a small box of toys that I only take out when it seems they've lost interest in everything "new" things keep their attention awhile, build a fort, empty boxes are the best toy,

paper bag puppets; when your in town, go to a Joann's or Michaels and let the kids pick out collage type art materials; play dough with the right accessories can go for an hour or more - or you could MAKE playdough; cornstarch and water is a messy but fun science experiment; get some giant rolled paper and trace and decorate yourselves; bendaroos; build forts with blankets and get out flashlights (big favorite) or if you have giant boxes, decorate and play in them; bake cookies; make cards for grandparents; chalk art; get a big plastic bin with dried rice and beans and scoop and pour; long baths with bubbles and toys.....hope that helps :)

My kids are the same age!

Is there a pond nearby where you can feed the ducks? Ducks don't mind the rain, they'll be there - if you use cheerios instead of bread crumbs, the ducks like them just fine, and they don't get soggy as fast. And the kids are going to think it's hysterical. (I was also going to suggest going to the zoo as a great rainy activity - the animals are generally active in the rain - but as you pointed out, gas is high...) Or, go on a worm hunt - they like the rain, too.

We also bake something. Banana muffins are good for that age - even a 22 month old can smash bananas. (Neat trick - substitue applesauce for the eggs, and they can lick the batter out of the mixing bowl - no salmonella danger!) Roll-out sugar cookies are fun to punch with cookie cutters and then decorate, if you don't mind flour all over the place. Or cupcakes - the little one can put cupcake-papers in the pan, and the older one can smear the frosting on when they're done, and then they can both add sprinkles and whatnot to their little hearts' content.

Have fun!

My kids are the same age too and we've also been getting lots of rain! We play a lot of imagination games; build "caves" with blankets and tables and pretend like we're bears, hold hands sitting on the floor and pretend like we're rowing boats and watching for alligators, etc.

I also have a "craft bag" that's just a big bag of stuff (construction paper, sparkle glue, dried noodles, crayons, paint, etc) and we pull that out too and play with it. Sometimes we wait for the youngest to take a nap depending on what project we want to do. (Michaels is a great place to find inexpensive stuff)

It hasn't rained here in over 3 months. If you are tired of the rain please send it to south Texas.

Way back when it used to rain here, one of our favorite activities was to make things with modeling clay or play-doh. My son really liked to make clay people and then play with them.
We also did paper mache, made puppets from socks, built forts in the living room, and built huge lego cities that took up the entire room. I had extra legos that were just for those huge building events that I kept put away most of the time. That made it extra fun when the big tub of legos came out.

ALL children this age LOVE water and there is so much to explore outside- puddles, running water, mud, worms, etc. We rarely get rain, but we keep rainboots and raincoats around so when it does rain, we can get outside and enjoy it. Water inside is fun, too. We bought the Step 2 fun flow sink and there is not a time that they haven't been busy in the kitchen washing babies or other toys, or just playing with funnels, measuring cups, bowls, etc. I line our kitchen floor with towels so they don't slip on the floor.

I also like the idea of playing with beans (or rice, flour, etc.) You can get all kinds of containers for filling, dumping, pouring, etc, and they will be busy busy busy!