Rainy Day Activiy List? Boredom Buster List? Let's Get a List Going Please =)

Pull out the pop-up tents and tunnels! Weave them through areas of the house and let the kids "camp out" or build "castles", etc.

Also, puzzles, coloring books, play dough, dress-up, art projects, science projects, sewing projects are great. For slightly older kids that know how to read, get them a series of books they could enjoy. Some book series have of 40 books in the series! That will keep a kid busy for a while!

Here's a few:

Count the number of windows in the house (or doorknobs, or drawers)
Make a blanket fort with the chairs and tables in any room

Colour blobs of shaving cream (regular liquid food colouring or tempra paints, dry or wet) and 3D finger paint with them --on paper, on windows, on the walls in the shower or the bathtub

Make playdough and then play with it

Cut a variety of shapes out of a book of construction paper, pile them in the centre of the table and hand the kid sheets of paper and glue

Read stories

Make stories up

Play dress-up with your clothes while you sort your closet for the seasonal change

Have a taste-test of all the spices in the cupboard by adding 1/2 a tsp of each to a tbsp of cream cheese or sour cream... make a chart of them and put stars on the ones the kids like best

Make soup

Repot plants

Iron tea towels

Learn to knit

Mix dish detergent into tempra paints, and paint on the windows (the dish soap helps it come off easily later)

Cut paper chains, paper doll chains, or snowflakes out of printer paper and hang them in the windows or from the ceiling

Play with matches -light a small box of them one at a time and let the kids blow them out

Greetings T.: I don't know how brave you are, but here are just a few things that I do with my little ones and have done with my own children that are now grown.
Get a tarp out, oruse a table and put a old shower curtain on the floor-- then let the children put pudding , or shaving cream out and do finger painting. It is messy, but the pictures I have over the years are a riot!
We have a year round garden on my front porch. Many things are in pots, and planters of all kinds. The kids like watching it grow, it is useable when they help me cook, so everyone wins. The best thing I enjoy doing is reading with the children and then ACTING OUT THE STORY!! It can be Tom Swayer, or the 3 little Pigs. Dress up and acting is fun.
Enjoy, Nana G

Hi T.-
I suggest a craft day with your little one.
You can make a craft book and then flip through it and let them choose one to make...or 2 or 3.
The first is one of my favorites- get an oatmeal cannister, wrap it with wrapping, construction, or scrapbooking paper, decorate it with pens, pencils, stickers, glued on buttons and accessories, tie a string on it, and ta-dah- you have a drum! Use wooden spoons as drum sticks and start the band!
A second idea is- depending on the babies age- to make a loaf of bread or a pie- use simple ingredients- like berries, etc, so there are no knives involved- or make cookies with cutters and have them help you frost. Cup cakes are good, too.
A third idea- do some housework and then have a movie time: make popcorn, get some snacks out, pull out the pillows and the blankets and pop in a flic!
One more idea, make a workout game. Get their energy up with some baby yoga. OR, do some puppets. YOu get your workout and they are entertained. They can even put on a fun little skit for you.
Last thing- My 1 year old nephew loves to dance- LOVES it. So pop in a cd of some great music and boogey down. You can dance for a few, make some snacks, get your drinks ready in sports bottles, etc., and make a game out of it.
The key- just have fun.
I hope this helps!
-E. M

Some of my best and most prominent childhood memories are of building blanket forts, getting a flashlight and reading books in there. With parents, and sibs, for hours on end. Still makes me smile.

Another fun and easy art project are foam stickers. For Halloween I found kits at Michael's that were large halloween shapes (a ghost, a haunted house, a spooky tree) that came with stickers to decorate them with (the ghost's eyes, bats for the tree, etc). They were on sale for a dollar each so I got one of each and I am planning to do one a week until Halloween. I am sure they will have similar kits for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

My son loves helping cook also and I think dress up and forts will start to become big for us this winter.

I would also say hide and seek and tag in the house. Ring around the rosy, duck duck goose (if you have at least one other person), etc.

If you have enough room, those big (18-24 inch?) bouncy balls from Target are fun and light weight enough not to break things. We bounce them high, into each others balls, down the hall, and on my sons head.

My daughter loves cooking, painting, coloring and I like to buy the Craft sets from Target and let her make crafts.

Balloons - helium and air filled (some go up, others go down)

Bubbles - fun to chase and pop, or a bathtub filled with dish soap bubbles that can make a fun hairstyle or beard

Make musical instruments (toilet paper tube filled with rice is a great shaker, or aluminum foil on the end of a tp tube for a kazoo, make a drum...) - have a parade

Make cookies or pancakes

Mix corn starch and water and play with it

Make a movie of your child dancing to some music and play it back for him/her