Inside: a ridiculously long list of fun rainy day activities from your favorite bloggers: science experiments, crafts, art projects, recipes, energy busters, indoor learning ideas, and more.
When it comes to rainy days, every mom has a few go-to activities up her sleeve. But most of us are always on the lookout for new, fun ideas.
With more rain and cooler temperatures on the horizon, I asked some great parenting bloggers for their favorite rainy day activities. Their answers were inspiring, creative, and absolutely doable.
For the ease of navigation, I grouped the activities into six sections:
- Science activities
- Outdoor rainy day activities
- Arts & crafts
- Cooking with kids
- Indoor rainy day activities
- Energy-busters
Think of this post as a little stockpile of fun for the fast-approaching rainy season. You can gather what you need ahead of time, bookmark this page, or pin this post for later.
But that’s not all!
Favorite Rainy Day Activities from Popular Bloggers
Science Activities
Sarah, Little Bins for Little Hands
“Our favorite rainy day activity has to be making homemade slime! Slime is an amazing way to connect with your kids through a very playful, hands-on learning project that is filled with tactile sensory play and even a bit of science. Play, learn, explore, and discover together on any rainy day with a batch of easy to make and oh so stretchy slime!”
Shelley, STEAM Powered Family
“On a rainy day, I love to dig through the kitchen and do some kitchen science. Creating a quick batch of something like Oobleck is fun and with so many different recipe options I always have the ingredients on hand.”
Sarah, Share It Science
“One of our favorite things to do on a rainy day is to go outside and splash or get muddy! We have a great head-to-toe kid’s rain suit to keep the water out. It is always interesting to see what is different out in nature when it is wet out there. Does the soil change color? Can you find an interesting reflection in a puddle? What are the worms and insects doing?”
Ken, Kids’ Fun Science
“If I had one experiment I would choose Self-starting siphon experiment. When the Siphon is submerged into a glass, water flows into the submerged end because of a pressure difference. So water continues to flow through the straw. The momentum of the flowing water, combined with the capillary action of the straw, is strong enough to allow the water in the straw to flow above the surface of the water in the glass, over the hump, & down the column. Once the water flows over the peak, the water “pulls” more water from the glass along with it until water flows out of the open end of the straw and the siphoning process begins.”
Cristi, The Keeper of Memories
“We love all things sensory and STEAM around here, so we are all about creating and tinkering. We do sensory bins and process art, science experiments, and even art journaling. You can check out some of our favorite rainy day activities via this blog post – 10 Quick and Easy Rainy Day Activities for Kids.”
MaryAnne, Mama Smiles
“Rainy days are the perfect time to look at weather around the world! This fantastic science activity also includes a nice element of global awareness as kids realize how different the weather can be a few miles away and how similar it can be on the other side of the world.”
Misty, Joy in the Journey
“Rainy days are the perfect time to get all of those messy projects completed. You know, the ones you don’t have time for typically? The gumdrop houses, the edible cell models, the art projects, all of those fun things kids love, but that make moms groan. One of our favorite science experiments came from Apologia Science, it was the momma bat and pup activity. For this experiment, we put different scents on cotton balls. I then had each child take a “baby” cotton ball with a specific scent. Blindfolded they had to find their baby in a ray of scents. It was a lot of fun! You can see this project and some of our other favorite science experiments here.”
Outdoor Rainy Day Activities
Tanya, Two Pine Adventures
“One of our favorite activities on rainy days is to play in the gutter by the street. We collect leaves, sticks, flowers, and woodchips, then stand by the curb and drop them one by one into our tiny, impromptu river. We love to make little leaf boats and watch them go down the hill. No matter what we end up doing, it’s always a special treat to play in the gutter!”
Po Tim King, Fortune Cookie Mom
‘Playing in the rain, throwing rocks, leaves, and sticks into the puddle, and spotting insects all at once. My kids can pretend they are kind of explorers in the jungle. It is the best.’
Arts & Crafts
Maggy, Red Ted Art
“It is super difficult to pick just ONE kid craft for a rainy day… but in our house, it would have to be one of two crafts. Either one of our super popular Corner Bookmark Designs – as all you need is paper and pens, and there are so many fun things you can make. Perfect for a bit of rainy-day reading too. Or, it would have to be a sewing project – as there is nothing better than some huddled-together downtime with a cup of hot chocolate and a nice cozy sewing project!
Christina, The DIY Mommy
“I love to do any sort of new craft with the kids! Something different that piques their interest is always a win like embroidery, sewing, making bath bombs, trying out DIY friendship bracelets – you name it!”
Leah, As We Walk Along the Road
“On a rainy day, my kids when they were younger would play a game they made up and named “Snipped.” Patterned after the show “Chopped,” one child was given a box of random craft supplies the others had chosen. They then had to make the best craft they could using all supplies.”
Megan, The School Nest
“My favorite rainy day activities to do with kids are the hands-on type. If we are trapped indoors for too long, the kids have pent up energy and need something interesting to do with their hands and minds! Learning a handicraft can soak up hours out of our rainy day, and there are so many to learn and grow more skilled in. I like to keep some supplies on hand for these days: learn how to make candles, braid yarn or embroidery floss, make a mobile with wooden beads and string on a stick, weave on a handmade cardboard loom, mold air dry clay into small bowls and paint them once they’re dry. The best part about activities like this is that not only does it enrich your children’s lives, it enriches yours too!”
Alexa, Single Moms Income
“My favorite rainy activity for kids is creating art together. All three of my kids love to paint so we always have paint and canvases on hand. (We often buy these very inexpensively at the Dollar Store.) All of the kids love when mom decides to paint with them.”
Cooking with Kids
Kristy, On My Kids Plate
One of our favorite rainy day activities is to make Pear “Fruit” Donuts and let kids build their own creation. It can be really fun to raid your kitchen for fun toppings together and kids of different ages can easily create this activity together.”
Ciara, My Fussy Eater
“Banana Bread is always a winner for rainy days. It’s so easy to make and is great for using up bananas that are a bit past their past. My favorite is Chocolate Orange Banana Bread!”
Randi, Bohemian Vegan Kitchen
“On rainy days, I love making this simple yet DELICIOUS Vegan Chef Boyardee with my kids! This dish features healthy ingredients to keep your kids eating right while also indulging in classic kid cuisine that is pure comfort food.”
Amy, Yummy Toddler Food
“On rainy days or days when we’re stuck in the house, we love to bake Banana Oatmeal Muffins—with chocolate chips! My kids help to make the batter and top each with chocolate chips, and then we all help to eat the batch. It’s fun to do together and has such a yummy payoff.”
Indoor rainy day activities
Christine, Christine Keys
“My go-to indoor activity for my kids on a rainy day is Playdoh. They spend a ton of time creating things (mostly imaginary food) and it can be something they play on their own or together. I love that Playdoh is super affordable, or alternatively, easy to make.”
Amy, Rock Your Homeschool
“My favorite rainy day activity for my boys is our Frugal Inventor’s Box! I love watching my boys’ faces light up as they think about all the possibilities. As they tinker with recycled items like empty toilet paper rolls and aluminum pie tins, their imaginations help them forget about the rain and enjoy indoor learning fun. It’s awesome to see my boys cooperate and collaborate on creative projects, instead of bickering with each other because they’re bored.”
Tiffany, Homeschool Hideout
“On rainy days, we like to build a blanket fort, grab some snacks and binge-watch all of our very favorite shows! But, the secret is to make sure the shows we watch are educational. It sparks conversation and builds their brain at the same time!”
Sarah, Kids Gardening
“Making plant people is one of my favorite gardening activities to swap in if outdoor garden time is not possible. I also always have a bag of mixed dried soup beans on hand for last-minute changes in the schedule too because there are many fun and simple activities you can do with them such as planting in a cup with wet paper towels and watching them sprout, sorting them by size and color, and also creating bean art.”
Jenn, Take Them Outside
“One activity that my kids really enjoy during rainy days is to get out their binoculars and do some indoor birdwatching. Setting up the indoor bird watching station usually inspires my kids to pull out their bird book and even do some bird journalling.”
Kimberly, Passing Down the Love
“My Grandkids are 5 and 7. When they visit on rainy days, we do many different things, but one of their favorites is to play indoor games. And as a Grandmother, I like to play the old-time board games that they may or may not have at home. We play Monopoly Jr., checkers, and Trouble. But they seem to like Twister the most, which can be quite a challenge for their Grandma!”
Clare, Freddie’s Mommy, UK
“Our favorite rainy day activity has to be playing board games. Learning while playing and having fun is always a winner in this house!”
Energy-Busting Indoor Activities
Niki, Toot’s Mom Is Tired
“My daughter’s favorite way to get her energy out while stuck inside is by jumping on her trampoline. We have a small trampoline with a handlebar that she loves to jump on. She even has her dolls and stuffed animals jump on it. It keeps her from jumping on my couch and allows her to get some physical activity inside in a safer way.” (Check out Niki’s 22 Low Prep Indoor Activities for Toddlers)
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This is great Eva! Thank you so much for adding my Vegan Chef Boyardee recipe. As a homeschooler, I love the activities you have added to this list!
You are welcome, Randi. And by the way, we made Chef Boyardee and three out of four kids liked it 🙂
What a great list of ideas! I’ll have to try a few of the others the next time my daughter and I have a day to ourselves. Thanks for including my Pear Donuts!
You are welcome, Kristy! Thank you for this fun recipe and I hope some of the activities will become your new favorites.