Enjoy a Rainy Day Inside With Your Kids
Fall is one of my favorite seasons of the year. However, fall ushers in the cooler weather and rain. When there is a chill in the air and it is raining, playing outside doesn’t hold a whole lot of appeal. But that doesn’t mean you and the kids can’t have just as much fun indoors. I have found that kids can be easily entertained, most of the time. The cool days of fall and the quickly approaching winter days is a perfect time to bond with your children and share some quality family time.
Ideas for those days that were made to stay inside
Release Your Inner Betty Crocker
I was never much of a baker, but that changed when I had my daughter and the Christmas holidays rolled around. Suddenly, I had this urgent need to bake and fill the house with the aroma of homemade cookies. My daughter loved it and surprisingly I did too. On those days that you would rather stay in, whip up a batch of homemade cookies, bake a cake, or make cupcakes. Even if you don’t have a recipe passed down through generations, the Internet has a ton of sites with recipes. If you have small kids like me baking can actually be educational. They learn about measurements, ingredients, and they will have fun dumping them all together. Most of all they will enjoy eating them!
Movie Marathon Day
What better way to enjoy a cold and rainy day then cuddling up on the couch and watching movies. Ask each family member to pick a movie of their choice and make it a movie day inside. Pop some popcorn, order a pizza and enjoy a movie marathon. If you have old home movies or a wedding tape dig those out, kids love to see themselves on film.
Create a Family Scrapbook
A family scrapbook is a great activity for your family to work on together. Have your family gather photos, mementos, and anything else that holds special meaning to them and take an afternoon to work on creating a scrapbook. A large photo album works great to hold all of your memories. Decorate it, add stories, and make it a project that everyone contributes to. You can also have each child make mini scrapbooks for themselves. Scrapbooking is a great way to document your family’s journey.
Indoor Camp Out
Summer may be over, but that doesn’t mean you can’t create some camp out fun. My daughter and I recently did this and she had a blast. She has a café tent that I normally keep in our basement that is huge. I brought it upstairs, filled it with pillows and blankets, put our fall decorations around it, grabbed a flashlight, put a movie in the portable dvd player, made popcorn and hot dogs, hot chocolate, and we had an indoor camp out. If you have a tent put it in the living room and capture a little bit of summer.
Help Others
Cleaning the closets may not sound like a fun day inside. A rainy day is a perfect day for the family to rummage through their closets and collect what they don’t use anymore and give it to charity. It is important that we try to foster a servant’s heart in our children to do the work of Christ. Gather clothes, toys, canned goods, and even household goods that are in good condition and pack them up. Spend the other half of the day making a big pot of soup, bake a pie or make an extra dinner to give to a neighbor. Sometimes the best memories you can create with your family are spent helping others.
There are a number of ways to enjoy the day inside when the weather isn’t cooperating. Spend time reading to your children, create your own little party, make crafts for the upcoming holidays, get creative with the day! The gift that is most meaningful to your children is the gift of time. In our busy lives we sometimes forget that those long lasting memories are created in the little moments we share with them each day.
Copyright © Chere Williams, Moms of Faith, All Rights Reserved