By Mei Yee
On the dark and dreary days, your kids might find themselves bored. As a parent, I have to admit that this is typically a “grab your tablet” time. Here are some activities I have found to be fun for us away from the electronics;
Play-doh. No, I'm not going to give instructions to make your own, which might be fun to do. But I go for what is already made, mainly because we have that already. I’m not even sure what all ingredients you would need to make it yourself. Back on track, I have found that this is popular with my four-year-old and eleven-year-old. Even if you don’t have all the fancy kits doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. Everyone can be creative and use their imagination!
Board games. With the age difference between my children, it is hard to find a board game that suits their interests. We take turns. They each get to pick a game, then roll the dice to see whose game gets to go first. Depending on which game it is, we do put our spin on it.
Example: My favorite board game is Clue, sometimes my children team up pretending they are detectives and must stop the “bad guy,” which, yes, to your surprise, is me.
Building a fort. Who doesn’t love building forts? Taking them down is a different story. You can build it and hang out in it, maybe do shadow puppets, tell random stories you make up on the spot. Or let it be “base.” Let the kids make a game where the fort is base for them to return to for safety.
My eleven-year-old will pretend she is a dragon, and my four-year-old will be the warrior or princess (depends on what mood she is in that day) and will run to the base to stay safe. If you leave it up all day, why not let them sleep in it so they can pretend they are camping.
There are more things to do out there, but these are a few things that we have fun doing on rainy days. (Or even on snowy days when it is too cold to go out to play!)
