Things to do on a Rainy Day

Rainy day activities for kids

While not all winter days will be rainy (hopefully), on the days where you’re wondering how to keep kids occupied indoors, there are a few ways to have fun at home when it’s raining.

Games for kids

While it’s good to keep kids learning throughout the school holidays, they deserve a bit of a break away from educational content and to have some fun! On rainy days, it’s hard for them to go outside and explore, so that’s where games come in handy. Games (in moderate amounts) are a break from reality and are a way for kids to express their creativity and problem-solving ability.

Some games can even have multiple people playing at the same time, so you could even turn it into a fun way to spend time together as a family.

Fun science experiments

A rainy day is a great time to keep your kid’s mind learning, and with science experiments, there are many ways you can stimulate their curiosity and still have some fun! Great ways to do this are through basic science experiments where they can learn what’s happening and why.

Fun science experiments for kids include:

1. Making slime: Slime is all the craze, so why not save some money, as well as learn how it’s made by getting creative at home. Making slime at home is super simple and usually only requires 4 main ingredients plus food dye. As you’re making it, try to understand the science of what makes slime, slime!
2. Making sherbet: While making sherbet is a little less on the educational side, it’s an interesting way to learn how different amounts of each ingredient affect the taste. Not to mention, it’s a great experiment for the taste buds too!
3. The Mentos in the Coke: An oldy but a goody, putting Mentos in Coke is an exciting experiment for younger kids to see the fizz of the coke reacting to the lolly.

Baking

Cooking is a useful skill to learn, so why not start learning from a young age? Learning to cook can simply be getting your kids involved by assisting with meal prepping, or even helping to put together the meal as they get older.

Baking is a good way to teach kids about measuring ingredients, following instructions, and having fun! You can even make it more fun by having a cookie or cake decorating contest and see who can be the most creative.

Our aluminium venetian blinds are ideal for the kitchen as they are durable, water-resistant and super easy to clean, so no need to worry when things get a little messy in the kitchen! Plus, they come in a huge range of colours, making them the perfect, stylish addition to your home.

Mindfulness

Research shows that when there’s multiple days with less sunshine, our mood is affected, and we often feel less motivated and happy.

To keep spirits in good health this winter children can practice mindfulness activities to keep them focused on something other than the weather.

There are many great activities to help mindfulness, for kids to do solo, or even make it a family activity to practice self-care together! Some activities you can try are:

• Painting
• Paint by number kits
• Colouring
• Meditation
• Puzzles

Crafts to do at home

Another fun activity to do at home when it’s raining is to get out the craft box! Doing arts and crafts at home is a great way for your kids to be creative, have fun and pass the time! If you don’t have a lot of craft items around the house, something fun to make could be upcycling old (and clean) socks into sock puppets! Give your puppet a name and tell a story.

To start an arts and crafts box, some good craft items are:

• Pop sticks
• Coloured paper
• Craft glue
• Googly eyes (especially for DIY sock puppets)
• Felt
• Art smock
• Water-based or acrylic paints
• Paint brushes
• Recycled paper / scrap paper
• Old newspapers (great for stopping paint getting on the furniture)

Getting together a crafts box doesn’t need to be an expensive project for your kids these school holidays. Shops like Kmart and The Reject Shop have a great selection of fun activities to try, or even get on Facebook and find your local “Buy Nothing” group for your suburb and see if anyone no longer wants their craft items. Getting items from Facebook groups is good for the environment, reducing waste and saving money!

Have a movie marathon!

When the weather is cold and gloomy outside, what better way to spend the day than to curl up with a fluffy blanket, popcorn or a nice warm drink, and a darkened room to binge your favourite movies or TV show.

With streaming services releasing content at the same time as cinemas, staying home and avoiding the wet weather sounds good.

To make the most of your home cinema experience, try to make the room as dark as possible. To do this, blockout blinds or curtains are best as they stop any excess light seeping through any gaps and reduce the glare on your TV screen. Roman blinds with a blockout fabric or double roller blinds are great options for blocking out light while watching a good movie.

Create a home scavenger hunt

If your kids like to solve puzzles, why not create a home scavenger hunt for them? It could be as simple as hiding objects around the house and they find them, or, for some extra fun on a boring rainy day, why not make it so that every location they need to go to around the house is a clue to another location?

Having a home scavenger hunt is a great way to teach kids to think about the problems they need to solve, as well as something active and exciting!

Build a blanket fort

Another fun thing to do while it’s raining is to curl up in a blanket fort!

A blanket fort is a good way to have some fun, make some mess and have a cosy space away from the rainy weather. What you’ll need:

• Thicker blankets / quilt
• Sheets
• Pillows / cushions
• Chairs
• Pegs

1. To build the fort, start by clearing a space and set up your chairs in a square. Make sure your chairs are close enough for the blankets to reach, but not so close so the blankets droop in the middle.
2. Get your thick blanket and place that on the floor in the middle of the chairs.
3. Take your sheets and drape them over the chairs. Try to find two sheets – one sheet for two of the chairs, and another for the other two chairs.
4. To secure your sheets, take some pegs and put them onto the chair. If the chair is too thick for pegs to hold, you could try a lacky band or small pieces of rope.
5. Once your fort roof is in place and it’s secure, get your pillows and cushions and put them on the floor over your thick blanket.
6. To get cosy, you could add smaller blankets, hot chocolate, popcorn, and a movie, or even play a game of cards in there!

Creating a productive space for kids

If your kids are getting older and starting to have more homework and need their own desk space to work, it’s important for them to have their own dedicated space to focus and be productive. A rainy-day activity could be to design and create a space in the house for kids that’s theirs.

To create a productive space for kids, it needs to have a few crucial elements. These include:

• Good lighting
• Free of distractions like toys or games
• Stationery – pens, highlighters, sticky notes
• A clock or timer to keep their focus for periods of time
• Coloured pens, highlighters, pencils

This is important for times when they are at school, but it’s also good for them to maintain a routine of doing some study each day, whether it’s learning about a topic they’re interested in, reading a book, or completing any holiday homework.

To learn more about how to create a productive study space for kids, check out our blog article!

Blind options for a study space need to let in the sunlight so kids don’t strain their eyes, but also filter out harsh sun rays to reduce on screen glare. Roller blinds are a great option for this as they are versatile blinds which are easily adjustable, we recommend checking out the sunscreen fabric option for your study space!

Keeping kids safe indoors during rainy weather

With the wintery weather limiting the amount of time your kids are spending outside they’re going to be indoors a lot of the time, which means you need to make sure they’re able to play and be safe.

One of the biggest hazards for young kids around the home are blinds. Blinds typically have dangling cords and chains that are fascinating to play with and can be dangerous for kids.

One way to make sure your curtains and blinds are completely child-proof is through installing Motorised Blinds! Motorised blinds are growing in popularity and are a way you can control the opening and closing of your blinds with your smartphone, or a smart home device like Google Home or Alexa.

The great thing about motorised blinds is that they are available on a wide range of indoor and outdoor blinds.

Fun things to do with the family on a rainy day

As kids get older, it gets a lot less cool to be spending time with their family, so having some fun activities is a great way to get everyone to spend time with one another, and for everyone to try and enjoy it. Here’s a few fun things to do with the family to keep everyone happy on rainy days:

• Fun family board games (such as Monopoly, Uno, or Yahtzee)
• Pictionary
• Go bowling, to indoor mini golf or to an arcade
• Hide and seek
• Movie night (if everyone can agree on a movie!)

To arrange a free measure and quote with a highly-trained consultant in your own home, give us a call on 13 13 15 or fill out this simple online form. We provide this service to a wide range of locations around the metro and select regional areas, 6 days a week between 8am and 6pm.

The majority of our blinds, curtains and awnings are made in Australia and are sold for the lowest price in the market, guaranteed. Just bring in a quote on any competitor’s comparable item and we’ll beat it by 5%.