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Quiet Activities for Rainy Days

Unplugged quiet play ideas for rainy days

We honestly don’t get very many rainy days in California – especially lately – but I still love to find rainy day activities. They double up as excellent ideas of ways for kids to decompress after school, and I like to keep them on hand for sick days. So this month I was happy to join 25 other kid bloggers to create an A to Z of Rainy Day Activities. I picked Q, so that I could showcase some of my favorite quiet activities for rainy days.

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Quiet Activities for Rainy Days

Cooking and baking are wonderful rainy day activities for kids!

Cooking and baking are wonderful parent-child bonding activities for rainy days. They also have a great pay-off, since over time kids develop the ability to cook and bake on their own. None of my kids are quite at the stage of being able top use the stove or oven on their own, but nine-year-old Emma does a wonderful job of making a cold breakfast, as well as sandwiches for lunch.

card writing and other quiet rainy day activities for kids

Writing letters and cards is a lovely quiet activity! My kids get excited because I let them use Sharpie pens* for letter writing. I buy simple cards from IKEA, and the kids add decorations to them – as I mentioned in my post about writing notes for teachers. These cards are also great literacy practice for my kids!

Making big art and other quiet rainy day activities for kids

Big art is always popular with my kids, so we often pull out our roll of art paper on rainy days. My sensory wall mosaic art activity is another rainy day favorite.

Creative hands-on art and other quiet rainy day activities for kids

Googly eyes* make any rainy day more fun! Ours spend a lot of time in play dough and model magic, but the possibilities are really endless. Add them to rocks, furniture, and your own forehead to get a delighted giggle from your kids!

Small world pretend play and other quiet rainy day activities for kids

Small world pretend play is a wonderful quiet activity for rainy days! Two-year-old Anna is really into trains – most of ours are from IKEA, but we have a small, very nice Brio set that was part of a blog campaign ages ago. The trains work together beautifully; the tracks don’t quite match up (you can force them, but it isn’t ideal).

Mosaic art and other quiet rainy day activities for kids

Sensory play is always popular with my kids, and nearly always quiet. Five-year-old Lily likes to use our sensory bin black beans to  create art, and all of the kids enjoy including magnets in our bins.

Building toys and other quiet rainy day activities for kids

Construction toys like Magna-Tiles* are wonderful for rainy day play! Our wooden blocks* and LEGO bricks (including DUPLO bricks) are also very popular. Construction toys and small world play are often combined for hours of happy play.

What are your favorite quiet activities for rainy days? Drop by Adventures of Adam for letter R!

MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.

16 thoughts on “Quiet Activities for Rainy Days”

  1. I love these ideas and they work for snow days too! (which we got a lot of this year but less so rain days!). I think baking and cooking is particularly fun … and a nice way to teach your kids skills in the kitchen.

  2. jeannine @ waddleeahchaa.com

    It’s been such a blessing, after several years of a drought we’ve had a very rainy spring!

    I totally adore that photo of all the children sitting at the table doodling side-by-side!

  3. I could use some quiet play right around now on this rainy day, lol!
    Big paper is a great idea, we are so used to 8 1/2 by 11.

  4. We haven’t had much rain for the past few years, and then there’s been the last two months. I am SO tired of rain and mud. My children are covered in mud.

    I should try my kids on some sensory play.

  5. We do many similar things! Magna tiles are super popular, as is small world pretend play and all those little train and car sets. We do versions of big paper and letter writing, though at this point my eldest likes to write books and stories and the younger two are practicing coloring in the alphabet. I loved the rain we recently got! It’s much needed!

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