Thursday, May 10, 2012

Rainy Day Indoor Play

Zilla is 4 years old
Mega is 1 year 9 months old

This time of year we often have a string of rainy days.  It is not the rainy season yet but I feel like we always need some good ideas of how to fill the rainy hours!

We googled "newspaper sailor hat" and fount many designs to try. 

 Even our shark wanted a custom hat.

Sister Bear got one too. 

 There are hats and then there are HATS!  
A bit of 4 year old styling can remake a sailor hat into something original.  We also discovered that full page color advertisements in the newspaper can be turned into interesting themed hats.  We made a hot and spicy Tabasco one for Daddy!

One of my "tricks" is to only put out a few toys at a time.  On rainy days we will cycle through "new" toy boxes - things which have been in the closet for a little while - as a way to keep their attention focused on positive things.  Usually the kids find a groove with a toy and will play with that one for a long time.
On the last rainy day the Calico Critters school bus and yochien (preschool/kinder) set is what they got hooked on.  It was so great to see them playing nicely together!  They were roll playing parts of their daily lives as well as expanding it into the realm of imagination.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Your kids are so sweet! I have an 18-month-old little girl so I love reading about the activities you do with your daughter. It's been very rainy here in Maine lately, too, so I've been scrambling for things to do indoors. Enjoy your blog very much!