Rainy Day Challenge (When it rains on your vacation...)

[JRmommy]

The forecast for the week at our vacation destination is cloudy and rainy!  We rented a cabin in the mountains to enjoy the outdoors.  We will still spend some time outside.  However, I need your best rainy day ideas for a soon to be 10 yr old son and a 4 yr old daughter.  Thanks!!

[theelfqueen]

Buy them rainsuits and rainboots and get good and wet.

 

[Tap]

Invest in some new games or take games that both can play like Ticket to Ride (4yo can help adult), card games like UNO/Old Maid/Crazy 8s,...where the little one can follow along and help out. Take a couple of older kid games for times when the 4yo will want to do something else.

 

For our little ones, we always took wooden blocks and lots of plastic animals to the cabin.  The plastic animals are fun inside with the blocks (making buildings/farm layouts etc) but are also great for bath time, or playing in the mud.  

 

Corn hole type games can be played inside if you have enough room and are easy to modify for different ages.

 

Download movies to a tablet for night time. If you are used to having streaming, it doesn't always work in the woods.

 

Making formed cookies or other snacks that take a bit of time are a great distraction for kids with more time on thier hands than usual. (put the dry ingredients in zipper bags to make sure you have the right ingredients in the cabin-sometimes you need something like cream of tarter that may not be there). 

 

Bonfire of course.  That also means roasted hot dogs and smores.

 

Take a book for a nightly read aloud. Get an audio book if you don't like to read aloud.

 

Drawing/painting supplies were always brought out at the cabin.  It can be fun to do tree/leaf rubbings if the environment is dry.  Pick a few plants/mushrooms/pieces of bark, seeds, nuts etc and bring inside to do nature study if needed.

 

Take a local field guide to the trails with you and try to find different plants. 

 

On nature hikes....If you kids are interested you can make different challenges for them to capture with a camera. ie "find a pattern in nature that shows circles. Find a pattern that shows parallel  lines. Find a mushroom. Find something red that is surrounded by green. etc"  It can be a good 'cooperative' style game or team up and compete to complete a picture scavenger hunt. Cell phones work great if you are doing two different teams. 

 

ETA: puzzles. we always had puzzles at the cabin.  Take a card table if you don't know if the table there will work.  We had kid puzzles, and usually a 1000 piece one (or 3) for me to do while we were there. A 1000 piece puzzle takes my family about a day or two, but we have quite a bit of practice.  My 9yo can do a 200 piece kid puzzle in an hour or two.

Edited May 16, 2016 by Tap

[Tap]

Buy them rainsuits and rainboots and get good and wet.

We like to take gloves for damp walks. If you don't do that, at least take a small towel and put it in your pocket for when you need to dry  the kids hands.  Cold hands on a wet hike, really take the fun out of it. 

[mamiof5]

I think Tap covered any suggestion I had! Good job Tap! :)

[JFSinIL]

Unless there is thunder and lightening, dress appropriately and get outdoors anyway.  Make an adventure out of it.  You might not enjoy it as much, but the kids can still have a blast if YOU act like it is fun to stomp around in the rain!

Edited May 18, 2016 by JFSinIL

[SparklyUnicorn]

We'd play a lot of games.

 

 

[lynn]

A deck or two of cards. Notebooks crayons, colored pencils etc.

 

We keep a few games in our camper for rainy days. Uno, connect 4, jenga

Edited May 16, 2016 by lynn

[MEmama]

We would go to the nearest towns and check out what was there. I always try to plan for bad weather and have backup plans. There's no way we would spend a week stuck indoors, I'd rather cancel the trip. But it's unlikely to rain the entire time, so if you're in a cabin it's not so different than when you're at home. What do you do there when it rains?

[rocassie]

These are a few inside fun things we've done due to rain:

 

Roll of white or brown (like a paper bag) paper with all sorts of markers, crayons, and colored pencils.  Roll out to across the floor and go to town drawing together or designate sections.

Movies with popcorn and hot chocolate

Board games

Go out, play in the rain, and then have a fun bubble bath

Make play forts/tents using sheets and towels

Baking

Play-doh

Dance party

Have a picnic inside

 

 

[Acorn]

Umbrellas and rain boots

[JRmommy]

Thanks everyone! We leave today and the forecast is 80-100% rain for the next few days. However, we are armed with plenty to do! Rain gear for everyone, board games (a few new ones, too!), books/audio books, blocks/Legos, play doh, art supplies, popcorn maker, movies, etc. We are going to have a blast!

 

Thanks again for your suggestions!

[theelfqueen]

We also like puzzles for those scenarios.

 

[purplejackmama]

I hereby nominate TAP for all future family vacation planning and organizing.

[hornblower]

I hereby nominate TAP for all future family vacation planning and organizing.

I think Tap should just organize my whole life. 

op, I live in PNW. Rain is fine when you're in a cabin. (in a tent however, after a couple days everything is wet and that can start to suck by the end of a week)

 

Depending on how the cabin set up is, I'd consider bringing extra hangers & possibly shoving a spare broomstick in your car so that you can make an extra hanging rod (over the backs of two chair for example). Pack garbage bags & old towels for catching drips below. Try to shake clothing out outside as much as you can before bringing it in. 

 

remember the Finnish schools maxim (where the children go outside for tons of breaks no matter the weather) "There is no bad weather. Only inadequate clothing."

Edited May 18, 2016 by hornblower

[LucyStoner]

Rain gear, water proof gloves. Proceed as otherwise planned. It's unlikely to pour all daylight hours.

 

We live in the PNW so pretty much everything is rain or shine.

 

Buying a few new games might not be a bad idea though. SET, bananagrams, exploding kittens, boggle etc.

 

We are all bookworms here so rain or shine we are going to be reading something, somewhere for some part of the day.