Cool things for kids to do indoors on a rainy day?

Make Some Water Colors and

Paint a Picture

Mix the vinegar and soda together in a little bowl; add the corn starch and glycerin when the soda stops foaming. Stir in the water a little at a time, until your paint seems about the right thickness. This makes about 1/4 cup of stuff. Divide it into three or four little jars (baby food jars are perfect) and add about a drop of food color to each one. We usually make red, yellow, blue and green. Now find some paper, a brush and have fun!

Here's what you'll need for each color

1 tablespoon of vinegar

(either white or cider is OK)

2 tablespoons of baking soda

1 tablespoon of corn starch

1/2 teaspoon Glycerin

1 teaspoon of water

2 drops of food coloring

Blow Some Bubbles

Make Your Own

Here's what you'll need:

1/2 liquid dishwashing detergent

1 cup water

2 drops food coloring

Mix all the stuff together in a jar with a tight cover. Make a bubble wand using some wire, or use a purchased bubble pipe or wand. Store your bubbles at room temperature when you're not using them.

Here's what you'll need:

A grown up person to HELP you.

1/2 cup table salt

(not kosher or sea salt)

1/2 cup hot water

1/2 cup cold water

1/2 cup cornstarch

a few drops of food coloring in 3 or 4 colors

Make Some Play Clay

and

Create Critters

Mix the salt and hot water in a large pan. PLEASE - don't ever use the stove without a grown up to HELP you. OK? So.. ask your helper to bring the salt and water to a boil over high heat. Put the cold water in a small bowl and stir in the cornstarch. Add coloring now, if you want your clay to be red or green or yellow. We usually leave ours white and then paint our little critters with acrylic hobby paints. Now, add the cornstarch mixture to the boiling salt water and stir hard to keep it from lumping up. Continue cooking the clay over low heat until it becomes stiff.

After the cooked clay is stiff, carefully turn it out onto a bread board with a big spoon. Let it cool completely and then knead it until it gets smooth. Now it's ready to use. Or, you can wrap it up tightly in plastic and store it in an air tight container for a few days.

Your clay critters can be preserved by letting them air dry at room temperature for 3 or 4 days, or by baking them in the oven at 200 degrees F for about 2 hours. Remember, you promised not to use the stove without a grown up to help you.

To make Christmas tree decorations, roll out the dough about 1/4 inch thick, then use cookie cutters to make ornament shapes. Use a toothpick to make a hole at the top for a string or ribbon. Bake until dry and decorate any way you want.

Write a Play - then invite some friends over and Act it OUT!

Tear Up Last Week's

Newspaper and

Make Some Papier-Mache`

Here's what you'll need:

1 cup white flour

2/3 cup water

Newspaper strips

(torn about 1 1/2 inches wide)

A hint - newspaper tears best from top to bottom. If you're not getting even strips easily -

turn the paper around and tear from the other direction.

A small disposable container of some sort to use as the base for your project. A little cereal box, an empty plastic milk carton or soda bottle, a strong balloon that's partly inflated

Mix the flour and water in a good sized bowl. It should be about like thick glue when you've mixed it all up. If you want it to be thicker or thinner - add more flour or water a LITTLE bit at a time.

Put down a thick layer of newspaper to work on - so you won't make a mess on the table. Dip a strip of newspaper into the paste, gently pull it through your fingers to take off any extra paste. Now put it smoothly on the base for your project. Repeat with another strip and this time crisscross or overlap the first strip. Repeat again and again, until the base is completely covered in newspaper strips and the whole thing is about 1/4 inch thick. Set it aside to dry thoroughly.

When your project is dry you can decorate it with poster paints or hobby acrylic paints, bits of braid, buttons, lace, ribbon or anything that pleases you.

Make Some Finger Paints

Here's what you'll need:

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup water

3 tablespoons glycerin

a few drops of food coloring in assorted colors

Mix the flour and water in a good sized bowl. Divide the mixture equally into three or four smaller bowls. In each small bowl - stir constantly as you add 1 tablespoon glycerin and a drop or two of food coloring.

Put down a thick layer of newspaper to work on - so you won't make a mess on the table.

Set a dishpan or large bowl of water nearby to rinse off hands between colors. Have fun! Hint: Pictures of the Kid's hand prints are a favorite on the fridge at our house - cause then we can see how big they've grown. One year we even got a white sweat shirt with everyone's hand prints all over it in primary colors of acrylic hobby paint. We still love that one!

Have an indoor picnic! Find a room with a lot of windows, and lay out a blanket. Make little sandwiches and ask the kids what they'd like to do outside if it were sunny. Depending on their age, maybe they'd like to bring their stuffed animals to join in the fun?

Or, give them each a camera and tell them to take pictures of the windows. It makes a pretty cool effect. :)

Watch cartoons or movies. Play a game. Cool crafts. Jump on an indoor trampoline. Learn how to cook a favorite food. Play musical chairs. Play hide-n-seek. Play duck-duck goose. Call a friend or family member on the phone. Play some educational computer games (online or ones you buy out of store). Learn how to do a crossword or word search (word search will teach them how to spell words). Color in a coloring book.

get some bored games and coloring books and crafts that your kids can do. mostly girls but some times guys, if they r little like to play dress up. if they r older they can read a book or do some house work. if they have an instrument they should practice or they could just spend some quality time w/ their family, telling stories, reading a book aloud to the rest of the family. fun stuff that kids enjoy.

Well when i get stuck indoors on a rainy day i usually take twenty minutes and read a good book. What if there rooms a messy i usually make a game of it and turn on some tunes and play the clean up game which is basically singing " Where does this toy go?" and usually they would answer and usually put it away. Also i would play interactive games like crab soccer. That is always fun stuff

Spending time in the kitchen with your children can be creative and delicious! Cooking with parents allows children to learn valuable culinary skills that will last them a lifetime, develop good nutritional habits, channel their creative energies, improve coordination and dexterity through chopping and stirring, and gain a well-earned sense of pride (just watch them beam when they say, "I made it myself!").

Bear in mind that dinner will take longer to prepare with your kids' help. Indeed, the first few cooking sessions together, especially with young children, may involve more effort (and more mess!), so you'll need to add an extra dash of patience and a splash of humor to your cooking experience.

One cool thing to do is plan an indoor picnic. You can let the children participate in baking or they can make their favorite snack, (with adult supervision) watch movies, or choose a craft. Making a picture album, or learn how to knit, crochet, quilting, for girls.These of course are not limited to just the girls, there are many male crafters also. Plan a day at the craft store and decide what would be interesting and fun. It could become something that would grow with the children and perhaps become something they would want to do even if it is not raining.

Hey i'm here for the first time. I found this question and I find the answers truly valuable. I hope to give something back to the community and assist others too.

Get cooking! Baking, in particular is great fun. A banana loaf recipe is easily turned into an hour of activity with kids and you get to eat the results. Try the recipe at www.bananaloafrecipe.co.uk and read the section http://www.bananaloafrecipe.co.uk/bakingBananaLoaf... for tips about baking with kids.

oh there are many things you can do play board games like long ones that take time to play like risk , scrabble,monopoly, etc. you can try puzzles i remember doing those alot when i didn't have a t.v. there a lot fun. color. making cookies there a lot things for them do. go to your local library. i don't know how old your kids are but this should be enjoyable for ages i think. hope this helped!

Cooking somthing fun and watching a movie always works with kids. Allowing them to make a mess to clean up makes them happy.