This post is a part of a student-written series, 20 Ideas for Travel Bliss. Amy Green is a student at? Taylor University in Upland, Ind. Check out Amy?s personal blog ? Just the Fiction, Ma?am.
On vacation, where toys are left at home and craft supplies might be hard to come by, it can be hard to know what to do when you?re faced with a rainy day. If the weather doesn?t cooperate with your plans to go on a hike or explore the Smoky Mountain trails, here are some fun, simple boredom busters, activities, and games to do with your kids.
Rainy day activities for two can be played with just one child?with some help from Mom or Dad. They can be adapted so others can join in too. Rainy day activities for groups need two players or more.
Rainy Day Activities For Two
1.???? Comics Scavenger Hunt: Get a few pages of comic strips from the daily newspaper. Then have your child try to find different items that you call out (for example, a lamp, question mark, someone with a ponytail, a cloud, the word ?what,? a clock).
?2.???? Birthday Present Game: Pick an interesting character, like ?a mermaid? or ?the President? or ?a very old man.? Then have the player run and find an item she would give this person for their birthday. Set a time limit to make it more challenging. Then have the player present their ?gift? and explain why she chose it.
3.???? Upside Down Picnic: Spread out a blanket and eat on the floor under the dinner table. For extra fun, eat dessert first!
4.???? Phone Book Bingo: Using a phone book, see how quickly your child can find people fitting a particular description. Here are some examples: ?Someone whose first name is over 10 letters long,? ?A person whose initials spell a word,? ?the best name for a villain,? ?a woman with the name of a Disney princess.?
5.???? Stuffed Animal Witness Protection Program: Bring out a stuffed animal and take turns using everyday items to create different ?disguises? for it. You can use prompts, such as ?How could the teddy bear sneak into Santa?s workshop?? or ?What would be the best disguise for a spy travelling to the rainforest?? Vote on your favorite.
6.???? Make-Your-Own Mad Libs: Write a short story, about 7-8 sentences long. Then remove some of the key words. Call out the parts of speech of the missing word (?noun,? ?verb with ?ing,? ?interjection?) and let the other player fill in a new word. Then read the now mixed-up story out loud. If you want an even easier version, check out these pre-made Mad Libs.
7.???? Close-up Match-up: Using a digital camera, take close-up pictures of items around the room. Then call in your child, show him the pictures, and ask him to guess what it shows. If you want, let your child play the part of photographer next.
8.???? Object ID: Wrap everyday household items in newspaper. Pass them around and let your child shake, feel, and otherwise poke around at it without removing the newspaper. Then have her write down a guess for what the object is.?To get some ideas, watch this video and try your luck at figuring out what you?re really seeing.
Rainy Day Activities for Groups
9.???? Penny Hunt: Set several pennies in fairly obvious places around the room. Then close the curtains, turn the lights off, and have a race to see who can find the most loose change. Be careful not to hide the pennies completely out of sight?it?s harder than it sounds! Give each player a flashlight if you?d like.
10.? Wacky Coloring Contest: Divide into partners, and have each pair choose a page from a coloring book, or print out some pages from Crayola?s website. Give them several crayons each. Then tell them that only one of them can touch the crayons, and that person must be blindfolded. Don?t forget to set a time limit. If you?d like, repeat by making players color with their non-dominant hand or with their toes.
11.? Silent Movie Charades: Write down names of popular movies and have the player act it out?but without saying anything. Make sure you pick movies that everyone in the family has seen.
12.? Desert Island Game: Tell everyone to grab 10 random items of different sizes without explaining why. When they return, inform them that each person was trapped on their own desert island with only these 10 items. Give them tasks to complete, like ?make an animal trap,? ?start a fire,? or ?build a raft.? They can only use the items they have?and their creative explanation abilities. This game can also be played in teams.
13.? Four Corners: A caller stands in the middle of the room, eyes closed (or blindfolded). The caller counts to 10 while everyone else sneaks to a corner of the room. Then the caller yells out a number. Anyone in that corner has to complete a silly task invented by the caller, such as imitating an elephant or singing the ?Happy Birthday? song like a country-western star, without laughing, or they?re out. The last one in the game wins!
14.? Misfortune Telling: Fill a hat with small, random items that happen to be lying around. Then, sit in a circle and pass the hat around. Start telling a story about something unfortunate that will happen to your family while driving home from vacation. Each person must pull out an object from the hat and work it into the story.
15.? Rock, Paper, Something: This game is like Rock, Paper, Scissors?except instead of picking one of these three items, you can pick anything that isn?t a person or a weapon. The two players each name their item at the same time. Then they explain why their item could destroy the other person?s item. This can lead to epic battles, such as ?Velcro vs. a jr. high bathroom? and ?A unicorn lamp vs. a bottle of superglue.? Any non-participants are the judges and vote to decide who wins.
16.? Gargle Karaoke: Write down songs that everyone in the family knows. Then tell the player to take a small swallow of water and attempt to gargle the song. Whoever guesses it first gets to be the next to play. This one is good to play in the kitchen in case of dripping.
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Hopefully these simple rainy day activities will be able to keep your kids busy until the weather clears up again. You might even find yourself hoping for an indoor vacation day!
What activities and games are your family?s favorites on a rainy day? Give us your boredom buster ideas in the comments section.
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