When it is pouring outside and the kids are bouncing off the walls, ideas run dry quickly. This rainy day activities wheel holds indoor games and crafts that use things most homes already have, like blankets, paper, plastic bottles and a deck of cards. Spin to choose the next one, and spin again when interest fades.
When to use it
School holidays and snow days, when children are home all day, are easier to manage with a wheel that suggests the next thing to do.
Babysitters and grandparents can keep the wheel on a phone for a ready supply of indoor ideas that need no preparation.
Daycare and after-school staff can use it during indoor recess, when the playground is closed.
Ideas
- A morning craft session followed by an afternoon game, with one spin for each part of the day.
- A cozy reading corner inside the blanket fort with stories read aloud by an older sibling.
- An indoor olympics where every event, from bottle bowling to the card tower challenge, is chosen by the wheel.
Variations
- For toddlers, remove slime and science experiments and keep simple ideas like freeze dance and building blocks.
- Roll the dice to decide how many minutes of tidy-up happens before the next spin.
- Switch to no-repeats mode on a long day so the same idea does not come up twice before lunch.
Tips
- Keep a small rainy day box with paper, tape, markers, string and empty bottles so most activities can start right away.
- Supervise young children with small craft supplies and anything involving the kitchen.
- Clear a space before active games like freeze dance and indoor bowling, and move anything breakable.
- Let the children press Space in full screen mode to spin, and they will happily take turns.
- Save your favorite list on the device so the same wheel is ready the next time the clouds roll in.
Make it yours
Change any entry, weight or color above, or open a copy of this wheel to edit and share as your own. This page always keeps its original entries.