When you live in the UK and have kids, you’ll unfortunately often be faced with the question of how to entertain them on a rainy day. However, when on holiday in England, or the rest of Great Britain, you are away from your usual fall back options, so how best do you amuse your offspring when you had planned on going to the beach every day and building sandcastles as your sole form of entertainment?
Our rainy day survival guide is here to help. Read on to discover our top ten ideas for what to do when the heavens have opened enforcing a day indoors.
Face it head on!
By simply accepting that it is raining and not getting too demoralised that your best laid holiday plans have been scuppered, you’ll already be far better prepared to deal with kids that may suffer from cabin fever all too easily. Plus, if the temperature is still mild, just embrace the wet and try the beach anyway! Your kids were going to get soggy there in any case so it will do them no harm to swim in the rain. Just pack lots of dry towels in the car and warm changes of clothes for the drive home.
Story Book
A really nice idea to get kids and adults playing together is to maintain a holiday story book. Part diary, part scrapbook, part photo album, storybooks are the perfect way to entertain kids inside on a wet day. Plus its uses their brains so they use up their energy in other ways than just physical exhaustion. And, at the end of your days away, you have a fabulous momento of your break together.
Museums
Parents may often spurn the idea of museums as a source of entertainment for their children, but often this is unfounded. While kids may not immediately know how to engage with the more educational form of activity, if parents do their best to get involved with exhibits and teach children in a way that is accessible to them, you’ll be surprised at how much they enjoy a trip to museum.
Make Playdough
Playdough is maybe not something that parents think to pack for a staycation and nor do they need to. It can actually be made very simply with just a few everyday ingredients that most kitchens will have. This is great as the act of making playdough is a fun activity in itself that gets children excited about play. By adding fun ingredients like food colouring or glitter, their senses will be ignited for an afternoon of play indoors while the skies clear outside.
Learn A Skill
Staying indoors on holiday may encourage some pent up energy, but a good place to channel that energy, especially with older kids, is to teach them a new skill. Photography is a great one for holiday as it will more commonly be used while you are still away, and it’s easy to practise indoors. Painting is another obvious one or even crafting out of everyday items to get children using their imagination.
Indoor Treasure Hunt
Children love a treasure hunt and they are ideal for a rainy day keeping everyone inside. How to set up the hunt in terms of how children win, or if they need an adult helping them will be best determined by parents, but they can provide hours of entertainment as they can be set up easily and changed quickly too to adapt to the environment you are staying in.
Rainy Day Crate
If you are going on a staycation in the UK, it’s a good idea to pack a rainy day crate if your car size permits. Fill it with items that your children won’t have seen before or only get to play with when it is raining outside. This way, parents manage to stave off boredom and cooped up irritable children as they play with what feel like treat toys or at least a whole host of new activities and games they have not seen before.
Cooking
Cooking and baking is a fantastic idea on a rainy day. Not only does it keep little fingers out of trouble, as well as learning or enhancing a skill, it also gets them interested in food through the act of preparing it. Getting tots in the kitchen gets them excited about eating and mealtimes as children are always proud of what they have helped make. This is a brilliant option for parents with fussy eaters who struggle to maintain concentration throughout a meal.
Plan and Have A Tea Party!
As an extension of cooking, a good option for a rainy day activity is to plan and have a tea party with your children. Not only does this get them involved again with making their own food but it also triggers creativity if they want to decorate the room or table in preparation. Plus, if you are staying in the UK, the ingredients for a tea party will be available in every corner shop and supermarket so it’s an easily accessible activity on a wet Summer’s day.
Go to the cinema
Parents often spurn the idea of putting their children in front of the TV as a form of entertainment, but going to the cinema should not be outright rejected. The sheer act of going to the cinema will be exciting for your children while you get to lap up the rewards of the magic enchantment that a huge screen with moving images has on children. Sit back, relax and enjoy whatever Pixar has released that Summer.
Rainy days need not be something to be frightened of therefore – especially when on holiday. Holidays are times for relaxing and spending time together as a family. Sometimes, by being stuck indoors, we’re forced to have quality time with one another that will be just as memorable as a trip to the beach holding yet another a sandcastle competition. Look at rainy days as opportunities as opposed to obstacles and you’re most of the way there to having your best family holiday yet.