Rainy Day Activities to Do With Your Baby & Toddler

Spring is one of the most beautiful seasons, bringing the world to life with color, birdsong, and warmer weather. But, this transition from cold to warm temperatures is also the reason that it rains so much in springtime. While April showers do indeed bring May flowers, rainy days mean more time cooped up in the house, which makes taking care of a baby and a toddler all that more difficult. When you have little ones who have energy to burn, but it’s too wet and cold to go outside, it’s time to get creative with the indoor activities! Here are some fun things you can do to pass the time until the sun is out again:

Build a fort

You’d be hard pressed to find a person who didn’t love building a fort as a child. Building forts is a special part of childhood that spans generations and cultures, giving children all over the world a sense of control over their environment. It allows them to use their imagination and creativity to create a safe place–a bubble of coziness to call their own. Plus, building a fort is fun. 

Take advantage of the indoor time and gather all the materials your little ones need to make an epic hideout. A play mat makes a comfortable floor, while the couch, chairs, blankets, and pillows are perfect for creating the rest. You can assist your kids in the building, but leave much of the design up to them! When your fort is completed, your kids can hang out inside and play–which may even allow you to get a few minutes of rest!

Make an obstacle course

An obstacle course isn’t just super fun for your littles, it’s a great way to challenge their gross motor skills! It encourages a wide range of movement and is also an opportunity for you to help build their language skills by using directions with words like “up,” “down,” “over,” etc. Depending on the age of your little ones, set up a simple or more complicated course in your living room or playroom, using play props like play cubes, a bean bag, a support pillow, a play mat, a Pikler triangle, and slide. 

Your crawling baby can practice their coordination and balance by crawling over our support pillow (which is the perfect size to challenge their little body) and through a play tunnel. You can challenge your toddler by having them walk on play cubes to maintain their balance, then climb up and over a Pikler triangle (with a play mat to catch tumbles), then down a slide, and jump off the couch onto a bean bag for a soft landing! You can get creative with the variations and enlist your kids to help come up with a fun and challenging course.

Make sensory bags

Sensory bags provide endless entertainment for kids of all ages, but are especially perfect for babies who can’t be trusted to not put small, loose items in their mouth during regular sensory bin play. Making a sensory bag is simple! Gather tactile materials around your house (trust us, you have more than you know!) like dry beans, pumpkin seeds, shampoo, conditioner, shaving cream, glue, hair gel, etc., then mix them up into a resealable Ziploc bag. Reinforce the seal with some duct tape, and let your little ones explore the textures through the plastic!

Have a picnic

You’d never picnic outside when it’s wet and raining, but having an indoor picnic can be just as fun (dare we say even more fun without the bugs and pollen?). One of the best things about kids is that they’re up for anything, and also get excited over the smallest things. Tell them that you’re doing family mealtime on the floor, and they’ll act as though you just told them you’re all headed to Disney World. 

Lay a picnic blanket in the living room (ours is water-repellent for mess-free fun), put everyone’s drinks in spill-proof cups, and make a spread of easy-to-eat finger foods, and let them go wild. Your kids have probably eaten in the living room a hundred times, but just turning it into an indoor picnic will feel so fun and new to them. Before long, those rainy day blues will be replaced with the sounds of excited laughter from your little ones.