We had a few rainy days this week. When it is drizzly, we often will still head outside to play in the rain – usually some puddle splashing or bike riding, but when it is quite rainy we generally stay indoors and play indoor rainy day activities (like this ultimate rainy day fun one!) But this past week, the boys thought they would really like to go outside on a very rainy day. A downright pouring rain day. And truthfully, I really didn’t want to. The thought of getting everyone dressed into rain gear, to head outside to get soaked, to then come back inside and put away all the wet clothing was not exactly how I wanted to spend my morning. However, I recognized my choices – stay inside and likely get frustrated with very busy boys, or head outside, make the best of it and hopefully some memories too.
If I was going to go through the effort of getting everyone ready to go outside, I wanted to be sure my little ones would be engaged in an activity enough to stay outside for awhile. This invitation to play in the rain was super simple to set up and let my little ones imagination run wild while we were outside playing in the rain. We definitely made some memories that rainy morning!
To set up this invitation to play in the rain I simply brought out a few pots and pans, some spoons and whisks. I set them under our big tree in the backyard ( I should mention it was only raining, not a thunderstorm) so we would be protected a little bit from the pouring (pouring) rain.
I made sure we were all wearing proper rain gear so we could actually enjoy our time outside. I think this was key to our success. I often will get the little ones properly ready to go outside, but I don’t take the time to get myself ready – this, I will say, very much impairs the joy of playing in the rain. In fact, it pretty much deletes the joy. So once we were ALL properly bundled we went outside to play in the rain.
The boys immediately started scooping puddle water into the pots, cooking up a storm. This invitation made for a wonderful pretend kitchen.
Next, Sam put some of the pots out from under the tree to see how quickly they would fill up with water. He was surprised at how long it was taking for the pots to fill even a little bit – as was I! Apparently it wasn’t raining quite as hard as I thought it was.
We ended up playing outside in the rain for about half an hour or so – which was longer then I was anticipating. The boys had a blast, and then came inside to warm up in the tub, so we brought the pots in there too. Before I knew it our whole rainy day morning had passed without us even leaving the house, or turning on a movie. And, we all really enjoyed ourselves.
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