Celebrate the rain with your children instead of complaining about it! Here are some rainy-day activities to help you enjoy snuggling up and watching the rain together.

1. Make rain art. Use printer paper so that it won't disintegrate like construction paper. Have the kids use washable markers to make designs, dots, squiggles, or whatever design they choose. Then leave them (the art, not the kids!) out in the rain for a few minutes. Bring the artwork in and you'll find an impressionistic watercolor has emerged, thanks to the rain! Let your art dry thoroughly before handling.

2. Prepare a weather report on video. Put a rain gauge outside (or a cup!) to measure the rainfall in one hour. Play dress-up and dress the kids as the local news meteorologist. Sit at the table and make some charts with the weather and predictions for the week. Then pull out the video camera and make a TV newscast, including rain amounts and other observations and predictions. Watch the video together and have a good laugh!

3. If there is no dangerous lightning or wind, sit on the porch and enjoy listening to the rain and watching it clean the streets and sidewalks. Talk about the good things rain brings, like water and nutrients to the plants and animals and so on! You'll be teaching your kids that it's good to make lemonade out of those lemons!

4. Pull out the board games and play them! We are usually too busy to sit down for an extended game of Monopoly. Take a rainy day as permission to slow down and do something slow like play a board game or simply read together.

Whatever you choose to do, make the rainy day a special day that gives you time together without soccer practice and the many other activities that drive our schedules waiting for us!

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