Rainy Day Games To Play Outdoors

Rain Artistry: Take a paper plate and sprinkle a few drops of different colors of food coloring on it. Then get into your rain gear and wander around the yard. As the rain hits the plate, swirls of color form. Just like a snowflake, no two plates will ever be the same.

Chalk Painting: Do your kids like drawing on the driveway or sidewalks with chalk? They'll love doing it in the rain too! Drawing on wet cement turns the chalk into a more paint-like form. And if the area they are drawing on is sloped, you get the added fun of watching a rainbow of colors flow off downhill.

Rain Showering: Next time your kids complain about bathtime, have them put on their bathing suits and give them a bit of shampoo. The novelty of taking a shower in the rain is sure to make smiles appear.

Puddle Walk: See who can make it all the way around the house (or the yard) in the least amount of time. But you can only move by jumping from puddle to puddle. If there isn't a puddle in the direction you want to go, you can either wait or choose another route. And of course, if you jump in the puddles hard enough, you may wash them out so the person behind you can't use them!

Rainbow Bubbles: Put a few drops of food dye into different puddles, then add a squirt or two of dish soap. Give your kids a straw or long hollow tube to blow through and watch the bubbles explode up from the puddles.

Count the Frogs: Go someplace that has a pond or stream, then have your kids see how many frogs they can find. You can also catch tadpoles and raise them, see if your kids can figure out what kind of frog they will become by what the tadpole looks like.

Rain Maker: Take a long cardboard tube and cover one end with contact paper or a plastic top like they use on poster tubes (or use an empty Pringles container). Stick toothpicks into the tube at random intervals, glue them in place and put beads on the ends that stick outside to keep them from sticking into your childs fingers. Fill 1/3 of the way with dried beans or peas. Cover the open end like you did the first one and decorate the outside however you wish. Tilt from side to side when done and listen to the rain inside. Now you can have a rain day every day!

Raindrop Race: Have each child pick a raindrop on a window and see which one makes it to the bottom first.

Thunder or Lightning Chairs: Like musical chairs, only instead of using music, pick either thunder or lightning. The children can change chairs until which ever one you picks happens, then the child who has no chair is out, you remove 1 additional chair, and the game begins anew until the next flash of lightning or crash of thunder.

Guess the Bird: If it is only raining lightly, sprinkle some bird seed out in the yard. Then have each child guess what kind of bird they think is most likely to appear. You can do this without the bird seed as well, but the birds tend to stick around longer if they are eating.

Make an Umbrella: Buy plain umbrellas at the store, and some waterproof fabric paints as well as plastic decorations and waterproof glue. Next time you are storm-bound, bring out the supplies and umbrellas and let each child make their own creation.

Mystery Clues: Have a scavenger hunt through your house using hidden clues. Write a riddle on each piece of paper that gives a hint as to where the next one is. Then when the children have found the last one, the last riddle gives them a clue to the prize.