5 Creative, Fun-filled, Rainy Day Activities for Your Toddler

You wake up in the morning, eager to take the kids to the park, only to hear that it's raining outside. As your head starts pounding and your stress level rises, you wonder how you're going to contain your kid's pent up energy until dinner. They're all colored out, all doll-housed out, and all play doughed out. You don't want to plop them down in front of the T.V. all day, but that's all you can think about.

It doesn't have to be that way. Think of a rainy day as a chance to do things you wouldn't ordinarily do. Here are five creative ways to spend a dreary, cloudy day.

1) Build a tent in the living room, carry in some flashlights and tell stories. Kids love to build forts. Take out some blankets and chairs and let them build a little tent house. Grab your flashlights and hang out in the house for a while, telling stories and eating melted marshmallows. Depending on your children's age, they may even want to make up some scary stories.

2) Use the rain as a teaching lesson. Count the seconds between the streaks of lightening and claps of thunder. Capture some of the rain in a bucket. If you have a little chemistry set, let the kids see what makes up rain water. Look at it under the microscope. See how long it takes to fill up one inch of rain in a measuring cup. There's probably a math lesson in there somewhere, too!

3) Pull out a favorite movie, make up a tub of popcorn and watch it together as a family. This works best if your kids hardly watch any T.V. After the movie is over, do something creative connected to that movie. For example: After watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, you could make some homemade candy. Or after watching the Wizard of Oz you could make a story up about what would have happened if Dorothy landed in Narnia instead of Oz.

4) Have a stash of games and toys that you only take out on rainy days. This way the kids won't get bored of the games, and they'll be excited to see them.