Along with the cooler weather, October sometimes brings rainy days, and rainy days can bring on the "I'm bored" whines in the best of kids. Here are some ways to entertain your little people on rainy autumn days.

Apple printing takes advantage of the availability of one of the fruits of the season, and gives your budding Picasso a chance to be creative. The directions at Kids Domain are easy to follow, and by the end of the afternoon, you could have some new masterpieces to display in your family art gallery.

DLTK-Kids has a multitude of craft ideas and coloring pages, puzzles, and even a song to liven up a rainy autumn afternoon. The ideas each give an approximate age range, so you should have no problem finding something for your little one.

If you'd like to do something a little more educational, perhaps with older kids, give them some detective work to do. Tell them to find out for you why leaves change colors in the fall, and then set them loose in the library or on the computer to find the answer. (Just so you can check them on it once they have reported back, you can find the explanation at science made simple.)

You might also give them an opportunity to plan ahead. Rainy October afternoons are a great time to make up a Christmas list, not of the gifts they'd like to receive, but of the gifts they'd like to give. But why stop at practical gifts? Let their imaginations run wild and give them an unlimited budget or unlimited super powers for the afternoon and see what they can come up with as the perfect gift for each family member. You might be surprised at what they choose!

If you are feeling especially adventurous, why not invite the kids to join you in the kitchen for some cooking? Order a copy of Kids Cook! now, and you may end up looking forward to rainy days when the kids do the cooking.

Finally, you can challenge them to come up with a list of things to do on a rainy day. By the time they come up with a suitably long list, the rain will have stopped, and the whines will have too!


~Dini HJ is a home schooling mom to four children under 10. She lives with her husband of 10 years in Pennsylvania, where October can be quite rainy.