10 Rainy Day Activities

If it's your co-op day and you're faced with a group of pent-up kids and nothing to do, use one of these ten ideas to rejuvenate everyone's spirits.

• Make a fort in your living room with kitchen chairs and blankets. Read a story in the fort by the light of a flashlight.
• Have a contest to see who can make the tallest tower out of paper cups.
• Set up an obstacle course using chairs, pillows, jump ropes, and empty cardboard boxes.
• Make collages out of old magazine pictures.
• Write letters to grandparents, neighbors, teachers, or parents.
• Have a tea party.
• Gather all the stuffed animals in the house and play "animal hospital."
• Have a talent show. Encourage each child to display one of their talents: somersaults, singing, dance moves, telling jokes, etc.
• Balloon volleyball. String a jump rope between two chairs, divide the kids into two groups, and challenge them to not let the balloon fall on their side of the "net."
• Board games. Pull out Chutes and Ladders, Candy Land, and Connect Four. Try to pair up amiable groups of children to avoid rainy day disputes.