Rainy Day activities

Spring rain seems to have hit a bit later than normal around here. We have had a number of rainy days this June and have kept busy doing a lot of watercolor painting, coloring with pencils, crayons and markers and plenty of block/lego/magnatile building. In addition, we have done some sensory play with "water beads." They are tiny beads that grow when placed in water (usually used for house plants). Great sensory experience! We dumped a tablespoon or so of the beads into a half gallon mason jar and then filled the jar with water. Nora had a blast sticking her hand in and stirring it around as the beads expanded.

 

 Once the beads had expanded, we dumped them into the sensory bin. Both kids enjoyed feeling the beads with their hands.

I picked up some foam sheets at the Christmas Tree Shop (or maybe it was Dollar Tree?). In a pinch one afternoon, I cut some stems and leaf/petal shaped pieces and let the kids dip the foam in water and stick them onto the window. It ended up keeping them busy for a lot longer than I was expecting!

 Nora decided to make a bunny with the foam pieces. I, at least, am impressed!

 

 Another quick activity I pulled out was some pipe cleaners and our pasta strainer. Nora and Beth enjoyed putting the pipe cleaners in, folding them around and making a "web" on the inside. Nora then discovered that she enjoyed pulling the pipe cleaners all the way through which brought us to another quick activity...

 sewing! I put some yarn on a big needle and handed Nora a piece of plastic mesh (Andy brought it home from work). She had fun sewing "airplanes" for a long time! And, once she was done, I was able to pull out the yarn and put the mesh away for another day!