Rainy Day Activities

March 26, 2014

The rainiest months of the year are here, so here at EnterTRAINment Junction we know you need indoor activities for your kids!

There are PLENTY of indoor attractions in the area that are perfect to take your children, two of our personal favorites aside from EnterTRAINment Junction, are  The Web  (lazer tag AND go carts!) and Cincinnati’s Union Terminal. On top of having amazing history and children’s museums did you know you can visit Tower A for free?  Tower A is the space for Cincinnati’s Railroad club members, but they’ve set up a few play tables, historical memorabilia, and seating for guests, with their huge wall of windows you can look down to the Queensgate Freight Yard, one of the busiest train yards in the country! Any train loving kid (or adult!) would love to experience watching all the locomotives pull hundreds of boxcars a day through the yard!

Don’t feel like leaving your house?

Here are a few of our favorite at home rainy day activities!

Setting up a pretend restaurant with your child can teach them a lot while having fun. You can have them write out their menu to practice spelling, and count up the cost of the food you order.  There are tons of sites for free patterns on how to make your own play food as well.BusyBudgetingMama has a list of super cute and easy felt food tutorials.

If you want to have your own custom play kitchen Spoonful has a step by step cardboard kitchenette your kids can help decorate.

EnterTRAINment Junction loves Melissa and Doug , and they make some of the COOLEST food play sets! Build your own cupcakes with wash off icing markers so you can decorate them again and again. Stir Fry and Pizza kits that give you everything you need to be a chef!

As a kid, I was OBSESSED with fimo clay, I used to spend hours making food for my barbies, while my brother made bats, and big red R’s for Batman and Robin. This is a perfect rainy day craft, you can spread it out over the kitchen table and there’s not much of a mess to clean up after.  Fimo clay is sold at any arts and craft store and after baking following the instructions on the package it’s hardened to use your creation for lots of different things. I used mine for Barbie food, but made into charms the can be used on necklaces, bracelets, cell phone and book bag charms.  Klutz has an all in one kit including sculpting tools, clay, and over 50 ideas and instructions! Here two of my favorite’s I’ve found:

These super awesome super heroes by Jounin

Last but most certainly my FAVORITE indoor activity…

Everyone must remember building blanket forts! (Our Operations manager here at EnterTRAINment Junction just informed me he always called them “Cheese Forts”) You can build these from all kinds of items you have at home already break out the blankets! I’ve found from experience these actually work best with sheets. Tie them from the ceiling and drape over chairs and couches, most importantly FILL WITH PILLOWS! Are you new to fort building? Find tips here.

Don’t forgot the Christmas lights!