Rainy Day Activities

We woke to pouring rain outside and I decided that I didn't want to go far.   We settled in for a quiet day at home and tried to figure out how we'd fill our time.


Ian listened to Harry Potter on his MP3 player for part of the morning while Alec made his own breakfast and then made his bed (he had to put new sheets on it and everything).

We watched a virtual field trip video of an ice cream factory and talked about the similarities and differences with the Ben and Jerry's factory we read about in the book last week.

We started making our own rock candy today-- it takes a week for it to turn into rock candy and I'm really hoping it works or else the boys will be very disappointed!  It was a big nerve racking for me working with a hot sugar solution around my kids but they were awesome.

Our biggest challenge was towards the end; the instructions tell you to suspend the skewer in the glass using a clothespin and not allow it to touch any sides... I could not get ours to stay even using multiple clothespins.  I finally gave up and our skewers are touching the bottom and at this point I'm just hoping for the best; though to be honest I thought we'd see something by afternoon so it's not looking good. 


           
 We ended up with a bonus science lesson thrown in today.  While waiting for the sugar solution to cool down the boys were playing with our clips that have magnets on the back and sticking them to each other.

 Evan excitedly said "mom, look they stick to each otheyer!"  Noticing his excitement and remembering how fun magnets can be I said "why don't you go around the house and see what else they'll stick to."  Next thing I knew all three boys were running from room to room, object to object checking to see what the magnet would stick to, occasionally holding up the object yelling "look it sticks to this!"




 Ian and Evan read books while Alec dictated another blog installment for me to write up for him.

Then the boys made their own lunches and I put on a documentary called Australasia that they watched while eating.   Once again Alec was the one who paid most attention but the other two watched also.

They turned off the TV half way through the second documentary and started playing quietly together.  They made their stuffed animals fall in love, kiss and have babies (lucky bear only had 7 days gestation that really lasted 10 min.)  This was hilarious!  I was leery of letting them know I was listening since it was so neat to hear the conversations.

They read books to the animals and snuggled on the couch with blankets-- self- guided reading!

By 2:00 the afternoon seemed to be really dragging and the boys were getting restless.  I turned to Pinterest and looked for some ideas.  This is what we came up with: Masking tape games! We played hopscotch, target bowling, guard the eggs, balance beam, and long jump.  

Evan quit each game the minute things weren't going his way and I let him.  I figured I could try and force him to play and keep reminding him of good sportsmanship or I could let him miss out on all the fun we were having and let him see how much more fun you can have with good sportsmanship.

They stopped in between the games for snacks or whatever and I left the game boards set up allowing them to play creatively with them as well.  For bowling they made human obstacles, they made up some new rules for the egg guard game (the one in the middle can't touch the eggs just the people), and they tried walking backwards along the balance beam.



Once they were bored with these games (about an hour later) they started building with blocks.

 I love block building as it's one of a few activities that combine math and art.

Yep, I said math and art...  building with blocks takes creativity and forces children to problem solve.  It's architecture in miniature form.

 So once again a day of nothing lead to learning in almost all areas of academics; reading, writing, math, science, and physical education! No one wanted to do any art projects today or else that would've been covered too. 

If you enjoyed this and are looking for more rainy day activity ideas try our 25 Rainy Day Activity Ideas for Boys post.
              

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