Stock up on some stuff to do that is Halloween related. Cut spider webs from coffee filters, make spiders and hang up. Cut out ghosts to hang around house. Paint mini pumpkins. We recently made a huge paper tree to put on the wall and collected leaves to hang on it. Halloween gingerbread houses (make a gingerbread house with graham crackers and decorate with candy corn, etc.). My 4.5 year old is already so psyched about Halloween I know he could go days just focusing on that!

Love this thread. Lots of great ideas!

Close the blinds, turn out the lights and play flashlight hide n seek, or a flashlight scavenger hunt. Really, flashlight anything is fun.

We definitely go walking in the rain--that's what rainboots and umbrellas are for!

Dance party!

Decorate mini-pumpkins

Decorate cardboard boxes as various vehicles (spaceship, car, truck, etc.)

If you have a covered space outside, get one of those under-the-bed storage boxes and fill it with play sand. Instant sandbox, with lid.

Kid yoga

Really big easel paper and we do big drawings all together on the floor

Brown paper bag puppets

Paper plate masks

Homemade musical instruments (jingle bells + paper plates = tambourine; coffee canister = drum, etc.)

Sensory box - fill a plastic bin with dried beans. You can provide spoons and cups for scooping/pouring or hide magnetic items in it and use magnetic wands.

Moon sand or kinetic sand is fun too

Obstacle course and indoor races

Shaving cream in the bathtub, like another poster suggested, is another good idea

Painting - buy some poster board and kids chunky brushes/roller brushes and use washable paint.

For the 4.5 year old at least - make Oobleck

If you have any big boxes laying around - make a car or a bus or a spaceship or a barn or whatever else the kids want. They can help color or paint it and play in it.

Sometimes having a few poor weather day toys hiding in a closet somewhere can help save your sanity as well. Go ransack the sale aisles.

Do you have cats? I have been wanting to do this for awhile as a rainy day activity:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2309704/Hilarious-photos-cats-sticking-heads-cardboard-drawings-astronauts-dinosaurs-Super-Mario.html

Or you can take several boxes and make a cat maze...

Corn starch and water mixed together are lots of fun.

Let them do the dishes: two chairs, towel on the floor, non-breakable dishes and a small container of dish soap. This occupies my kids for at least an hour, sometimes 2.

If you have a basket of unmatched socks, offer .25 for each match your kids make.

Tent in the living room. Fill it with pillows and blankets and let them bring their stuffed animals in. Give snacks. This has the added bonus of keeping the mess confined for easy cleanup later.

Get a big roll of butcher paper and unroll it for them to draw/paint/color on.

Epic box fort and let them color/draw/paint on it.

http://happyhooligans.ca/cloud-dough/ My kids inexplicably play with this stuff for HOURS.

I wouldn't do the volcano. Do it once and it's done. Find something that they can do again and again.

http://handsonaswegrow.com/kids-experiment-vinegar-baking-soda/

http://www.instructables.com/id/Milk-Soap-Awesome-Reaction/

Pp here: one more, have them lay on a big piece of paper or cardboard and draw around their body. Then they can decorate and color themselves. Do one of you too and that can be even more fun for them to decorate you

Buy this book: the busy book for preschoolers

Getting in the tub with cars and trucks and having a car wash. Give them sponges. ( I have boys but I'm sure any toy would do)

Puppet show. I do the first one by ducking below the side of a bed, holding up a stuffed animal and talking in a funny voice. They "get" what to do after that and run with it

Horse rides (I'm the horse) and bicycle rides (on your back, feet up attached to their feet) and "narrate" all the places we're going

Hardwood floor sliding. Put socks on and run and see who can slide the farthest

Simon says. You be Simon (in our house the kids don't get how to be Simon yet)

Put them in the bath for a super long time. Put them in their swimsuits a and tell them they are going swimming. Get out toys and bubbles. Put shaving cream in a muffin tin, and use food coloring to make it different colors so they can "paint." My kids can do this for hours.

Anonymous wrote:Making playdough. Also making crazy swirl crayons by melting in muffin tins.

Indoor ball pit (there was a small one for cheap on amazon recently, or you can find a baby pool and DIY)

Magic Sand (either bought or DIY)

And this sounds crazy...but...give it a shot...deep cleaning. Mine love doing the tasks like scrubbing baseboards. Especially if they're 'competing'.

I second cleaning: my 3 year old loves wearing goggles and spraying vinager and using a scrub brush. He also loved helping me replace the toilet seats.

Tent in the living room.

Not terribly out of the ordinary, but we play a version of 20 questions where he guesses which animal I'm thinking of. Also, using a "magic wand" to turn each other into animals (i.e, pretending to be a cow)

Throwing dice and then running around the room that number of times.

Making playdough. Also making crazy swirl crayons by melting in muffin tins.

Indoor ball pit (there was a small one for cheap on amazon recently, or you can find a baby pool and DIY)

Magic Sand (either bought or DIY)

And this sounds crazy...but...give it a shot...deep cleaning. Mine love doing the tasks like scrubbing baseboards. Especially if they're 'competing'.

Naked sticker dance party

If it's just rain, I take the kids out to play in it. Puddle-jumping is fun.

With the major rain (& possible hurricane) coming through over the next few days, I"m looking for inspiration for non run of the mill activities the kids can do together. Forts, basic cooking/baking/ TV, coloring, etc are in the general rotation already so I don't think we'll get as much mileage as we may need out of them.

So, what fun things do you do with your little ones? We have a few days so if I need supplies, that's fine (e.g., I'm thinking of stocking up on vinegar and baking soda and letting them play "volcano")