Playin’ in the Rain
It rained a lot last week.. A LOT. In a former life, I would have been irritated by this. I would have worried that my kiddos would be cooped up and stir crazy, and that we would be bored after days stuck inside.
But over the past several years, I have experienced a real shift in mindset. In the spirit of “fake it ‘til you make it,” I have tried really hard to speak positivity into rainy days. I say things like “The trees will be so happy today!” and, “It will be lovely to feel cozy inside today.” and, “Rain won’t hurt us! Let’s go out anyway.” I have said those things so many times that I have actually started to believe them.
Part of this mindset shift is that I have revised my opinion rather dramatically regarding what there is to do on rainy days. We don’t stay inside all the time. If there’s no thunder or lightning and it’s not hurling freezing rain, there’s no real reason to stay inside. I have begun to try very hard not to respond with, “No - it’s raining” when they ask to go outside.
Watering the plants in the rain, like you do.
Part of this mindset shift is also that I have (characteristically) done the research on playing in the rain, and it is overwhelmingly supported. To be fair, there is very little actual high-quality, peer reviewed research regarding children playing in rain. However, everything I could find supports it for a variety of reasons (particularly pertaining to our specific child development goals) and nothing I have found indicates any risk.
Playing in rainy weather DOES create excellent opportunities for mindfulness, which is the act of being present in a given moment and making oneself aware of all the experiences in that moment. Mindfulness can decrease anxiety, increase focus, and improve the ability to relate to oneself and others with increased empathy.
Playing in the rain also provides different sensory stimulation, which is beneficial for the brain and helps to create new neural connections. It feels different, smells different, and sounds different, which makes it such a high-interest activity for little developing brains. Honestly it’s a great activity for grown-up brains too; we’ve just conditioned ourselves to associate it with misery. Ha. Like I said, I’m working to change that mindset.
Other benefits of playing in the rain are the difference in and variety of gross motor challenges. Surfaces are slippery, puddles create resistance…there are so many ways in which rain changes children’s play outside, and it’s all for the better!
If you’re not into changing soaking wet, muddy outfits, consider a rain suit! There are some amazing options out there - I hear amazing things about the Oaki rainsuit, and it gets excellent reviews! I’ve also heard they last longer in terms of size - they grow with your child for a couple of years. We went with the more budget-friendly and only slightly less durable Tuffo brand. I highly recommend a rainsuit over a rain coat - the one piece rainsuit options really do a great job keeping your kiddos dry when combined with rain boots. If you’ve never heard the phrase “There is no bad weather, only bad clothing.”, it’s basically true.
Spy that rainsuit back there on Mr. Middle, who has a suspicious amount of mud on his face.
We have even enjoyed camping in the rain, which is not something I would ever have thought possible. The camping magic that weekend was strong.
I will freely admit though that this is a privilege. Having the means to afford rainsuits - a privilege. Having plenty of extra clothing to change into after your kid continuously gets wet or muddy - a privilege. Living somewhere where it’s safe to toss your kids outside while you watch from the window (Who would ever do such a thing?! Me. It’s me.) is a big-time privilege. If you can’t make that happen, don’t sweat it. Consider some of these other options that are possible in very light rain or after the rain has ended, which might eliminate some of those privileged necessities.
My kids have recently become obsessed with combining sidewalk chalk and water. They dip chalk in puddles and color with it, and it becomes so much more vibrant and vivid! They make chalk “paint” by adding water. They turn it into chalk watercolor. They have experimented with this in so many ways. Last weekend, Big Girl (age 6) and Mr. Middle (age 2) spent two entire hours outside in a light, drizzly rain…drawing with chalk in the driveway! When they finally came in, they were cold and wet and dirty…and calm. They were full of fresh air, and they had played together so peacefully and collaboratively. Nature had worked its magic, right there in the driveway. A change of clothes and quick snuggle in a blanket and they were good to go.
Yes, Mr. Middle is playing in the rain in his jammies. It is what it is.
Another VERY well-loved rain activity here is puddle-jumping! I quit trying to stop Big Girl from stomping in every puddle we encountered very early on. She was basically training me to be what I am now…the outdoors-loving, laid-back, child-led parent and teacher I’ve become. There’s a lot of learning that can come from jumping in puddles. Children are experimenting and making observations about liquids and about velocity and about physics. And what’s a little rainwater or mud, in the grand scheme of things? It’s worth the laundry.
puddle stomping!
Speaking of being worth the laundry, mud play is probably my all-time favorite rain-related outdoor activity. This is another one that I might have balked at, except that Big Girl’s early love of all things muddy caused me to (you guessed it) do some research. And holy moly, does the research ever support mud play! The sensory benefits are immense. Hop over to the Sensory section of the research page if you’d like to learn more. Suffice to say, mud is good for everyone. There’s a reason children are drawn to it. Try to squash your inner adult that wants them to stay clean and either create or allow opportunities for them to go wild with mud. My kids enjoy painting with mud, jumping into or squishing feet into mud, throwing it at one another, building with it…if it can be done with mud, they will do it. And I will enjoy sitting back and watching. Truly, it’s a lot of fun to observe. (Yes, I draw the line at having mud thrown at me.)
Umbrella walks are another great way to enjoy the rain and not get *too* wet. It’s really fun for my kids to hear the rain on their umbrellas, and honestly, umbrellas are one of their favorite toys-that-aren’t-toys anyway, in all types of weather. You wouldn’t believe how many uses they have for umbrellas. So don’t just use those umbrellas to get from one indoor location to another - use them to get out there and explore!
Another toy that can be a lot of fun in the rain or after the rain is the sliding board. This can also be a great physics lesson in friction. Just be prepared for them to go really fast and hit pretty hard at the bottom!
Another idea for making a rainy day a fun, novel experience is to take the bath toys outside. They’re meant for water already and can be so much fun when the water is coming straight down!
Now admittedly, our outdoor play on rainy days is typically not as lengthy as our outdoor play on gorgeous, sunny, perfect-temperature days. I also try to make our time spent indoors on rainy days sort of special and cozy. We bake things, we snuggle and read (that part is no different than a usual day, but somehow it hits differently when you’re hearing rain hitting windows), we have dance parties, or we drink tea. I make a big deal out of how excited I am for some rainy-day reading. We get the coziest blankets we can find, and we set ourselves up with a big pile of books; I try to model my love of reading on a rainy afternoon. This one isn’t a fake-it-’til-you-make-it at all…I genuinely adore this activity.
Baking is another great rainy day project, and also there are a lot of math and science conversations to be had while baking! I actually love baking with young children. Is it a mess? Yep. Does it take longer? For sure. But is it a lot of fun, and does it make for some great memories? YES. It’s worth the mess. I just go into it with the mindset (see? There’s that idea of mindset again!) that it’s going to be a gigantic mess. And then I’m not horrified when it’s a gigantic mess, and I’m pleasantly surprised when it’s not.
There’s a book called Thunder Cake, by Patricia Polacco, that lends itself so well to stormy days. Not just rain, but specifically thunderstorms …the child in the book starts out feeling afraid of the thunder and the (brilliant) grandmother walks her through the process of making thunder cake as they wait for the storm to hit. You can make thunder cake, too, with the recipe from the book! Seriously, read the book! Anything by Patricia Polacco is wonderful, and this might just be my favorite of hers.
After you bake, then you can eat what you baked while snuggling and reading! So go outside in the rain (or let your kids do so if you really can’t bear it). Get wet, get muddy, slide around…and then come inside and dry off, bake something not healthy at all, make a giant floor bed, and read as many books as they bring you. Rainy days can be amazing if you let them…even when it feels like a million rainy days in a row.
What do you like to do on rainy days? Give me all your best outdoor and indoor activities and things you enjoy! Or give me a new recipe to bake. :)