3.4.09

Rainy Day Activity Box

Last weekend I was needing a unique birthday gift for a little 4yr old that loves crafts. I grew up with a Rainy Day Activity Box that always seemed so special & exciting when I actually got to use it. Ive started one for my daughter but it was fun putting one together for an older child.

My first stop was at the dollar store where I got the box (the big christmas cookie tins are also great and they do double duty for playing with magnets), puzzle, craft items, and some small figurines.

Key is to only bring this out when it's absolutely needed! It'll lose its appeal if it can always be used.



Here are the items I put in it and a few others that I think would be neat to have.

  1. Jigsaw Puzzle

  2. Mini colouring books

  3. Sticker Book

  4. Unique Craft Items & list of ideas for them **since I picked up a package of multi-coloured large popsicle sticks as one of my craft items, I googled project ideas for them. I pasted the pictures on a small page and added it into the box

  5. Items to decorate (ie. wooden box, plaque, claypot, etc.)

  6. Print outs from Internet: Bingo Game, Matching or Memory Game, Mazes **there is such an abundance of free printables on the internet**

  7. Recipes for play activity items like playdough & goop *see separate post for recipes*

  8. Small cars or figurines

  9. List of activity ideas (ie. Finger painting, charades, sink of bubbles, instructions for creating a candy necklace etc.)

  10. Balloons

  11. Magnifying Glass

  12. Pretty much anything that the child enjoys but rarely gets to play with. For my daughter, the added interest is if it doesn't look like it's something she's allowed to play with.

Here's my daughters currently - it'll change & expand as she grows:

The tin was left from christmas cookies, I need to find her some more magnets. Ive got a couple wooden items for her to colour and then give as gifts. There's fingerpuppets, stickers, playdoh, pipecleans, popsicles sticks and ideas of what to use them for. I also have some blank white labels that I figure she could colour and make her own stickers.

Please leave comments with other ideas!

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