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Rainy-Day Kids Kit: Indoor Fun When Outdoor Play Gets Rained Out
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items When a Texas storm rolls in and the backyard turns to mud, all that outdoor energy has to go somewhere, and it's usually the couch cushions. These are my picks for a rainy-day kit you build once and pull out every time outdoor play gets rained out: i...
Sections
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Burn Off Energy Indoors: Trampolines, Mats & Floor Games
Building Sets & STEM Kits
Rainy-Day Crafts Without the Big Mess
Family Game Shelf & Brain Teasers
Forts, Cozy Corners & Rainy-Day Reading
Burn Off Energy Indoors: Trampolines, Mats & Floor Games
Living-room-safe ways to jump, tumble, balance, and shoot hoops when the yard is a mud pit.
Little kids with nowhere to put their energy will find a way to bounce, usually on your couch or bed. The Little Tikes 3-foot trampoline gives them a dedicated indoor jump spot with a full-length handlebar to hold onto, so they can bounce hard withou...
Little Tikes 3' Trampoline – (Amazon Exclusive)
Kids will do somersaults, cartwheels, and wrestling matches on a rainy day whether you plan for it or not, so give them a landing zone. This mat is a full 2 inches of high-density foam in a 2-by-6-foot strip, with a wipe-clean vinyl cover and hook-an...
BalanceFrom 2'x6'x2" Thick High Density Gym Mat
Running laps around the kitchen island gets old fast, but an obstacle course never does. These 10 stepping stones come in different heights with non-slip rubber bases and textured tops, so kids can hop, balance, and build their own course across the ...
National Geographic 10-Piece Balance Stepping Stones
Every kid already plays 'the floor is lava,' so this just gives the game rules, a spinner, and a reason to keep going. It comes with 25 cushioned, slip-resistant foam stones and 27 challenge cards for 2 to 6 players, so siblings and parents can all g...
Goliath The Floor is Lava! Game - Classic
Some rainy-day games keep kids sitting; Twister gets the whole family moving and laughing at the same time. Spin, stretch, and try not to collapse on the classic dot mat, with team rules and tournament tips included so it works for a crowd of cousins...
Hasbro Twister Party Classic Board Game
A rainy afternoon goes a lot better when kids can shoot hoops without leaving the hallway. The SKLZ Pro Mini hangs over any door with foam-padded mounts, and it has an 18-by-12-inch shatter-proof backboard, a steel spring-action rim, and an indoor-sa...
SKLZ Pro Mini Indoor Basketball Hoop with Ball
Building Sets & STEM Kits
Bricks, magnet tiles, gears, a marble run, and science kits that keep kids building for hours instead of minutes.
When kids are stuck inside, open-ended building beats a one-and-done kit every time. This box has 790 bricks in 33 colors, plus windows, doors, tires, and two baseplates, so kids can build houses, cars, and anything else they dream up, then tear it d...
LEGO Classic Large Creative Brick Box 10698
Magnet tiles are the toy kids play with long after the trendy stuff is forgotten, because they snap together fast and fall down with a satisfying crash. This 100-piece set builds towers, garages, rocket ships, and marble ramps, and the clear colored ...
PicassoTiles 100 Piece Clear Magnetic Tiles
Little builders love making things move, and this 100-piece gear set is how they figure out cause and effect without a single screen. Kids snap colorful gears, cranks, and connectors onto the base plates, turn one handle, and watch the whole machine ...
Learning Resources Gears Deluxe Building Set
A marble run is engineering kids don't realize they're doing: build it, test it, watch it fail, then fix it. This set has 5 bases, 15 action pieces, 45 clear track pieces, and 15 glow-in-the-dark marbles, so it's just as fun with the lights off on a ...
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Glowing Marble Run Set
Older kids get bored with blocks, and this is the kit that hooks them on how things actually work. Snap Circuits Jr. uses 29 color-coded parts that snap onto a grid with no soldering or tools, and the illustrated book walks through more than 100 proj...
SNAP CIRCUITS Jr. SC-100 STEM Kit, 100+ Projects
A good rainy-day project is one kids get to come back to, and growing crystals takes three to four days of checking in. This kit grows six colors of crystals, including one that glows in the dark, with two silicone growing chambers and a USB light-up...
National Geographic Mega Crystal Growing Kit for Kids
Science experiments are a great rainy-day plan until you realize you don't have half the stuff. This kit packs 100+ experiments and tricks that look like magic but run on real chemistry and physics, so kids get a show to put on for the family and lea...
National Geographic Science Magic Kit, 100+ Experiments
Rainy-Day Crafts Without the Big Mess
Art supplies and hands-on crafts for toddlers through big kids, picked for easy cleanup.
Half the battle on a craft afternoon is finding crayons that aren't broken and markers that aren't dry. This case puts 64 crayons, 40 washable markers, 20 colored pencils, and drawing paper in one latched carrying case with a handle, so everything li...
Crayola Inspiration Art Case 140pc Space Kit
When it's too wet for the sandbox, Kinetic Sand brings it inside without the mess of real sand. It sticks to itself instead of to the floor, molds like wet beach sand, and never dries out, so the same 2-pound bag lasts for months. Dump it in a plasti...
Kinetic Sand 2lb Brown Moldable Play Sand
Toddlers want to color like their big siblings, but regular markers end up on the walls, the couch, and their faces. Color Wonder markers only show up on the special Color Wonder paper, so there's nothing to scrub off afterward. This set includes 24 ...
Crayola Color Wonder Toddler Mess Free Set
Kids who 'can't draw' are amazed by what comes out of a Spirograph, and it holds their attention much longer than a coloring book. The Deluxe set comes in a carrying case with a built-in drawing surface, plus gears, pens, paper, and putty to hold the...
Spirograph Deluxe Kids Arts & Crafts Kit
Fuse beads are the quiet, focused craft that can fill an entire rainy afternoon, and kids love having something to keep when they're done. This kit has 23,000 beads in 22 colors, 4 pegboards, 4 tweezers, ironing paper, and a pattern booklet, so you'r...
23000 5mm Fuse Beads Kit - 22 Colors
Family Game Shelf & Brain Teasers
Board games, card games, and solo puzzles for ages 4 to 10 that adults actually enjoy playing too.
Most board games are either too hard for a 4-year-old or too boring for everyone else; Zingo hits the middle. It's a fast picture-and-word bingo game, and the slide-out Zinger dispenser is half the fun for little hands. Rounds are quick, it builds ea...
ThinkFun Zingo Bingo Preschool Game Age 4+
A rainy afternoon is the perfect time to teach kids a real family board game, and Sorry! is the classic that still works. Draw a card, race your pawns home, and enjoy a little 'sweet revenge' by bumping everyone else back to start. It's the #1 board ...
Sorry! Board Game for Kids 6+ by Hasbro
Every house needs one card game that everybody already knows, and UNO is it. It plays 2 to 10 people, so it works for the whole family or a rainy-day playdate, and this deck adds blank wild cards for your own house rules plus color-blind-friendly sym...
Mattel Games UNO Card Game, Ages 7+, 2-10 Players
Once kids outgrow the classics, Sushi Go is the step up into 'real' strategy games without a 40-minute rulebook. Everyone picks a card and passes the rest, collecting the best sushi combos over three quick rounds, and a game takes about 15 minutes. T...
Gamewright Sushi Go Card Game, 2-5 Players, 15 Min
When one kid needs quiet time away from the group, Kanoodle is the solo game that actually holds their attention. It packs 228 puzzle challenges, in both flat and 3D pyramid builds, from beginner to expert into a case the size of a phone. Kids follow...
Educational Insights Kanoodle
Rush Hour turns a traffic jam into a puzzle kids want to solve: slide the cars and trucks out of the way to get the red car out. It comes with 40 challenge cards from beginner to expert, with solutions on the back, and the pieces store in the include...
ThinkFun Rush Hour
Forts, Cozy Corners & Rainy-Day Reading
A fort that goes up in seconds, a reading light, and the books that turn quiet time into the best part of the day.
Blanket forts are a rainy-day tradition, until they collapse every five minutes and you need every sheet in the house. AirFort uses any standard box fan to inflate a 77-by-50-inch fort in under 30 seconds, with a viewing window and no floor so kids c...
AirFort Inflatable Kids Fort, Starry Night
Every good fort needs a reading light, and this one clips to a book, a fort wall, or a headboard. It's USB rechargeable with a battery that lasts up to 32 hours on low, and it has 9 brightness and color modes, including a warm setting that's easy on ...
VAVOFO Clip On Book Light 7 LED 9-Level
A rainy day is the perfect excuse to start a chapter-book series, and Magic Tree House is the one that turns kids into readers. Jack and Annie travel through time to dinosaurs, castles, Egypt, and pirate ships, with short chapters that are perfect fo...
Magic Tree House Boxed Set Books 1-4
If you have a kid who 'doesn't like reading,' Dog Man is the series most likely to change their mind. Dav Pilkey's graphic novels are silly, fast, and packed with comics, so reluctant readers race through them and ask for the next one. This box set h...
Dog Man: The Epic Collection (Dog Man #1-3)
Kids stuck indoors ask a hundred questions an hour, and this book has answers to more than 1,111 of them. It covers animals, the human body, space, weather, and why rain happens in the first place, all with National Geographic photos and short, easy-...
National Geographic Kids Why? 1,111 Answers