Rainy Day? 15 Fun Ideas to Keep the Kids Busy Indoors

Take a closer look at these glittery geodes: they're not rocks at all -- they're eggs! It's an easy science project that will make the kids say, "Wow!"

Keeping a box of costumes and props (anything from old clothes and costume jewelry to Halloween costumes) stocked for impromptu dress-up sessions is a surefire way to keep kids busy for hours on end. 

When rain gets in the way of having fun outdoors, bring outdoor fun... indoors! A hopscotch mat brings the popular sidewalk game into the house, and is a great way to keep kids moving and a bit active without going outside. 

All you need to do is raid your kitchen pantry for the household ingredients needed to whip up your own batch of playtime clay. The rest is in their hands (literally).

Gather up an empty cereal box or two and some assorted papers (patterend or solid) and help kids make cool animal masks that make playing pretend way more exciting.

Playing with your food, encouraged! Whip up some sugar cookies to give kids a canvas for food-coloring artwork that they can (briefly) marvel at, before munching on it. 

That memorabilia piled up from your last family trip? Collect everything -- ticket stubs, photos, small souvenirs, etc. -- and curate them into a small handheld jar. The jar, which kids can decorate, will serve as a sweet souvenir of its own. 

This is a bit of a two-parter: On a day when it's not raining, go on an adventure with your kids and have them pick out different rocks and stones that they like, and tell them that you're going to save the rocks for a rainy day. When that day comes, pull out the rocks, craft paint, glue, and any other supplies, and let kids come up with their own stone creations. 

Round up leftover crafting materials from past projects, like paper scraps and clothespins, and separate the items into different boxes so that each box has a range of supplies. Leave a little note in each box suggesting a different project that can be made with those materials, and then have kids pick a box at random for a surprise craft.

Shake up an afternoon of coloring by having kids make their own fun, multi-colored crayons using bits of old crayons. Use tin pans with fun shapes for a finished product that won't just help kids color in their masterpieces, but that might as well be a masterpiece itself!

Candy? Yes, please! Here, we made them in the shape of flowers, but help the kids experiment with shapes and colors of their own making.

As long as you've got some napkins lying around, you've got all you need (save for some markers or colored pencils) to make a whole zoo of colorful origami animal finger puppets.