Being stuck indoors does not have to be a gloomy situation for families who exercise a little imagination and make an effort for having fun.

On rainy days, it can be tempting to hand children devices and let them fall down a YouTube rabbit hole. After all, there can be a lot of hours to fill when the weather isn’t cooperating with your weekend plans.

There are better ways to spend those rainy days. With a little creativity, rainy days can be opportunities for fun and educational play.

Consider these great ideas from The Genius of Play, an initiative with a mission of raising awareness about the importance of play in order to help parents make it a critical part of raising kids.

• Get messy: Just because you’re indoors, doesn’t mean there isn’t an opportunity for kids to satisfy their primal urge to get their hands dirty. Not only do kids love playing with sensory textures such as paints, slime, sand, play dirt and foam, doing so helps improve fine motor skills. The good news? Many such items are now designed to reduce messiness, stickiness and clean up hassles.
• Play games: Break out some classic board games like checkers and dominoes or grab a deck of cards for a round of crazy eights. Such games teach the importance of taking turns and good sportsmanship and can even help kids learn to strategize and plan ahead.
• Get dramatic: For an afternoon of open-ended playtime, encourage kids to develop their emotional, creative and communication skills by developing their own skit or play. With so many dress-up kits available, it’s easy to maintain a well-stocked costume trunk that kids can use to get inspired. You can also gather up some of their favorite toys to use as props and help bring stories to life.
• Build together: Whether your child prefers following step-by-step instructions or using their imagination, designing, creating and playing with construction toys can build problem-solving, spatial and fine motor skills.
• Design an obstacle course: Rain or no rain, kids have energy to burn. Building a safe obstacle course for kids to complete is a fun way for them to stay active indoors while building core muscles and developing balance. Pick three to five exercises, like pretending to jump like a frog, army crawling under the table or log rolling from one side of the living room to another and then doing five sit-ups. Practice it for 5-10 minutes, then get to work designing a new one!
• Create a mini lab: Play with Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) toys and games. Use a science kit to erupt a volcano or code a robot to guard the bedroom. These important educational experiences can be fun supplements to classroom learning that help set your child up for future success.
• Make cleanup fun: It may not sound like “play” at first glance, but cleanup can be fun with the right attitude. Crank up favorite tunes and have kids dance as they dust, straighten, put toys away, make the bed and help with chores. Or, make a game of it, racing each other to complete tasks.

For more play tips and inspiration, visit www.thegeniusofplay.org.

Be sure rainy days include playtime, which offers many developmental benefits for children to learn key communication, creative, cognitive, social, emotional and physical skills. (StatePoint)