A Bakers Dozen of Rainy-Day Boredom-Busters

Do spring-time showers have your little ones bursting at the seams with cabin fever? Here are a few ideas to occupy your spirited bunch during these soggy spring days.

Winter blues, seasonal affective disorder, cabin fever, whatever you wanna call it, we had it, and we had it bad. It's been a long winter and my girls have been so excited for the warmer weather to arrive. The birds are singing the squirrels are scampering and the bunny rabbits are frequenting the backyard again, YAY, it's finally spring!

Except along with the glorious rise in temperature, comes the rain. They say that 'April showers bring May flowers,' but my flooded basement may take exception to the term 'shower'. The kids have seen the light only to be thrust back indoors, so to maintain a baseline of sanity in my house I have had to keep the kids distracted. Here are a few ways to keep your little whipper-snappers busy so they won't drive you or each other crazy!

1. Board Games. BOO, LAME, She started with SUCH a CLICHE. But I love anything old-school; movies, food and GAMES and I will always be an advocate for showing some love to the classics. We've all been there; a rainy day at the cottage, drinks, snacks and a stack of board games. Board games are more than just a dusty box in the basement that you pull out on bad weather days. Albeit not all board games are created equal, but many Board games are perfect teaching tools for kids! They help with manual dexterity, teach younger kids about shapes and colors, they can help to develop social skills and in some, the concept of team work and fair play is introduced. Are your kids older? Board games work logic, math and critical thinking skills. A good game of Monopoly is a great way to teach financial principles. A rousing game of scrabble can teach your children new words and reinforce verbal skills. Don't let anyone convince you these classics are old fashioned! Let's raise a new generation of rainy day Yahtzee players!!

2. Build a Fort. Kids are always up to make a clubhouse and since their little imaginations work so quickly, I doubt you'll have to suggest it let alone provide supplies before they are 10 steps ahead of you. There are pop-up tents that take little to no effort and they even make fancy-schmancy fort-building kits now. Kids can make a fort from anything, they are very creative. At the end of the day, never underestimate the power that couch cushions, some dining room chairs and a HUGE blanket can have on a group of little kids. Add some flashlights, a back pack with a few snacks and all of a sudden you're on a camping trip and you haven't had to brave any rain-storms to do it.

3. Arts and Crafts seems like a silly and obvious addition to this list, but this will always be a trusted go-to when you can't send your kids outside. My oldest daughter loves to create things and she has sat happily for hours making a beautiful piece of art for the fridge. Rainy days are perfect creation days. I have a craft bin that I open up and let the kids create on the dining room table, using any and all things they can find. It may be a messy venture at the end of the day, but you'll have happy kids.

4. Put on a performance! Encourage your kids to create their own skit or talent show. Some of the funniest family stories we have are about the little plays we would put on for our parents. We would dress up and organize elaborate skits, with full costumes and sets (the "costumes" were from Halloween and the "set" was the basement floor and a old bed-sheet for a curtain), we even had our very own "MGM Lion" to roar before our performance started, courtesy of my older brother in a yellow punk rocker wig. We planned and rehearsed for hours and my mother would dutifully come down and watch when we were ready and rave that it was the best play she had seen all day! Kids blossom when given creative control of a project, so make sure to grab your camera, you might be surprised with what they come up with!

5. An oldie but a goodie, Hide and Seek is every kids go-to game during rainy days inside. I'm always surprised at the ingenuity of kids when they are hiding and seeking. They consistently surprise me with new and inventive places to stuff themselves. Hide and seek is great, it's a thinking game that encourages your child to think fast and make quick decisions and the plus side is it is relatively quiet, for the most part and can occupy a lot of time during days stuck inside.

6. Don't want to stay at home? Indoor playgrounds are becoming very popular in urban areas.

Your kids can climb, tumble, slide and exhaust themselves to their little hearts content. Best of all it keeps your house from becoming a rainy day battle ground. Times and cost vary of course but where I live, for about $10 per child you can have unlimited access all day to the indoor play yard.

Feeling a little frugal or maybe you have a bunch of kids and don't want to shell out a bunch of money? I am not above buying a few drinks at my local Burger King and letting my kids play in their indoor play area for a 1/2 hour or so. Don't want to spend ANY money? Call up your local Community Center, chances are they have a drop in play program (especially for younger kids), that you can usually access for free!

7. Go to the Library! I LOVED visiting the library when I was little and I'm trying to instill a love of books in my girls! Libraries today have so many wonderful resources available to families and children. Not only books, but multimedia, movies, video games and more. Many libraries have reading and art programs that you can register your children for, (in most cases you can do it online). Some libraries even have a drop in story time. Use the wet weather to your advantage and research what your local community has to offer you!

8. Indoor Scavenger Hunt. Kids are naturally curious beings. They like the idea of hunting for anything; easter eggs, buried treasure, or literally ANY crap you have lying around the house as long as you make the game interesting enough. I have even incorporated this activity into birthday parties in the past. It takes a small amount of planning but it is well worth the effort and your kids will appreciate it (maybe not yet, but someday). I write a short, funny poem about each item I have hidden and each child has to figure out the riddle and use the clues to find it. It's a great way to kill some time on a rainy day and the best part is all it will cost you is a little time.

9. Bake something! Every snow day my mom would make gingerbread boys with us. Okay, so it's not a rainy day reference, but I still think it applies! I've passed the tradition on to my girls and they love to bake with me. Something about all of the mixing and the rolling and the cookie cuttering makes them feel like little mad scientists. It's fun and tasty and it teaches them stuff,and you get to walk away with extra 'awesome mom' points. Letting them participate in the preparation of their food from start to finish will give them an appreciation for the finished product and nothing is cuter than the look of pride on their little faces when they dig into one of their very own creations. Those little moments are what life is all about.

10. DANCE PARTY. 'Nuff said.

11. Science Experiments are a great way to occupy kids on bad weather days. Especially if your kids are getting older. Kids love to interact with the world around them and we should encourage that curiosity as long as we can. I believe scientists are just big kids who never stopped wanting to figure how everything works. Some experiments may need a little planning to pull off, but with enough preparation, a rainy day could be FILLED with experiments sure to thrill kids, no matter what age. You could teach them about the changing states of matter and make slime, introduce them to chemical reactions with a simple baking soda experiment or they can even make their own rock candy in a glass! Your kids will have fun and learn something at the same time, who knows maybe you will too!

12. . Movie Marathon! Okay I don't want to be that mom that rushes to the television to do her parenting for her, but let's get real here; occasions when the kids are down to chill on the couch for a few hours with snacks, pjs and their favorite movies are a phenomenon rarely seen and it is crucial to take advantage of it when you can. Netflix is a life-saver if you have little ones, and you can easily kill some time during a rainstorm by snuggling up and binge-watching Paw Patrol or a few episodes of the Wiggles. If your kids are older and need less supervision it's the perfect opportunity for some 'Mommy-time'. They are safe, DRY and occupied, and you could actually be accomplishing something YOU want to do, like... remember books?

13. When all else fails and the rain is coming down, you can always slap on all that cute matching rain gear you bought, put on a pair of galoshes yourself and take your kids puddle jumping in the rain. You'll get wet. So will your kids. You aren't sugar, you won't melt. They'll have a blast, and you'll be the coolest mom ever.