Rainy Day Play

Rain! Rain! And more rain!

Thank goodness for indoor play centres. I don't care which baby's nappy leaked out into the ball pit, or which kid's vomit flowed like lava down the giant slides, I embrace these play centres wholeheartedly. The kids have a blast and I get to sit and chat idly with a friend. Or play with my phone.

I just make them wash their sweaty little hands lots of times. ;0)

Here's my list of Rainy Day Outings:

1.  Visit friends (and get their house wet and muddy instead)
2. Indoor play centre
3. Hungry Jack's playground
4. Indoor heated pool
5. Bunnings playground (although it is depressingly grey in there and smells of Osmocote)
6. McDonald's playground (now that I have broken my cherry and eaten there again for the first time after a 17 year ban, due to Amazon deforestation and global domination)
7. Library
8. Art gallery
9. Movies
10. Osprey House environmental centre
11. Rainy walk outside
12. Rainy adventure (boogey boarding down the creek/mud sliding in the park - just do it)
13. Or grocery shopping if you want to get it out of the way and spend a sunny day doing something fun instead.

Have you got any other ideas?? Because the forecast is looking grim. And as we speak, Jimmy is in the kitchen making a delicious recipe with: basil, honey, icing sugar, vanilla essence, soy milk and salmon dip. Bless his little creative spirit.

"Mmmm, this is actually really good!"
"Euurr, that's disgusting!"
"Nooo, you have to dip it with bread. Kees thinks this is disgusting. Will you try some?"

 Looks like we might need to go to McDonald's again soon.

I tried a burger. And dammit, I liked it. xx

The Water Cycle Lesson Plan

Well folks, looks like we've got MORE rain on the way, just in case we hadn't had enough already! So if your shoulders are drooping with dread at the thought of another few days indoors with your little treasures, fear not! You might enjoy trying our water cycle lesson plan!

This was the first website I used. It's very simple for little learners and has some good basic printables.
We read through those sheets, then did an experiment. You boil some water, hold a piece of card or plastic above the steam to catch it, then discuss how it condenses back into liquid to fall back down, like rain. This was a very easy but helpful experiment.

We enjoyed this catchy animated song about the water cycle on Youtube.

And this cool water cycle rap would be great for upper primary kids.

This little short animation is nice and simple too, while you're there.

We made boats.

Then the highlight of the day was the rainy walk and play.

We came home, had a hot shower and some lunch, then curled up on the couch to watch

The Magic Schoolbus - "Wet All Over".I'm so glad I found The Magic Schoolbus! They have episodes about all different topics and I plan on using them a lot.

Then we sewed some rain clouds. You need: grey felt, grey embroidery thread, scissors, sewing needles, stuffing, clear beads and clear thread (optional).

Lastly we made a rainy day soundscape, recording our voices singing "Rain, Rain, Go Away". We overlapped this with pitter-pattering, a rainstick and chimes to make our soundscape. The kids liked it more than I thought they would. I guess everyone likes the sound of their own voice. What's that? You don't?

We hope you enjoy learning about the water cycle as much as we did. Now that we've done it, I'll have to think up another way to embrace this week's rainy weather ...

Summer Lovin' #4 (Wet Summer!)

We loved this rainy walk!

It was part of our day about the Water Cycle - lesson plan coming soon for all you mob sick of the rain.

Summer Lovin' #3 (Wet Summer)

Homeschool on a wet day ;)