A Rainy Summer's Day

Since it has rained pretty much everyday this summer, I thought I would revisit a topic I covered a few weeks ago – entertaining the children over summer vacation. My earlier suggestions focused mainly on getting the kiddies outside to enjoy the sunshine and maybe even exercise a bit (not to mention get them out of your hair for a couple hours each day). But since Mother Nature seems rather intent upon drowning us with storm after storm, I thought that today I would take a moment to provide you with a few foul-weather activities that should keep the children entertained.

• Let the kids paint their bedrooms. Sure there is always the risk that they will decide to paint the rooms some terrible shade of puke green, but the way I figure it – the kids are up, they're moving around, and their rooms are getting a fresh coat of paint (be it puke green or otherwise). Plus, in most cases it doesn't matter what color they choose – their rooms are often so messy that nobody can even see the color of the walls beneath the piles of dirty clothes, unmade bedding, and action figures that for some reason are hanging from the ceiling fan...
  
  
• Teach the children how to use a carpet shampooer. Granted, no child is ever going to voluntarily shampoo all the carpets in your house. But there is something about squirting the soapy water all over the floors and watching the machine suck up all that dirty liquid that fascinates children (even if it is just for a short while). So in the end, children are entertained and some of your floors get cleaned. It's win, win!
  
  
• Dig out one of the ol' board games and encourage the children to play a game together. Or better yet, dig out all the ol' board games and encourage the children to jumble them together into one creative, albeit convoluted, super board game that could them be patented and sold to one of the big board game companies. You'll make a killing!
  
  
• And if all else fails, buy the kids a waterproof tent and send them outside to enjoy their summer vacation regardless of how much rain is falling.