After you and your little explorer have spent the whole day outside in summer, it can be hard to imagine in autumn how to keep your toddler entertained without sunshine and water. To make the transition a little easier, Julia from Wonderwuzz shares some suggestions on how to make a rainy autumn day exciting and varied with young children.

Daily schedule Option 1

Morning: Creative Fun

• Cover the dining table with a large cloth (wax cloths are especially suitable) and set out painting supplies.

• Many parents are surprised to see that even young children enjoy being creative and love drawing with colored pencils.

• With a little help, children as young as 2 can often handle additional craft materials such as glue, glitter, and pipe cleaners.

• Stay close if needed, but also give your child space to discover their own creativity.

Afternoon: Burning energy in the homemade indoor playground at home

• Build a course with your Wonderwuzz play sofa, on and with which your little explorer can crawl, jump, and slide, depending on their age.

• The crawling course is especially suitable for babies under one year old. They can climb over the armrests and triangles, strengthening coordination and muscles.

• Toddlers love climbing up the super slide again and again to slide down, or simply jumping around on the seat cushions.

• Even babies enjoy the padded slides, as they don’t pick up as much speed as traditional slides. Little ones can slide down on their stomachs.

Evening: Group Reading Session

• Let your child choose two or three books, and make yourselves comfortable on the play sofa.

• Look at the pictures together and read—it doesn’t matter if your child wants to skip a page or read the book from back to front.

• Ask your child to describe the pictures to support language development, and let them turn the pages themselves, which is especially helpful for fine motor skills in very young children.

Daily Schedule Option 2

Morning: Out into the wet

• A walk is good for everyone—even in rainy weather!

Afternoon: Prepare the afternoon snack together

• Almost all children love banana pancakes and are happy to help with the preparation. Here is the recipe:

• 1 ripe, mashed banana

• 1 egg

• 3-4 tbsp flour (spelt flour, ground oats, or wholemeal flour)

• Mix everything together and fry in a pan with oil.

• Prepare the pancakes together with your little explorer. Tip: Adding blueberries or raspberries to the batter is especially fun.

• Cut-up fruit works well, and your child can help cut it (depending on their age) with a wavy cutter, a children's knife, or a butter knife.

Evening: Puppet Theater

• Turn your play sofa into a stage for a puppet show, and use puppets or stuffed animals as actors.

• For babies, a simple story is enough—a cuddly toy that talks to them, hides, and makes funny noises.

• Older preschoolers will definitely want to join in, so help your child develop a short story.

Daily Schedule Option 3

Morning: Free Role-Playing

• Let your imagination run wild and turn the play sofa into a spaceship or an ice palace.

• Your child can take on different roles, and you can experience imaginative adventures together. For example, what if you, as astronauts, have just discovered a new moon on your spaceship? Suddenly, the spaceship is attacked and must be defended with pillows! Or the ice palace is about to collapse and needs to be stabilized.

• Tip: Sometimes it’s easier to set up the play sofa the evening before (or during naptime) and surprise the children with it, rather than building it together.

Afternoon: Building towers and playing ball

• Sit facing your child and roll or throw a ball to each other. This helps build your child's reaction time and coordination.

• Babies often find it funny when you roll the ball to them while they are on their stomachs and they have to «catch» it.

• Build a tower with building blocks or stacking toys. Depending on your child's age, they may have a lot of fun knocking down the tower and rebuilding it.

Evening: Game Night

• Spend the evening playing board games or card games together.

• For young children, cooperative games such as for example are suitable. Orchard , where you play together and no one wins or loses.

• Enjoy your time together!

These were our ideas for a varied daily schedule with young children, whatever the weather! Of course, there are many more options, but most of the time, little ones are less demanding than we parents. :)