Rainy Day Screen-Free Activities: How to Build an Afternoon Around Coloring

It is eleven in the morning, the rain has set in, and someone has already asked for the tablet. Coloring is the most reliable screen-free activity there is, but on its own it lasts twenty minutes. The trick is to build the afternoon around it: a prepared box, a loose plan with changes of pace, and a few ideas that turn a page into a game.

Here is a plan that works for most ages, with no shopping trip required.

The rainy day box

Prepare this once and keep it on a high shelf. Only bring it out when it rains, so it stays special.

• Twenty to thirty printed coloring pages at two or four detail levels (more on that below)
• Crayons, colored pencils and washable markers in separate tins
• A glue stick, child scissors and a roll of masking tape
• Paper plates, a few envelopes and some scrap card from cereal boxes
• A ball of string and some clothes pegs
• A small notebook for "the gallery sign-in book" (see below)

Print the pages in advance, on days when it is not raining. Nothing kills momentum like waiting for a printer at the moment a child is ready to sit down. The free coloring pages collection is a quick way to fill the box with mandalas, patterns, frames, letters and toddler shapes.

A three-part afternoon

Children need changes of pace. Rather than one long coloring session, split the afternoon into three blocks of twenty to forty minutes, with movement in between.

Part 1: free coloring (the settle)

Everyone picks a page and colors with music on. No instructions. This is the quietest block, and it gives you time to make tea. End it with a short physical break: a dance, a run up and down the stairs, a pillow fight.

Part 2: make something from the pages (the project)

Turn finished or new pages into objects.

• Puppets: color a face or an animal, cut it out, tape it to a wooden spoon or a ruler. Then put on a show behind the sofa.
• A board game: color a frame page, draw a winding path of squares inside it, and add rules ("land on a star, go back two"). Use coins as counters.
• Paper chains and bunting: color patterns, cut into strips or triangles, string them across the room.
• A postcard: color a page, cut to postcard size, write to a grandparent on the back. Actually post it on the next dry day.
• A storybook: staple four or five colored pages together and have the child dictate a story that links them.

Part 3: the gallery (the finish)

Peg every finished page along a string across the hallway. Open the "gallery" formally: children walk the adults through each piece. Visitors sign the notebook and leave a comment. It sounds silly and children adore it. It also gives the afternoon an ending, which stops the "what now" question.

Pages for mixed ages

A rainy day often means a three year old and a nine year old in the same room. Pack the box with three levels:

• Simple: large shapes, thick lines, for the youngest. Toddler shapes, big letters and numbers.
• Medium: scenes and animals for primary school children.
• Detailed: mandalas and intricate patterns for older children, and for the adult who sits down "just for a minute" and stays an hour.

A page made from a family photo is a strong addition, because every age wants to color a picture of themselves, the dog or a cousin. Make the same photo at two levels and siblings can color side by side without the younger one feeling left behind.

When they say they are bored

It will happen around the forty minute mark. A few responses that do not involve a screen:

1. Change the tool. Swap crayons for markers, or hand over a single black pen and ask them to add patterns inside the shapes.
2. Change the rules. Color with the wrong hand. Color only in shades of one color. Color to a timer, one minute per section.
3. Change the place. Move to the floor, under the table with a torch, or into a blanket fort.
4. Add a job. Ask the older child to make a page "for the little one," with instructions written on it.
5. Go outside anyway. Ten minutes in raincoats resets everyone, then back to the table.

Keep it low effort for you

• Lay a wipe-clean cloth before anything starts.
• Use washable markers only. Rainy days are not the day to discover a permanent one.
• Set up near a window for natural light.
• Do not aim to join in the whole time. Twenty minutes of your attention at the start sets the tone; after that, children often run it themselves.

Save the best pages

Keep a folder per child for rainy day pages, with the date on the back. Over a winter it becomes a surprisingly good record of what they could do and what they liked. Pages made from photos of the family are the ones that end up framed.

Try it with your own photo

If you would like a few pages of your own family or pets in the rainy day box, Coolorio turns photos into printable coloring pages in four detail levels, in A4, US Letter or A3, with a name and age on each page. See how it works, and for the right crayons and markers by age, read our guide to the best coloring tools by age.