Now some folk find it hard to amuse kids on rainy days. I think I have an advantage, I think like a kid. So when faced with a rainy afternoon, a bored three year old and a mountain of toilet roll cardboard innards, I was possessed by something that would make Mister Maker wake up in a cold sweat (now if I discovered something to wake Sportacus up in a cold sweat, I think I could bottle it and become very rich indeed) The result was a kind of animal skittles game that kept her amused for ages and she kept going back to again, and again.
Added bonus, it cost nothing.
Other ideas for amusing kids for free.
1) Dress up in your best winter hats and scarves and go mountaineering to the landing, set up base camp and eat rations in a tent (saves on heating too)
2) Go to your local library, you can read as many new stories as you like and you don't even have to buy one out of guilt (like I sometimes do in Borders)
4) Sort out your wardrobe (it's surprising how much fun kids can have trying on mummy's shoes and laughing at her big pants)
5) Put empty icecream tubs on your feet and go ice skating on the hall carpet
6) Make spaceman helmets from cornflake boxes and turn the kitchen into a shuttle with dining room chairs for seats and a cushion control console (you can then explore strange planets in your own living room such as Jelly-moon and the Bum-wiggle planet where the bot spiders come from)
7) The rubbish orchestra, now I know most three year olds don't need musical instruments to make a dreadful racket but you'd be surprised what you can do with elastic bands, bottles, rice, spoons and pans (other than make your neighbours write to the council)
8) Sock puppet theatre (it helps if the socks are clean, odd and have names like 'Wuzzlefuzz' and the 'Gum-gum Botty Wot')
9) Play shark attack (bit like pirates at school) put cushions on the floor and use the couch as a base. Take turns to be the circling shark in the water trying to catch the unwary sailors who fall in before they make it to safety.
10) Bake a cake. You don't need to be Nigella to follow a simple recipe (our favourite is banana cake - which is fortunate as I always seem to have a hand of slightly brown bananas begging not to be wasted) and you get to impress folk with your efforts. If it turns out crap, tell everyone the three year old did most of the work and they'll be full of nothing but exuberant praise as they bite into cake wrapped egg shell.
