Happy first day of spring. What better way to celebrate by enjoying the next rainy day you have?

Most kids love to play in the rain. I know mine do. And make sure to splash in the puddles. It’s a simple pleasure that many adults forget. Just dress appropriately or have towels ready so everyone can dry off quickly after playing.

It’s not the rain that causes colds, after all.

After playing in the rain is a nice time to curl up together under blankets with some hot chocolate. Watch a movie or just talk about the next fun things you want to do together.

Most families have a lot of movies, most of which only occasionally get watched. Rather than buy or rent others, arrange with another family to trade movies around regularly.

Keeping track of who owns what can take some work. You can stick a mailing label on the boxes to keep track of who owns what, and keep a list of who has borrowed what so that you know where particular movies have gone.

This of course takes a lot of trust, but it greatly cuts down on the need to buy or rent movies. Just beware of special favorites of the kids. Tempting as it may be to get rid of that movie that is requested 200 times a day, even for a short time, some movies should be loaned out only once the kids are sufficiently tired of them to share well.

Then again, the movie can always go over  to have the kids watch them together.

Now I know that today being Black Friday, many people are more focused on spending money than on free activities, but I still want to do this week’s Free Fun Friday Post.

One of the members on my forum is really fond of geocaching, and if you have a GPS unit already, it’s a great way to get your family out and about.

People participate all over the world, hiding geocoins in caches for others to find. They take them along on trips to help them move to a goal, and there’s a degree of competitiveness about being the first to find a new cache.

It sounds to me like it’s a great way to discover new places where you live, as well as the places you go when you travel. I haven’t tried it myself yet, but only because I don’t own a GPS.

Blowing bubbles is a lot of fun for kids, but you can get them to be creative about it too. The materials you use will depend on the age of the kids, as some require more strength and dexterity than others.

1. Make bubble wands with pipe cleaners.

If your kids are like mine about crafts, you have these on hand. Two can be twisted together for larger wands, with a third making the handle. These are fairly easy to shape so even younger kids can be pretty creative with them.

2. Make bubble wands with wire coat hangers.

Yes, a way to get rid of any wire coat hangers you have tangling up with each other in the closet! These are harder to bend, but the bubble wand will therefore last much longer. You may need to get out the needle nose pliers or other basic tools to really get a good shape.

3. Rope bubble wands.

Tie a light rope to the end of a stick. Soak a bit in the bubble solution and have the kids run to make it open up and blow bubbles.

Alternatively, you can tie one end of the rope to each end of the stick so that it stays open. I’ve seen this in a children’s museum, and it’s fun for the kids to try to blow big bubbles out of it.

4. Anything around the house with holes in it.

At least that you’re willing to allow to get wet and soapy. Funnels are good. I’ve seen some people suggest fly swatters for lots of little bubbles – just make sure the kids aren’t putting their mouth on it to blow. Go through your kitchen and see what might work.

OK, this one could get expensive if your willpower breaks. The animals are just so cute!

But especially if you can’t have or don’t want pets right now, this is a great way to get your kids some time with animals. Many animal shelters need volunteers to walk dogs or pay attention to the cats.

If the animal shelter is too far, there’s always the pet store, but I prefer shelter pets even just for visiting.

This is something my kids love to do. Mostly we just use the bread machine, as kneading bread dough is a lot of work, but the final shaping is done by hand because I don’t like the shape of loaf that my machine makes.

To me this is somewhat better than free, once you have a bread machine. You’ll save money on bread and know exactly what you put into it. Bread has gone up in price in the past year or so. Homemade bread can be very cheap to make.

It can even be something of a science experiment. Yeast can be interesting to watch grow over a few hours. You can make your own starter for sourdough… although that takes a number of days. It’s easy to get the kids involved in checking on and feeding the starter. I wouldn’t suggest having it replace the family pet, of course.

Don’t forget the delightful smell of bread baking. It’s a great way to make the house smell wonderful too.

Just because today is Halloween doesn’t mean it’s the only day you can get use out of your costumes. Kids love dress up, and they love it even more when parents get involved.

Head out on a family walk and collect leaves as you go. You don’t have to go anywhere special to do this; pretty much any neighborhood is going to have a good variety of leaves you can pick up.

Leaves can be collected and glued to pages, or used in craft projects. You can teach your kids how to identify various leaves, something mine find truly fascinating.

Of course, you’ll need to know something about leaves yourself. You don’t want to go hiking off on a trail and find out you’ve picked poison oak or poison ivy. That’s not a fun way to make a day memorable… until you can laugh about it some years down the line.

Take some time and write letters to family members or friends. It’s a great habit to get the kids into, and you don’t have to limit yourself to thank you notes.

Just think of all the people who would love to hear from you in a letter. Grandparents. Friends who have moved away or you’ve moved away from. Pen pals.

You can of course just send emails, but there is something about a handwritten letter that’s a little extra special. If your handwriting is as poor as mine is, you’ll have to take extra care to keep it legible. That’s the problem with typing everything.

For children still mastering their writing skills, this is a great and fun way to practice. They can even write to friends who are in the area. Kids get such a kick out of getting mail, and you can build up a habit between your kids and their friends.