Indoor activities for the October half term: rainy day ideas that last

3 min reading time

The half term ideas that actually work on a wet October day tend to have three things in common: they take more than twenty minutes, they end with something the children can keep, and they don't need a trip to a shop halfway through. Building a terrarium, planting up bulbs, pressing leaves and making a nature jar all fit that description.

October half term is the first proper stretch of indoor time in the year, and the weather rarely cooperates. Below are a handful of projects that hold attention for an afternoon, sorted roughly by age, plus what to do with the results afterwards.

Build something that outlives the afternoon

Most rainy day crafts end up in the recycling by the weekend. A planted project doesn't, which is why it's worth the extra effort. Building a terrarium is essentially layering: drainage stones at the bottom, a thin layer of charcoal, then soil, then moss and small plants arranged on top.

Children tend to like this more than adults expect, mainly because there is no wrong answer once the layers are in. Older children can manage the whole thing themselves, while for younger ones the layering is the fun part and an adult can place the plants. A DIY terrarium kit takes the guesswork out of quantities, which matters when you're doing this at the kitchen table with an audience.

The real advantage is what happens next. The terrarium sits in their room, needs watering only occasionally, and is still there at Christmas.

Go outside first, make things afterwards

A short walk between showers gives you the materials for most of the afternoon. Look for pine cones, acorns, interesting seed heads, bark and fallen leaves. Take only what has already dropped, and leave living moss and plants where they are, as most woodland moss is slow growing and protected in a lot of places.

Back indoors, the collection can turn into a few different things:

A layered nature jar, with sand, cones, bark and leaves in bands
Pressed leaves between sheets of kitchen paper under a stack of books
Leaf rubbings with a crayon on thin paper
A labelled collection on card, which suits children who like sorting things

Simple projects for younger children

For under-sixes, keep it to one step at a time and expect mess. Planting bulbs in a pot works well, since the digging is the activity and the flowers in spring are the reward. Sowing cress on damp kitchen paper gives visible results within days, which suits short attention spans better than anything slower.

Watering, misting and wiping glass are also genuinely useful jobs that small children enjoy being given. A cheap mister and a small pair of scissors turn plant care into something they can help with rather than watch.

Practical tips

Put a plastic tablecloth or newspaper down before you start, not after the soil is out.
Set out everything you need first, so nobody is waiting while you look for scissors.
Glass and small children need supervision. Choose a sturdy, wider container rather than a narrow bottle for the youngest.
Give each child their own project rather than sharing one, if you can. Sharing a single terrarium rarely ends peacefully.
Let them arrange the plants themselves, even if the result is lopsided. It's theirs, and it will grow in anyway.

If the terrarium goes well and looks sparse a few months later, a refill kit with fresh moss and plants makes a decent follow-up project in the spring. Plant care tools such as long tweezers and small scissors also make working inside the glass much easier for smaller hands.

In short

The projects worth doing in half term are the ones still around in November. A terrarium, a jar of collected finds or a pot of bulbs all take an afternoon, need very little tidying up afterwards, and give children something they made rather than something they watched.