Raining plus 40 degree weather always poses the biggest challenge for outdoor play for my kids. Hands (and bottoms!) get wet quickly and it can look pretty gloomy outside, making it hard to want to get out.
But we know the benefits of unstructured outdoor play are too many to list, so what can we do? Here are a few ideas that have worked at my house:
1. Skip the snow gear altogether - it's all about the rain gear. When it's above freezing, even with snow on the ground, rain gear just stays drier. We layer up with long johns and/or fleece underneath, slap a hat on under the hood, and we're ready for anything.
2. Extra mittens/gloves - We don't have rain mitts, (but these ones on Amazon look promising*) so I just have a second pair ready to go by the back door or stashed in my bag. That way when/if hands get soaked, we can get them warm quickly. A little microfiber towel helps too!
3. Rainy fun - what can you do in rain that you can't do when it's dry? Help model if you need to - but most kids, given the chance, would love to jump in puddles, stir up muddy slush potions, catch drips from the downspout in different size containers - what can you think up? Set safe boundaries and areas that are okay to get muddy/messy in and let them have at it!
Hope this helps you weather this sometimes-gloomy part of the year, and we've got our fingers crossed for more snow over here!
*I don't receive any compensation or kickbacks from Amazon