Winter has well and truly arrived, and with it the question every nature-led family eventually asks: what do we do when it won't stop raining?
Our answer, after a very soggy week: lean in. Some of the best nature learning happens in the wet — and the rest happens cosily indoors, looking out. There's a Scandinavian saying we've adopted: there's no bad weather, only bad clothing. With gumboots and a raincoat, a rainy day becomes a whole curriculum. Here are the activities that carried us through (plus a couple of cosy back-ups for when nobody wants to go out).
1. Puddle Science (Yes, Go Out in It)
Gumboots on. Find the biggest puddle, mark its edge with a stick or a ring of pebbles, and check it across the day — is it growing or shrinking? Where does the water go? You've just opened up evaporation, absorption and the water cycle, live and in your own backyard.
Take it further: float leaf "boats" and time how fast the current carries them down the gutter, or measure two puddles (sun vs shade) and see which vanishes first. Cold hands are a small price.
2. The Rain Gauge
Stand a straight-sided jar outside (a funnel on top helps) and measure the rainfall in millimetres each morning. Keep a week's tally, graph it, and you've quietly done real data collection — then race the Bureau's forecast for fun.
The maths: find the week's total, the wettest day, and the average. Older kids can convert "mm of rain" into "how many litres landed on our roof" (roof area × rainfall) — a number that genuinely surprises everyone.
3. Cloud Watching from the Window
No need to get wet for this one. Learn the big three — wispy high cirrus, flat grey stratus, fluffy cumulus — and try to predict tomorrow's weather from what's overhead. Track your guesses in a notebook and check them the next day; you'll be amazed how quickly kids get good at it. Our free guide on reading the weather and the sky has the whole method, including the old sayings worth testing.
4. A Cloud in a Jar
Pure indoor magic: a little warm water in a jar, a quick spray of hairspray, then balance a lid of ice on top. Watch a cloud actually form as the warm, moist air hits the cold and condenses. It's the same thing happening in the sky outside — just shrunk to fit your kitchen bench. Instant "ohhh" from the kids.
5. The Cosy Nature Journal Hour
When you simply can't face the wet, pull the nature table to the window, brew something warm, and draw. Sketch the rain, list every sound it makes on the roof, or finish the prompt "I wonder where the birds go when it rains…" Slow, warm, and exactly what winter is for.
Two Bonus Back-Ups
- Bird-watch from the warm side of the glass. Rain often brings birds in to feed; tally who visits in twenty minutes and sketch your three most common.
- Bake and talk fermentation. A loaf of bread on a grey afternoon is cosy and a living-science lesson — watch the yeast bubble before it goes in.
What to Wear (So You Actually Go Out)
The single biggest predictor of whether you'll brave the weather is gear by the door: gumboots, a raincoat each, and a basket of spare socks and a towel waiting for the return. Make going out the easy choice and you'll do it far more often.
Rainy weeks aren't a write-off for nature learning — they're their own kind of classroom. Stay curious (and keep the towels handy).
Want a whole winter term planned around weather, soil and the quiet season? That's Term 2 of The Nature-Led Year.