Author: Amber Brubaker
When it’s cold and snowy outside, your kids probably think it’s okay to plop down in front of the television, computer, and phone screens and enjoy a lazy afternoon. However, this shouldn’t be a common occurrence, since those activities usually discourage physical and mental activity, which your kids need for a healthy lifestyle. The next time they come home from school, hide the technology and pull out one of these fun activities instead.
1. Crafts
Allow your children an opportunity to practice some creativity with an assortment of crafts. They can color, paint, or draw, or make stained glass ornaments, paper chains, or origami animals.
2. Puzzles
Offer your kids puzzles of all types to broaden the mind. You can help them do jigsaw, word, number, and shape puzzles.
3. Winter Recipes
Cooking with your kids has been proven to be an extremely memorable teaching experience. They learn valuable skills and make memories to last a lifetime. Look for some fun and easy winter-themed recipes like cornflake wreaths and snowman soup.
4. Science Experiments
These activities are both fun and educational. Show them how to make frost in a can, ways to make ice melt, and how to make snowflakes from Borax.
5. Ice Skating
If you have a local pond or rink nearby, take the kids there for some good fun. If you don’t have one of those or your kids are too young to participate, do indoor ice skating. Secure a large sheet of wax paper to each child’s foot with a rubber band around the ankle, and let them skate on the carpet.
6. Paper Snowflakes
For perfectly sized paper snowflakes, use coffee filters. Let your kids cut out their very own versions of snowflakes and hang them around the house.
7. Snow Bunny Tag
For a fun way to get kids to do the chores, turn it into a game. Call them snow bunnies instead of dust bunnies and have a race to see who can get the most snow bunnies on their cleaning rag.
8. Field Trip Around the World
Take this opportunity to teach about countries around the world. Set up booths showing different aspects of each country’s culture, with examples of clothing, food, and money for the kids to see, touch, and taste. You can get various foreign currencies here.
9. Salt Dough Creations
Make some homemade salt dough for the kids to sculpt. For a more lasting memory, bake the sculptures in a low temperature oven.
10. Sledding
Find a hill and a sled, and go for a ride! If you don’t have any sleds, use a large piece of cardboard.
11. Indoor Swimming
Chances are you’ll have an indoor swimming pool or rec center nearby where you can take the kids for a little exercise and fun.
12. Home Circus
Set up an area in your home for an amazing circus. Use stuffed animals and a hula hoop for the lion taming ring, pillows for the acrobats station, and dress up clothes for the clown shows.
13. Treasure Hunt
Hide various clues around the house to lead to a fun treasure. If the weather cooperates and your treasure is waterproof, do the treasure hunt outside where you can encourage running between clues for exercise.
14. Host the Winter Olympics
Invite the neighborhood kids over for the big winter games! You’ll need a hill and sled for the luge, pieces of cardboard to strap to feet for cross country skiing, and a pile of snowballs for a snowball toss.
15. Homemade Bird Feeder
Though many birds fly to warmer climates in the winter, many stick around, and they could use some extra food. Work with your kids to make a creative bird feeder for the creatures who stayed.
16. Frozen Bubbles
If you live where it gets really cold, try freezing bubbles. Some bubbles will freeze instantly in sub zero temperatures. Just wait for an extra cold day!
17. Paint Snow
Fill spray bottles with water and food coloring and let your kids paint murals on the snow. It’s completely safe for the environment, and it’ll disappear the next time it snows.
18. Snowy Ice Cream
You can actually make ice cream out of snow! On a day when it’s supposed to snow, leave out a large bowl where it won’t be disturbed or contaminated and let it fill up with five cups of unpacked snow. Mix in sweetened condensed milk, and voila!
19. Write Stories
Make blank books by binding notebook paper with yarn, and let your kids write and illustrate their own stories.
20. Footprint Tag
This is perfect for the days when there’s a fresh dusting of snow on the ground. Play tag as usual, but with one exception: The tagger is only allowed to step in other people’s footprints.
With these fun activities, your kids won’t even complain that you took away all of their technology for the day!