Its been wickedly cold the past few days and I always find it a struggle when getting out with the kids becomes difficult. Its interesting to me how when one is forced to stay in a house the walls slowly start to close in, the rooms definitely become smaller, the atmosphere more tense. Its also interesting to me how once you get out of the house for a morning with the kids, the rooms appear to have stretched back to their normal size and life continues.
Winter, I know is hard for moms with young ones at home. As they get older the kids become a bit more resilient to the cold and find that the joy in skating or playing with snow much worth the effort of getting ready. They seem okay with frozen red noses and icy cheeks. But when they are young, winter becomes a chore. Bundling the littles up in their winter protection gear takes time and the time they are willing to stay outside seems much shorter than the effort to GET outside.
Yes, January and February are difficult. The days of throwing sandals on the kids and racing to the park for 45 minutes to escape the confinement of the house feels like years ago. The joy of kicking kids outside to play and run around while you clean the house seems almost a forgotten luxury.
A few weeks ago the kids and I packed up and meet with cousins and aunts to play at an indoor playground. In which all I could think is, this place was an oasis for us Moms in the midst of winter. I also have discovered that these places take competitor's coupons, which is a huge score as I can never find a coupon for the actual location that is most convenient to meet.
The feeling of I'm-stuck-in-the-house-I'm-going-to-scream feeling is not unusual and so I'm going to share a few of my go-to activities when the days get cold.
- Crafts/painting - I pour a coffee or tea, Kaylin cranks the kids favorite music (Steve Green - Hide 'em in your Heart). If you don't have crafts on hand, find old magazines and let the kids go nuts with scissors, hand them a glue stick and some paper. Their favorite magazines to cut? Home decorating/food magazines.
- Movie - curl up WITH the kids on that day that is particularly cold and draining and pop some popcorn.
- Playdoh. We love playdoh in our house and I always give the kids dull butter knives to practice cutting with, kids scissors too. Great way to help their fine motor skills. Great recipe HERE. I've used this and loved it, although if your playdoh is a bit sticky you simply have to knead some more flour into the dough.
- Build a fort in the playroom/bedroom, turn off the lights and hand them flashlights.
- Have your own story time - the kids bring piles of books and we lay on our bed and read.
- Send them to their rooms and set the timer. Individual playtime is not always welcomed right away but ALWAYS within the first 5 minutes they find something. Knowing they're not allowed out until the timer goes off works wonders (and you - YOU find a book and read for a a bit).
- Bake - it takes 2x longer but the kids love it and its always fun watching them "steal" the chocolate chips out of the bag thinking you don't see.
- Splurge and go to an indoor playground. Find coupons or see if the place your going takes coupons from their competitors. WagJag can be an awesome place to find deals for indoor playgrounds!
- Make hot chocolate in "fancy" tea cups and add marshmallows.
- Invite another Mom over for a playdate.
- Library days - a favorite weekly outing in our home, much worth the effort of packing up kids.
- Lego - we pour the bucket on the kitchen table and build cities, towers, cars, everything.
Beach days with cousins
Parks and pretend tractors
Ice-cream...
She's not quite so innocent looking anymore!
Until next time!
Linds, do you make your own play-dough? If so, can you send me your recipe? Thanks for the rest of the ideas too - I'm thinking tomorrow might be a good day to cut some pictures from old magazines :-)
ReplyDeletePainting is a favorite in our house. It requires patience on my part, as well as major preparation and clean-up, but my girls LOVE it! Enjoy the snow!
Erica
I have, I'll e-mail you the recipe later! Oh and for painting, I should have specified that we use WATER-painting. They're just round dried blocks of paint and all the kids need is a cup of water and paintbrush. We have an old tablecloth that when done, just gets hung up to dry and folded for another day. By far the quickest and easiest clean-up/set-up painting that we do.
Deletethanks! those are all fantastic ideas - I so needed them to get through the next few weeks! Cannot wait for summer park walks...I went to the park earlier this week and K stood and stared at the frost covered slide and said Lets go home mom, its too cold! Another idea is strip the kids down to their undies and let the water paint on the shower walls :) xo
ReplyDeleteLove that idea Lydia! thanks!
DeleteAll good ideas! Here it isn't cold just raining every single day! We are definitely ready for sunshine and the outdoors!
ReplyDeleteWe've done a scoop full of snow in the kitchen sink... sensory play :) We've got a rice box (one of those under-bed storage boxes - it makes a mess, but sweeps up easily). Bath time/my coffee time is always fun. Picnics under the kitchen table with flashlights and a giant sleeping bag draped over the table, follow the leader using a deck of cards - one person picks what to do (jumping jacks, twirls, run up and down the stairs and then we pick a card to see how many times to do it) The kids love washing my tupperware (soaking wet but fun) Sometimes we play rotating rooms and everyone gets to have their own room of the house for 5 min, then we rotate for the next 5, rotating again. I love your ideas! Macaroni necklaces? Love it!
ReplyDelete