Calling on all winter lovers out there!! And certainly all those dreading its cold temperatures and harsh weather.
Don’t worry I got you covered for every room in your house and every corner of your neighborhood. A wide choice of activities you will adore sharing with and surprising your tots with!
Dare to be silly this winter and target your child’s development while playing and having fun
Indoor Activities
Parents’ Bedroom
Obviously this would work better on a Saturday or Sunday morning or even on a bed changing or laundry day, and even better if you want to catch a few lazy minutes under the blankets.
Remove pillow cases and let your toddler wear one, feet in first, secure it to the waist and let your human child turn into the cutest caterpillar. Dragging around the floor, under the bed or under the blanket, accompany these movements with the story of the caterpillar’s journey to become a butterfly. To become a butterfly, the caterpillar has to crawl out of its pillowcase and spread more pillow cases on its back to fly away like a gracious butterfly.
You’ve just combined creative storytelling, learning vocabulary while keeping active, having fun and even cozying up.
Kids’ Bedroom
A little Santa arts and crafts with minimal material and no mess. Cut up different clothes shapes in any color (because who said Santa’s pants have to be red!!!) as long as you get: Triangle for a hat, 2 large rectangles for pants, 2 narrow rectangles for arms, a round belly, boots and mittens. Allow your child to assemble the shapes to create Santa’s body. It’s important to let your toddler assemble it in whichever way they’d like. As this activity can be repeated any time or every winter. The child can look at his previous craft and understand his own development and his understanding of physiognomy and self image. The final fluffy touch is adding cotton balls. Glue different cottony pieces to give Santa a nice white beard and a pompom on his hat and Ho.. Ho .. Ho fine motor skills!
Bathroom
Grab some used plastic bottles and give them a new sensorial sense. Use a Brat Mat (you should always!) for better use of fun time without a mess. Let’s pick winter as our theme. Gather some leaves outside, pine cones, little sticks and twigs, dirt and rocks and the most important ingredient : sparkles!!
Fill the bottles with the little trinkets you gathered, just pick one of each, add water and some oil then the sparkles and watch these used up plastic bottles turn into lovely creative snow globes. You can, of course, use different trinkets, change the theme of the sensory bottle, use colored water for an ocean theme, little stars or shiny beads for a Christmas theme … endless possibilities!! Always secure the cap with hot glue and watch your tot while they manipulate it.
Kitchen
Here’s a thrifty, fast and cheap way to make your own playdough with simple ingredients in your cupboard. While manipulating a fun home-made dough, get your toddler involved in the prep process.
Mix 8 tbsp of flour and 1 tbsp of salt.
Mix 50ml of warm water, 1 tbsp of vegetable oil and add any natural food coloring, you can even make different batches of different colors to brighten up their minds (just keep them in a plastic bag in the freezer and take them out an hour prior, when needed). Knead all ingredients together and let the dough sit for 15 minutes and put together beautiful figures or random creations.
Using natural ingredients for this dough is important, to ensure that it is edible and won’t cause any harm if ingested or licked.
Outdoor Activities
Back Yard
Hopscotch isn’t just for summer chalk and hop. Any snowy surface in your backyard or on your patio could be used to trace a hopscotch grid. Once again coordinating motor skills to cognitive experiences with learning numbers and staying on the move.
Park
Get equipped this winter with shovels, rakes, igloo brick molds and build mazes and tunnels. The parks are great for that as they already have climbing and sliding structures, imagine an awesome obstacle course. Use your shovels and rakes to mark the path to follow and cheer on your toddler while he develops logical connections and reasoning skills.
Front Yard
Let’s give our snow art a makeover!!
Upcycle some plastic water bottles or even better, spray bottles! With only 2 ingredients, paint your snowman or snow woman with lovely Christmas colors.
Water and food coloring, fill your bottles with different colors and when you are done building your snowperson, spray different parts to create the perfect look for the most stylish and best looking front yard on the street. Make sure you use natural food coloring, non-toxic, will biodegrade as snow melts away into the ground, environmentally safe!!
Basically get out there whenever you can, there are many winter activities for the whole family and for all families. Reach out to your city leisure plans or to your local library for organized indoor and outdoor activities in your neighborhood, and dare to be silly!
