The long days of winter can seem like they tirelessly go on and on and on. This is especially true if you have a household full of little ones and they are just running around the house ragged trying to burn off some energy. In our home we have many days where we bring in the scooters, slide over the furniture and the children ride laps around the house. It helps to burn off some energy, sometimes ends in some smashed toes, but overall they have a fun time. But lets just say you can’t bring the scooters in because it could cause some running over of little ones, what else can you do? Here are thirty things we have done over the years to help occupy little ones when those long days of winter seem to drag on.
- Play baseball with a wooden spoon and a balloon.
- Let children help make Daddy’s favorite meal and set the table like you are having company.
- Teach children to tie shoes.
- Let them play with suitcases, so they can pretend they are travelig.
- Cut out pictures and past them into a homemade construction paper book.
- Visit a lonely neighbor.
- Make finger jell-o with cookie cutter shapes.
- Put a homemade gift in the mailbox for the mailman.
- Make face masks with brown paper bags.
- Pack a picnic and let the children eat it in a toy house made with a card table and blankets over top.
- Make marshmallow snowman with three big marshmallows and toothpicks.
- Make a thankful list and see how long you can make it. Put it away as something to look back on.
- Play I Spy.
- Put potatoes in water to watch them sprout.
- Have a real tea party.
- Help them plan for company and decide the menu.
- Draw faces on white foam cups and plant grass seed. You can give hair cuts to your plants.
- Make paper snowflakes.
- Teach simple embroiderl.
- Get a washer box to play in.
- Make paper airplanes.
- Hide a small toy and let them find it.
- Let them make a homemade card to mail to someone.
- Make your children’s favorite food.
- String up Cheerios.
- Read bedtime stories each night.
- Let children make notes to put into Dad’s lunch.
- Let the children do the dusting.
- Play hopscotch by using masking tape to mark off areas.
- Practice throwing rolled up socks into a large bowl.
Want to help build some excitement in your home? Take these and write them on slips of paper and put them into a bowl. Every afternoon at 2 o’clock have your child pull out a task and you can do it with them. Do only one a day and then each day at that time they can look forward to their “fun” time with Mom. Or you can write a different idea on a calendar to remember to do one each day. Just something to change the monotony of boring, being locked up inside days.
I long for warmer days………….I am right there with you….from a Mom of many little ones.
