Winter will soon be upon us and that means children with a lot of spare time on their hands. Between winter vacations, snow days, sick days, traveling, and general boredom, sometimes it’s hard to keep the children occupied. Here are some ideas to help you.
It’s easy to assemble a travel box to keep in the car. Start with a large sized plastic storage box with lid. Add crayons or markers, spiral notebooks, hand-held travel games, deck of cards, temporary tattoos, travel bingo cards, stick-on playsets, comic books,action figures, road map or atlas for each child, and CDs of kids’ music.
If your children are old enough, you can play a few road games. To play the license plate game, have your children write down the names of all of the states in alphabetical order. They can use an atlas to find the order. Then take turns looking for cars from each state, marking each state off as you see them.
To play the alphabet game, look for words on signs beginning with each letter of the alphabet in order. This isn’t a competitive game but rather a group challenge to get through the entire alphabet. For younger children, the letter doesn’t have to start with the letter, just be on the sign.
You can play a variation of the alphabet game with slightly older children by making up a story using words starting with each letter of the alphabet. For A, the first person might say, “My name is Annie, I’m going to Alabama, and I’m bringing an apple.” The second person repeats what the first one said, then uses the letter B. Everyone in the car can play together including the driver.
Some indoor activities are helpful for days when it’s too yucky to go outdoors or when your child is sick. Some fun things to do include making snowman bucket centerpieces, making a diorama, making clothespin dolls, making life-sized posters of themselves, making snowflake garland, and making child-friendly scrapbooks about each child.
To make the snowman bucket centerpiece, start with a sand bucket, some cut greenery, felt or colored paper, scissors, and craft glue or glue gun. Let your child cut out shapes to be the snowman’s round face, hat, carrot nose, eyes and mouth, ear muffs, hat brim, and scarf. While your child cuts out shapes, you can cut greenery to go into the centerpiece from various evergreen trees and bushes in your yard. Let your child glue on all of the pieces, add the greenery and water and you have a great centerpiece.
To make a diorama, start with a shoebox. Let your child decide what the theme of the diorama will be. The figures inside can either be action figures you have at your house or created from clay. Your child can use markers to color the background scenery in the diorama. Play-Doh or clay can be used to create the other scenery such as trees or bushes. Tell your child to think creatively on this and who knows what he or she will think up.
To make clothespin dolls, you will need a bag of old-fashioned clothespins that have round heads and no springs, scraps of various colored fabric, yarn for hair, craft glue, and markers for faces. Let your child be the designer to create colorful outfits for the clothespin dolls, gluing them in place. After making a family of clothespin dolls, they can be used for playtime.
A large roll of paper can be used to make life-sized posters of each child. Roll out enough paper to be longer than your child, have him or her lie down on the paper, and trace their outline. The child can then decorate the figure, using whatever colors are desired, stickers, or other embellishments. When complete, the poster can be hung in your child’s room.
To make snowflake garland, start by cutting 12×12 paper into several long, narrow sheets of paper 4×12 inches long and fold each accordion style. Then let your child use scissors to cut out small designs in the corners and center of the folded paper. When unfolded, the snowflakes will be linked together. Hang the garlands up to celebrate winter.
To make the child’s scrapbooks, start with a spiral notebook for each child. Have the child write information including date of birth, parents’ and siblings’ names, and address. Add a recent photo of the child to the first page, then write or draw about the child’s favorite things. Add stickers and more photos to make it more fun.
Just because the weather’s not good doesn’t mean that your child has to spend the day watching TV or playing video games. Try some of the fun activities noted above to reduce boredom and make the time fly by.