There are several ideas for crafts to keep children busy on a snowy day. One is to make Craft Clay. There are no special directions for working with the clay; the child may invent his or her own way to play with the clay. Another thing sometimes my children did with the clay is to roll it out with a rolling pin, and then to cut it out with Christmas cookie cutters. Sometimes they would even paint the decorations with non-toxic tempera paints, and I still have these today. The clay will get dry if left out, and can be baked in a 200 degree F oven for a few minutes if desired, before painting. I will give you the recipe for Craft Clay; it is pure white, which does make it conducive to painting, if desired.
Recipe for Craft Clay
1 cup cornstarch
1 ¼ cups water
2 cups baking soda
Combine all ingredients in a pan. Cook, stirring constantly; turn out on a pastry board to cool slightly. Turn out onto a pastry board and knead a little, then cover with damp cloth until cool enough to use. This can be kept in aluminum foil until ready to use.
If you have very young children of about ages of about three to four years old, you might like to get them large, manila construction paper; this comes in tablets. Then let them have fat, short crayons with which to color. This may keep them busy for some time.
Another idea is if you have girls, and if you can find old wallpaper, still nice and clean, cut out a square for them and make a little basket with it. Help them to place a little handle. This will be a basket for dried flowers. You can get a little bit of flower petals at a flower shop, if you do not have dried flowers. Roses or peonies are best for this. Let them place a little bit of flower petals in a netting and they can have a nice basket. If using a stapler, remember, only the adult uses the stapler, and keep it out of reach, so they do not get hurt.
For boys, I would cut down a clean milk carton. Then help them (depending on their ages) to cut out little figures from sturdy magazines or old books, which they can bend down at the bottom, and glue inside the little carton for a little scene.
I hope you will have many happy memories with these types of crafts, as I do. One last thing; if you have children of about five to eight, and want to leave them to their work while you hover in the background, peeling carrots or something, let them have a pan of cheap flour, and they can play in that for a while with little plastic cars, standing on the chairs at the kitchen table.