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Oh the weather outside is frightful and my dear it’s so …not delightful! By the time February…or March…or May rolls around (you never know in Kansas!), you are sick of being indoors and your creative juices may have been sucked dry. I’ve put together a few activities you can do inside with your children to keep things ‘interesting.’ Stash away a few of these ideas to help beat the last (hopefully) of the winter doldrums!
Bring the outdoors in by planting seeds your child can nurture and watch grow. Be sure to choose something that grows fairly quickly so your child can see the fruits of their labor and not get discouraged! Some ideas might include bell pepper seeds, sunflower seeds, dry peas, beans, or basil.
Since March roars in like a lion and out like a lamb, have your child create a paper plate lion and lamb. On one paper plate, have your child draw a lamb face, then glue cotton balls around the outside edges (the bumpy part). On a second paper plate, have your child draw a lion face, then glue skinny strips of brown paper around the outside edges (again on the bumpy part). For a little extra lion fun, have your child roll the skinny strips of paper around their finger or a pencil first so the lion’s mane will have a bit of “curl” to it!
Make a windsock. Let your child decorate a piece of construction paper. Add crepe paper or tissue paper streamers to the bottom using tape, glue, or staples. Roll the construction paper into a cylinder and secure with staples or tape. Punch 3 holes in the top, thread some yarn or string through and tie all three pieces together in a knot at the top. Your windsock is now ready to hang!
Do a SPRING acrostic poem. If you aren’t sure what that is, simply have your child write the word SPRING vertically on a piece of paper. Then have them think of one thing about SPRING for each letter. For example:
S for sunshine
P for plants,
R for rain,
I for invigorating
N for nice weather
G for gusty
Johnson County Kids Museum (http://www.jocomuseum.org/EXH/kidscape.shtml). They offer a free Kidscape exhibit or Pop N Play for $1 for non-members. Pop N Play is only on certain Wednesdays so be sure to check their calendar on the website for exact dates.
Matt Ross Community Center (http://www.opkansas.org/things-to-see-and-do/community-centers/matt-ross-community-center/). They also offer an indoor playtime called Toddle Time on Tuesdays and Wednesdays with the cost being $1 for non-members. There is also an Exploration room right inside their front door that is free.
Sylvester Powell Community Center offers an indoor play time (similar to Matt Ross) Tuesdays-Fridays from 9:30-11:30am at the cost of $2 per child.
By the way, a few posts ago, I mentioned making indoor snow and vowed that I would do it and let you know how it turned out. Well…we (meaning me) had great fun mixing it up (our son doesn’t enjoy the feeling of shaving cream for some reason) and playing with it. We had trucks and trains, buttons and spoons, yarn and feet (yes, feet) in our ‘snow’…and really enjoyed it! As you can see from below, we even had a go at making a ‘snowman’ although like I had said, it didn’t look anything like the Modern Parents Messy Kids one. But who cares?! The ‘snow’ ended up staying in our container for about 2 weeks before we switched it out with something else!
Praying you have a great weekend and week ahead!
Julie
