Wow, what a treat our weather has been lately (until the last couple of days, that is)! I hope you all enjoyed the sunshine and WARMTH we’ve so graciously gotten to experience in January. As we have seen, Winter isn’t done with us yet though so I’ve got a few activities to keep you (and your kids!) going strong!
*Build a fort indoors and read books or have a picnic inside
*Bring a little bit of spring inside by planting flowers indoors. A few weeks back, Target had tiny flower pots complete with dirt and seeds in their dollar section you could try or head to Home Depot to let your child pick out their own. Just be sure to choose a seed that grows fairly quickly!
*Create your own snow flurries indoors by snipping up some of your own. Head to snowflakes.info or try http://www.marcels-kid-crafts.com/snowflake-pattern.html for folding and cutting techniques and patterns. Have fun experimenting with your children…or by yourself! I haven’t tried this so it could either be quite therapeutic to fold and cut and see a beautiful snowflake emerge, or quite frustrating to fold and cut and have pieces flutter to the floor! Let me know how it goes!
*Break out the glitter and markers and make Valentines. Deliver to a hospital, retirement or nursing home, or just to friends and family.
*Marshmallow snowmen: I simply drew three body parts on an 8 x 11 piece of construction paper for our almost 4 year old and only 2 body parts on a 4 x 5.5 (half of an 8 x 11) piece for our 2 year old. Then each child glued marshmallows around the outline I had drawn to create their snowman. Our 4 year old did most of the activity independently, although I did have to watch how much glue he was using (as we were using a bottle of plain ‘ol Elmers) and how many marshmallows he was eating! We had a challenge to put on 10 marshmallows before eating 1. ☺ For our 2 year old, I mostly did the gluing, although she helped a bit. She was pretty much able to manage putting the marshmallows on by herself, which was a great fine motor task for her too!
*Just as a side note, you could have your child put a dot of glue on the marshmallow and then
stick down. However, since I knew attention spans wouldn’t last that long for our children, we
squirted glue on the outline, then let them go to town sticking the marshmallows down.
Either way works! This same activity could be done using cotton balls instead of
marshmallows too.
Whatever you do, carve out a little bit of one on one time with your child(ren) to do an activity with them, even if it’s not listed here. You’ll all be happier for it. Enjoy!
Julie C.
