Winter weather has been known to bring plenty of snow days for children. In addition to having children keep up with their school work or watch their favorite movies, here are some additional activities to play in the frosty snow or the warm indoors.
Indoor:
- Teach your child how to bake your family’s favorite cookie recipe.
- Make paper snowflakes.
- Make macaroni snowflakes by gluing macaroni together in a snowflake form. Once it hardens, paint or cover in glitter. String yarn through an open hole and display with pride!
- Make your own play snow without the cold by mixing three cups of baking soda with half a cup of hair conditioner. (This one is messy, so play with plastic down on your surface!)
- Make a Northern Lights star-cave by poking holes in a large cardboard box and popping individual lights through the holes from a strand of extra Christmas lights. Do not leave this on overnight as certain lights could be a fire hazard
- Make pine cone people by gluing small wooden balls to the narrow end of the pine cone. Decorate using yarn for hair and sharpies for facial features.
- Write a short winter-themed story and decorate the pages to make their very own, “My Winter Wonderland” book.
- Make a museum bucket list and visit all the museums in the area.
- Make a scrapbook of all of the old family photographs you have laying around the house.
- Go through all of your old toys and books together and donate the lesser used ones to a family shelter in your area.
Outdoor:
- Visit the monuments while they’re lit up for the Holidays.
- Build a snow fort (Don’t forget about making one for your animal friends in the neighborhood!)
- Shovel an elderly neighbor’s driveway.
- Go ice skating at Reston Town Center.
- Play a giant game of marbles by freezing colored water in balloons, cut away balloon when frozen.
- Learn the constellations on a clear winter night.
- Learn how to safely build a fire (bonus points if you make s’mores!)
- Paint in the snow by filling an old spray bottle with water and a little bit of food coloring.
- Have a “Snow Search” where you make a small sheet of things like holly trees, stars, certain birds in the area, and other winter wonderland miracles and have your child search for them outside.
- Make a snow volcano by making a pyramid shaped snow cone. Place a plastic cup into the top so that it appears to be the inside of a volcano. Combine baking soda, red or orange food coloring, and vinegar together in the cup and watch your snow volcano erupt!
