Just a few months ago in November, Young at Harvard gave you everything you needed to beat cabin fever … well, that is, if you were actually able to escape the cabin. Now it’s February and you’re buried under feet of snow, so much so that Harvard’s shortest residents don’t stand a chance against what is piled up outside. Anyone who has attempted to take a toddler out in this winter wonderland has quickly learned that indoors is the safest and least frustrating place to be. Since you can’t stretch your wings, stretch your mind to find creative ways to keep kids occupied while stuck inside.
Indoor winter sports
Turn your house into an Olympic stadium! The easiest sport is ice skating. Get out your wax paper, throw some sheets down on the floor, and have your kids step on them and then slide around the house. Put on some music and twirl and Salchow your way across the kitchen. When skating gets old, break out some cardboard boxes and make cross-country skis (playtivities.com/skiing-home-homemade-skis). Let the kids color them and tape small objects to them as decorations. You can use old soda bottles for boots, or just tape their slippers to the skis. Use ski poles or make some from long sticks. Have the kids bundle up in scarves, hats, mittens, and goggles and ski around the house.
Finally, make an activity cube. Use cardboard (or an old Rubik’s cube) and paste different activities on each side: For example, “Run 10 laps” or “Cluck like a chicken and dance in a circle” or “Hop on one foot and sing your ABCs.” You can even throw a “Grown-ups choice” on there and pick something that will amuse you.
Treasure hunts
There are many variations of this activity that will keep kids of all ages entertained. For the youngest kids, hide pieces to their favorite chunky puzzles and have them assemble it when they find all the treasure. Toddlers will also enjoy a color hunt. Give them a container and tell them to fill it with an object of a certain color from every room. Make shape cards and have kids find objects that match. For preschoolers, draw a map to hidden objects (perhaps all the ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies—when all the treasure is found, make cookies). Work on reading skills by choosing an object and hiding all the letters that spell what it is. The treasure-hunter will not only have to find the letters (they could be attached to small treats like animal crackers) but then unscramble them to spell “cement mixer” or whatever object you’ve chosen.
Masking tape city
Design an entire city using masking tape. Create roadways that lead to things like a gas station, the General Store, a princess castle, a car wash built of Duplos (with paper towel strips hanging down). Build your town using whatever you have: Legos, Lincoln Logs, Kapla blocks, wooden blocks, etc. Use a whole room. Don’t let furniture stop you; make your roads go up at 90-degree angles. Have fun working out ways to make a traffic circle (and then appreciate the folks who design our real roadways). Don’t forget parking lots with all the lines for parking spaces. Once you get the city set up, kids will have a blast driving toy cars through it. This activity can keep interested kids occupied for HOURS!
The mother of all forts
Grab every blanket in your house and all the chairs you can find. Turn your entire living room into a fort. Use pillows to make divider walls between “rooms.” Older kids can create signs for each room in the fort. Make a clinic for stuffed animals, an auto body shop for toy cars, a “cafeteria” where you eat your snacks and lunch picnic style, a reading room loaded with books, a relaxation room with extra pillows and blankets (you may get lucky and score a napping child, or fall asleep in there yourself), a grocery store with toy food items … the possibilities are endless. But because it is all under cover, it makes it so much more fun for everyone.
Bring the snow inside
Fill up your bathtub with snow. Make miniature snowmen. Pull out all the Mr. Potato Head accessories and stick them in snow potatoes. Use sand toys to scoop, shovel, rake, and pack the snow, even making snow castles. Get some spray bottles and fill with watered-down tempera paint to spray the snow and give it some color. You can even bundle the kids up as you would to go outside and put them right in the tub with the snow. Just because they can’t play in the 4 feet of fabulous frost behind the house doesn’t mean you can’t give them a few inches to go crazy with in your bathroom. And you get to supervise in your slippers with a cup of coffee instead of freezing out in the yard.
Research for this article took about eight hours, and not once did subjects ask for screen time. Sure, the house was a bit worse for wear after the day was complete, but everyone had fun and no one complained about being stuck in the house. Need more ideas? Search Pinterest for “Snow day activities for kids.” You may find yourself running out of time to try all the creative ways to have fun on a snow day.
