If winter weather is sending you and your kids through the roof, reach for these fun, at home and FREE ideas to save your sanity. Have a great weekend!
- Beach Party! Turn up the heat to 85 degrees and have a beach party for the afternoon! Do the limbo and make fruit smoothies. Play the Belly Giggle game where you lay your heads on each other’s bellies and start a giggle chain reaction.
- Make tomorrow a THEME day. For instance, tomorrow could be “C” day where everything you eat and do begins with the letter “C.” Have cheerios and cherries for breakfast, watch Clifford on TV. Build a clubhouse. Or make tomorrow a Fiesta Day and have egg burritos for breakfast, wear bright colorful clothes, play salsa music on the radio, decorate the house with big tissue paper flowers and hang them from the light fixtures and over the doorways.
- Bring the Outside Inside. If you have an unfinished basement, set up plastic soccer cones, bring the bicycles and scooters in and make an obstacle course. This is loads of fun using things the kids haven’t played with in awhile.
- BALLOONS! Blow up balloons and play “Monkey in the Middle.” This game for three people is when two people try to keep the balloon away from the “monkey” in the middle.
- Put your imagination caps on and Change Names for the day. Make them silly like Sally Shoestring or just different like Alfie or Theodore. The kids will get a kick out of this game. And let them know that no one can answer by the old name, just the new names for a day.
- Build Forts out of old sheets and plastic pant hangers. My husband uses this ingenious way to hang sheets up
- over doorways to make ENORMOUS forts and the kids just love them.
- If you want to have fun and learn something at the same time, try the Addition or Alphabet Game with post-its. Put addition facts on the post-its (i.e., 1+1=?, 25+3=?, 2, 28) then send your kids around the house to group the addition facts with the correct answers. The same idea works for the alphabet game. Post the ABCs around the house and call out a letter and see if your child can find it. You can make these games as hard or easy as you want depending upon the child’s age.
- Play Beauty Shop. Drag out all the fingernail polish, hair bows and plastic jewelry accessories and let your child give you a day at the spa!
- Cook or bake with your child. Kids love to get messy. For young children, keep the cooking simple because of their attention spans. For older children, let them cook dinner for one night. That means planning the menu and cooking it without any interference from mom. A future Top Chef may emerge!
Make a Racetrack throughout the entire house using masking tape. Once the tape is down, let them use their hot wheel cars to travel all over the tracks they have created.- Host a Family Party because it’s ______________. (You fill in the blank.) Party because it’s Wednesday. Or party because it’s January. Be creative. Make finger foods for dinner and dance in the living room.
Submitted by Allison Klint, Springfield Moms Advisory Board.
Looking for destinations to escape to with your family? Check out our Indoor Water Park Guide for those looking for a true getaway.
