How to survive a snow day

School has been cancelled. There's a blizzard building outside. What are you going to do AAAAALL day with the kids? Here's a few ideas. You are welcome!

When the weather outside is so awful that you can barely step out, what are you to do with young children? When you have a whole day to fill, you are going to have to mix it up a bit. Spread the activities out. Busy, quiet, busy, quiet tends to be the pattern I follow.

Running Races!

If you have a hallway or, even better, live in an apartment with a long corridor, have running races. This burns energy and is fun.

Red light, green light

Mix up the running races by playing Red light, Green light. I hold up red paper and green paper as visuals but you don't actually even have to use paper. Kids start at one end of the room or corridor and you are at the other end facing the wall. When you say 'Green light!' they move forward. When you say 'Red light!' you turn around and if anyone is still moving then they have to go back to the start. First person to reach you and touch the wall wins. They can then be the person who says 'Red light, green light" if they are able.

Rainy Day Game

I'll be honest. I stole this idea from #peppapig. Its a great idea and we have been playing it for at least two years now. Find an item in the house which will be the item you search for. It can be a soft toy, a shoe, anything. One person goes into a room and places the item somewhere where it can still be seen (so no hiding it under a cushion or in a cupboard). When they are done hiding, the others come in and have to find it. Take turns to hide the item.

Make things out of towels! Or paper...

My party trick was always to make a chicken out of towels. I have tried to make other things but always come back to the chicken :)

If chickens aren't your thing try origami. Its clean, quick, easy and all you need to do is find a bit of paper.

Make boats - and float them in the sink with lego characters. See whose sinks first. This is the easiest one that anyone can make! http://simondrax.com/remarkable-origami-boat-instruction/how-to-make-a-simple-origami-boat-that-floats-hd-origami-boat-origami-boat-instructions-pdf-origami-instructions-boat-base/

Make paper airplanes - have a competition to see who can throw them the farthest

Make doggies - and play with them! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct3g80VFJME

If origami isn't your thing, how about a chain of paper dolls ? Cut them out and have your kids draw the faces and color them in.

http://www.artistshelpingchildren.org/paperchainsartscraftsideaskids.html

Play dress up

If you have some nice things, sparkly things, hats, furry and tactile clothes, scarves - get them out! let the kids try them on! Take pictures! Things that the kids don't often get to play with are special and therefore very interesting.

Have a tea party

After dressing up, get your fanciest tea pot out and fill it with water and have a tea party on the floor... Add slices of orange to the water to make it tasty. Get the play doh or toy food out and have a real tea party!

Have a picnic!

Who says picnics have to be outdoors. Lay out a blanket and if there is any mess, just throw it into the wash afterwards.

Bring the snow indoors

A friend posted a picture of her doing this with her kids. If the weather is too full on outside bring some snow in! Get a waterproof tray or something similar, bring out the buckets and spades and get making snow castles and snowmen!

Make use of your space

Move from room to room throughout the day. Just being in a different room gives a new energy to everyone

Take turns

If you have more than one kid, give everyone twenty or thirty minutes, set a timer and everyone has to play the game or do the activity of that person's choice. If someone doesn't want to do the chosen activity then they can play by themselves for the allocated time. This is also great to make sure that nobody dominates the activities.

UPDATE!

Try to get some 'me' time (?)

If you are doing all these activities with the kids all day long they will need some time by themselves to just chill. Find that moment and do something for yourself. I just managed to get 20 minutes of a yoga class in and then we all did a 5 minute meditation class! #mommywin !

The list is endless but this is what we will be doing today. Happy snow day everyone!

#snowday #nyc #winter #indooractivitieswithkids #nyckids #homeschooling #mommyblogger #mummyblogger