Best Cool Snow Day Activities for Toddlers
Trapped inside with a toddler? Snow days can be torture, or they can be great fodder for memories and learning with your toddler. What can you do after you’ve made snowflakes and the pan of snow you have brought inside has melted? Here are some fun (and cheap) ideas to keep your toddler engaged and away from the television.
Best Snow Day Activities for Kids
Beach Day – Cool Snow Day Activities
Pull out some towels and play “beach”. Even more, fun, pull out last summer’s play pool and play pool party (without the water) with stuffed animals indoors. You can even have a picnic in the family room. A plastic tablecloth cleans up best, but any old blanket that you don’t mind washing will work.
Bathtub – Cool Snow Day Activities
Play in the bathtub. Even if you don’t have toys, spoons, cups, and margarine tubs can be a lot of fun. You can even make your bubble solution from baby shampoo and water and use straws to blow.
Bubbles – Cool Snow Day Activities
Bubbles are a great distraction for toddlers at any time of the year, and you can pretend they are making your carpet cleaner. I have seen pictures of bubbles blown outside when it’s below freezing, and supposedly they freeze and shatter, which sounds like it would be fun to try.
Make MUSH – Cool Snow Day Activities
Play with clean mush in the bathroom or kitchen. This is messy, but once you clean up, you’ve soaped and rinsed your floor, so it’s not a total loss. Simply unroll 1-2 rolls of toilet paper into a very large bowl or tub (like a turkey pan or baby tub), fill partway with warm water, and grate in 1/2 – 1 bar of white soap (Dove works well), then MUSH.
Make Thank You Cards – Cool Snow Day Activities
Potato, vegetable prints, and snow paint. Dip cut parts of vegetables in paint (any kind will do) and stamp on paper. You can make cards for any winter holiday, or thank you notes. For the snow paint, you have to mix equal parts of flour and salt with water until it has a paint-like consistency. Dip caps, tops of jars, or anything else you like and stamp on a dark piece of construction paper. When the paint dries, it is white and sparkly, like snow.
Finger Painting
Finger painting can be so fun; although it causes an immediate need for baths and major cleanup. Here’s the easy way to finger paint: slip a sheet of paper into a gallon zip-top bag. Squirt finger paint into the bag, then seal it. Now you can tape that bag either to a table, or even a wall, and let the child have at it and squish it to their heart’s content. When their work of art is complete, either pull it out of the bag or cut the bag off and let the masterpiece dry.
Paint the Snow
Paint the outside snow. Take your child outside with a box of watercolors, or larger bottles of tempera paint and some brushes. Show him how to pack snow into a smooth, fairly flat surface, and let him paint. It is a different experience from painting on paper, as the snow lends texture to the project. Mistakes are easily “erased” 8 just pile fresh snow on top. This is more enjoyable with larger brushes than the tiny ones that come with watercolors. Some people have mixed up food coloring and water for painting, but the colors are less vivid.
Snow Day Writing Activity
Make writing a regular part of your child’s life. It will help him in school, but also help him learn to express himself, and discover who he is. Finally, he can enjoy the day all over again as he records the fun for posterity.
Musical Instruments
Sing and Bang on the drums. Don’t be self-conscious. Most toddlers cannot tell if you are singing in tune. Try easy tunes with a lot of repetition, like nursery rhymes. Typically you will have to sing a song at least 9 or 10 times before your child will sing with you, so don’t be discouraged, and pick something you don’t mind repeating. Use wooden spoons to bang on old coffee cans, boxes, and plastic containers for a variety of sounds. “Instruments“
Scribble Snowflakes
Scribble Snowflakes are nice and easy – allow your little one to scribble all over some white paper with whatever tool of the trade they are capable of. Then fold into quarters and cut along all sides of the paper with little shapes and squiggles, then unfold, and voila! Scribble snowflakes! These look lovely in a window.
Sticker Snowman
Sticker Snowmen are an easy decorative craft. Cut out three circles from white paper in the shape of a snowman, then glue them together. Let the child stick on stickers for the eyes and buttons, while you draw or cut out pieces for the mouth and nose. Sometimes toddlers need a collaborator on these kinds of art projects. Another great window decoration!
Act Like A Winter Animal
Act like an animal. Have your child waddle like a penguin, walk like a seal, lumber like a polar bear, and leap like a reindeer from one end of the room to the other.
Christmas Paper Chain
A paper chain countdown till Christmas is an excellent way to get excited about the holidays, and it lets your toddler destroy things, which we all know they were born to do. Simply cut strips of paper and staple them into circles, forming an interlocking chain, then let your little tornado rip one off every day. Maybe store this out of reach so that the countdown doesn’t go any faster
then it should.
Conclusion
Winter is here, and although the holidays are approaching like a bullet train, if you are a stay-at-home parent this winter, you may still be wishing for something to do. It can be especially difficult when your kids are too young to enjoy endless Christmas movies, fort-building, letters to Santa, and hot cocoa.
Last, of all, don’t forget your camera! Take lots of pictures of the snow day’s activities. Load them onto your computer right away, and after a warm bath or dinner, encourage each child to write about his day. You may ask him questions that require thought, not just a simple “yes” or “no,” if he needs help getting started. Ask questions like: What did you enjoy most? Why? How did that feel? What would you like to do again?
