Our Family Wizard - child custody, parenting time

Free or cheap things to do with your kids when its winter and cold outside

It can be difficult sometimes to find free or affordable things to do with your children in the winter, especially if you live in a cold state. 

After doing some research online, we have come up with a list of some ideas that may help you come up with some quality time to spend with your kids:

• Check out local free attractions, just type "free things to with kids in (your state's name) and you will usually find a whole host of fun activities that are free or discounted. This can be parks, theaters, galleries or just about anything your kids might be interested in.

• Look at Christmas lights.

• Go to the public library.

• Scavenger hunt for winter nature stuff.

• Rent a bunch of movies, might be fun to make it through your favorite trilogy.

• Play online games

• Window fun

  • Bird watching
    
    • Learn the names of birds in your area. Make a list of the ones you see. Look up facts about them in a bird guide or encyclopedia.  Feed the birds. Make a pinecone into a bird feeder. Tie a piece of string or yarn (about 2 feet) to the pointed end of the pinecone. Lay out a sheet of newspaper or waxed paper. Smear peanut butter unto the pinecone and roll it in birdseed or dry bread crumbs. Hang it from a branch outside a good watching window.
    • Water the birds. Use a plastic disk (like a trash can lid) as a water container. Turn it upside down and fill with water for the birds to drink. Turn the lid over after water freezes and dump out the ice. Replace with fresh water as long as the bad weather lasts.
  • Watching passing traffic, keep tally of vehicles. Count birds, dogs, animals, people on foot, trees, clouds, anything outside.
• Play Guessing Games
  
  • I See Something You Don’t See. The first player chooses an item in view. He then gives a color clue. Everyone guesses until someone calls out the correct item.
  • Button, Button, Who’s Got the Button? One child has a large flat button. He pretends to pass it to each person in the circle. All the players pretend to have it. Then the guesser must try to guess the true button holder.
  • Play a dictionary game. One person looks up words and the others guess at the meanings.
• Storytelling
  
  • How many can remember family stories to tell? Get started with the phrase: "I'll never forget the time..."
  • Tall tales are fun—Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.
  • Don’t forget the old time favorite children’s stories.
  • Make up a fractured fairy tale. Begin with a well known story and add to it bits and pieces of other stories to come up with a whole new story. This is silly and little ones especially love it if they are familiar with fairy tales.
• Tell Jokes
  
  • How about elephant jokes? Knock-knock jokes.
  • Riddle me, entertain each other by thinking up riddles and guessing the answers.
• Snow Fun
  
  • Shovel snow, shovel for a neighbor or Shovel a path in the yard like a maze.
  • Build a snow fort. Have a snow ball war.
  • Make snow ice cream. Collect fresh fallen clean snow and mix 8 cups of snow with 1/2 cup of milk and ½ cup sugar. Stir to freeze and add a spoon of vanilla flavoring or a squirt of chocolate syrup to flavor.
  • Make snow angels. Lay on your back in the fresh snow and move your arms in the snow up over your head and down like a jumping jack movement. Get up carefully to reveal your angel shape in the snow.
  • Build a snow man. Dress him brightly with hat and scarf. Make a face with a carrot and stones or charcoal lumps. Add sticks for arms and give him a broom to hold.
  • Go ice skating.
  • Go sledding down a hill.
  • Have a snowball battle.
• Crafts and handwork
  
  • Knit and crochet, needlepoint, hand sewing, embroidery.
  • Write cards to loved ones.
  • Make a project on the computer like a family photo slide show or edit a home movie together.

  • Make some sock puppets.

  • Find other craft projects online that you can make using stuff you have at home.

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