As a child snow days are exciting — the possibility of TV, pajamas all day, cookies, no school.
But as a parent, the prospect can be a little more grim — messes, yelling, everyone eating your cookies and a 10-hour loop of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. It makes you have newfound respect for Ma Ingalls, who had four kids in a dugout with no iPads and no pizza delivery.
Here is a list of things to do with your kids (mostly) indoors, to weather any storm.
1. Make a house out of a cardboard box. Even if you only have small boxes, markers, paper, scissors and glue can transform them into robots, dollhouses or boats.
2. Build an obstacle course on the floor with pillows and couch cushions. My kids also like to jump from pillow to pillow pretending the ground is hot lava.
3. Spread a blanket on the floor and have a picnic. I like to put the random things we have in the cupboard in a bowl, like M&Ms, peanuts, cranberries. I call it Toddler Tapas.
4. Make tents. With some blankets and chairs you can transform your living room into a regular Hooverville. Tell your kids they are camping and give them some flashlights and marshmallows to roast over a pretend fire.
5. Draw on the windows with dry erase markers.
6. Blow bubbles in the bathroom. Or just give your kid some time to take a long bubble bath.
7. Give your kid shaving cream and let them build fluffy castles in the bathtub.
8. Make snow ice cream.
9. Fill a water balloon with water and food coloring and leave it outside overnight. In the morning, cut away the balloon to reveal your ice marble.
10. Fill spray bottles with water and food coloring and let your kids graffiti the snow.
11. Do a kid exchange with the neighbors. They get your kids for a few hours, then you get theirs. Gather in the evening for a movie and Toddler Tapas while the parents drink wine in the kitchen.
12. Send them out in the snow. Then, when they beg to come back in, make melted snowman hot chocolate.
13. Hide pennies around the house and tell your kids to go on a treasure hunt. If your kids are little, draw them a map.
14. Make a path on the floor with construction paper and play real life Candyland. My four-year-old loves to dress up as Queen Frostine and jump from square to square.
15. Fill buckets and bowls with dried pasta or beans and let them dig with measuring cups and spoons.
16. For older kids, try some at-home science experiments. My kids really love to clean pennies.
17. Bust out the puzzles. Even if your kids are little, you’d be surprised what a four-year-old can do with a 500-piece puzzle and a little help from mom.
18. Make play dough or Gak.
19. Get out your mateless socks and make sock puppets.
20. Have an indoor snowball fight with balled up newspaper or socks.
21. Go “ice skating” inside. Let your kids slide around on the wood or linoleum. If you only have carpet, put wax paper over their socks with rubber bands and let them slide away.
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