Keeping Your Kids Entertained During Winter
If you live in a cold weather state, it can be easy to feel cooped up during the winter–especially with young children. If it’s too cold or gets dark too early to play outside, how can you keep your kids entertained with enrichment activities?
When you’re feeling like you can’t get out and explore the world or nature, you can still encourage exploration within your own home.
Play is all about having fun and kids at different ages need different kinds of play. With play, children learn and develop important lifelong skills such as problem solving, creativity and willingness to take risks.
Stages of Play
Solitary Play
From birth to two years, children most often play alone and aren’t quite interested in playing with others yet. While they’re still working on developing their social skills, this is a great time to use their imagination and make their own rules for play.
If you are a parent of a child in this age range and need an enrichment activity to facilitate in your own home, try yogurt and food coloring. Your baby will finger paint with the colored yogurt. This is a great activity for children ages three and younger as it’s an edible, entertaining way for them to great creative.
Kids are messy. You can a smock or play clothes, but a diaper works just fine in the privacy of your own home (and less laundry!). Using a highchair is a great for containing the mess, but you can a bathtub as well. The baby can paint all over the floors and walls of the tub, and you can wash it away with water right after. If you’re using a highchair, try taping down a piece of paper to keep the artwork from ending up upside down on the floor.
Associative Play
Associate play occurs when a child is around three and continues for a couple years. During this stage of play, a child starts to interact with others during play, but not a lot. A child might be doing an activity similar to those around them, but not actually interacting with anyone else. The benefits of associate play include problem solving and conflict resolution.
Need ideas to entertain your child in this age range during winter? Try painting rocks. Acrylic markers and regular river stones work best. You can each have your own rock to paint. This is a great way to encourage their creativity, learning new age-appropriate art techniques and the ability to provide step-by-step instructions.
The idea is simple: take an ordinary rock and paint it with fun designs. Practice non-judgment. Encourage your child to take their painting in any direction they desire.
Cooperative Play
After the age of four, a child will start do develop cooperative play skills. This occurs when a child plays together with others and has interest in both the activity and the other children or adults playing. This stage of play is a great time for kids to learn how to compromise with others and recognize other’s feelings. This is the time when children learn to negotiate group dynamics.
If your child is in the cooperative play stage, there are plenty of great activities you can facilitate in the comfort of your own home. We suggest a game called scribble chase.
Scribble chase is when the caregiver holds one marker and child holds another. Both of them start in the same place and play follow the leader with the markers. All you need for this activity is an 18x24 sized piece of paper and markers. We recommend Mr. Sketch markers to add another sensory tool with scents.
Teenagers
If your child has aged out of organized activities like the ones suggested above, there are still plenty of fun ways to keep them engaged during the colder months. Try creating a reverse color book with your middle school or high school age child.
A reverse coloring book is when you draw the color blobs first and add the lines after. You can take normal printer paper and add blobs of various watercolors onto the page. When the paint dries, take a pen or marker and add outlines to create whatever your heart desires.
This is a great way to encourage your child to slow down, let their mind drift, and be surprised by their own creativity.
If you or a loved one needs support this winter, please reach out to us. Our team of therapists is here to provide support and guidance. We look forward to connecting with you.
