As a parent, during the winter months, it tends to feel more difficult to entertain your children. When you could normally send your child outside to play when they complain of being bored, you’re stuck in a situation where it’s uncomfortably cold outside and don’t want to send your child out. Even if you do send them out to play if it has snowed, you can’t let them play outside for very long without the danger of getting too cold. So, how do you keep your kids entertained this winter without sticking them in front of the tv for hours on end?
Sensory bins
Sensory bins are one of the best ways to entertain children, especially children under the age of 10. The beauty of sensory bins is that there aren’t really any rules, and you can use things you probably already have in your home. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
-Moon sand. Moon sand is super easy to make(flour and canola oil + food coloring!), and you can dump it in a plastic bin with small toys for them to play with. Tell your child to bury the toys, and then excavate to find them.
-Water. You can do the exact same thing with water instead of moon sand. This is perfect for your water loving child who would rather it be summer year round. This one will definitely get messy, so come to terms with that before you get started.
-Water beads. Another fun sensory game is to hide toys among a bin of water beads. You can buy water beads for super cheap in bulk off amazon.
Sticker games
Kids love stickers. And even though they may especially love the novelty stickers that are glittery and shaped like their favorite tv characters, you know what they also love? Those 50 cent circular garage sale stickers. You can create some super fun games with stickers to keep them occupied with those little, colorful stickers. Draw out a christmas tree and have them decorate the tree with stickers, having them match the color stickers to dots on the tree. You can have them do this sort of activity with almost any shape or design.
Sorting games
If your child is one that would rather take toys out of a box and then put them straight back in, sorting games will be perfect for them. Place two bins in front of them, with toys in just one. Hand them a pair of tongs(if they are old enough to know how to use tongs) and have them move all of the toys from one bin to the next using the tongs. If they aren’t fans of the tongs, have them do this by hand.
Another fun sorting game is to poke holes in the top of an empty shoe box, and have them push colored pom poms into the holes. You can color coordinate the holes so that they can practice their colors. Pom poms are available at the dollar store and this activity will be such a hit for your little ones.
Find a room for them to make a mess of
Organizing activities to keep your kids entertained can be absolutely exhausting. If you feel like you’ve tried everything, before giving into the screen(not that there’s anything wrong with that), try just letting them loose in a room and coming to terms with the fact that they will be making a mess. Messes can always be cleaned up, and sometimes that kind of unbridled fun is the most constructive kind of fun for a child to have.