Snowbound? 3 Indoor Activities to Entertain Little Kids
It takes a lot of effort to keep a small child engaged and focused throughout the day, especially when it is too cold or wet to get outside to break up the day during the winter. I've found a few activities that my daughter is excited to do any time I suggest them. They provide great tactile stimulation and require her to further develop her motor skills in the process. Use these as a starting point to keep your little ones in good spirits even if the weather outside is frightful.
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1. Take advantage of how fun water can be to play with. We use a lot of water-based activities even though we are inside more during the winter months. The easiest way is to get my daughter on her step stool and set up at the kitchen sink. I fill a large bowl with warm soapy water and supply her with a sponge and tools like spoons and measuring cups to play with. She spends a lot of time exploring all the options presented, such as squeezing out the sponge, pouring water from container to container, and then she helps me wipe the floor and counters with dry towels. Make this more productive by putting a bunch of plastic toys in for cleaning, it gets kids involved to take care of their own toys.
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2. Learn to play with "tweezers". My daughter learned this activity at her preschool, and we've used it both indoors and outdoors this winter. A great way to get toddlers to work on their motor skills is to give them a variety of tools like big spoons, kitchen tongs, sticks, or plastic rakes. They can use these tools as tweezers to pick up homemade balls of newspaper, foil, or wax paper and other small toys they play with. It's a lot of fun to try and collect the items in a bucket. Check with your child to see what they would like to use as a tool or what items they want to try to pick up. It's a great learning opportunity to discuss what happens when they can't pick the item up - such as when the sofa cushion is too heavy for little spoons.
3. Create an indoor obstacle course. Gather together a bunch of different objects to place around the room in a circle or a linear progression. Some of our favorite objects include a fabric tunnel, pillows, a step stool, and some large blocks. Put on music and demonstrate the sequence for the obstacle course. Use a bunch of different preschool friendly movements like jumping, rolling, stepping over, and crawling to navigate around the obstacles. We also use visual cues like the large border on our carpet, which my daughter likes to pretend is a balance beam. It really doesn't matter what they actually do, just make it short enough, with maybe 3-6 options to hold their attention and make it easy enough that they won't get frustrated. I don't pay attention to how well she navigates the course, I just want her to laugh and keep a big smile on her face.
Find Stephanie Vuolo at her nutrition-focused blog, Primarily Paleo.
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