It’s cold and wet outside and you may have to stay in the house for a while. Here’s a week’s worth of ideas to make your evenings fun and get excited as we approach the shortest day of the year!
Saturday: Go to the library together and pick out a few snow-themed books. Make some hot chocolate and popcorn and snuggle up on the couch for a marathon!
Some favorite snow-them books are:
- “The Jacket I Wear in the Snow” by Shirley Neitzel
- “The Mitten” by Jan Brett
- “Red Sled” by Lita Judge
- “Snowballs” by Lois Ehlert
- “Ten on the Sled” by Kim Norman
Sunday: Pull out some white shaving cream and squirt it on a table or mirror. Draw or shape “snowy” items like snowflakes and snowmen. Make a “hill” and let toys go “sledding.” Use your imagination!
Monday: Take turns naming items that are cold. See who can say the most items! For a child not yet talking, walk around the house touching items that are warm or cold and model the words “warm” and “cold” each time you touch something—open the freezer to touch cold foods then find things that are warm like laundry in the dryer, the dog or cat, or water from the sink.
Tuesday: Fold a square of paper several times and cut out small pieces to form a snowflake when you open the paper. Let bigger kids cut the paper themselves and younger kids can use a pencil or marker to help you draw where to cut. Hang or tape the paper snowflakes to decorate a window when you are done!
Wednesday: Play “favorite friends” charades by making a list of 5-10 of your child’s favorite characters—Elsa, Rubble, Dora, Thomas, etc. Take turns acting out each character and have the other person guess who you are trying to be. Or get creative with simple craft supplies like toilet paper tubes, tissue paper, markers and old clothing and try to dress up like your favorite characters.
Thursday: Practice following directions by giving step-by-step instructions for your child to draw a snowman. For young children, draw the snowman for them and then give them directions on how to color parts of the picture different colors. For older kids, give more complicated directions without telling them they are drawing a snowman. For example, “Draw one big circle at the bottom of the paper. Next draw a smaller circle on top of the circle. Now draw an even smaller circle on top of the medium circle”. Then let your child give you directions on how to draw a snowman!
Friday: Have some ice cream after dinner and try to imagine at least three unique ice cream combinations. Spinach ice cream? Turkey and gravy ice cream? See who can be the most imaginative!
By Barbara Bryant, Speech Language Pathologist, Children’s Therapy
