Many people spend more time indoors during winter than during warmer seasons. The best winter activities for kids should not cost the earth. Keep your kids fit and moving throughout the colder months with these children's winter activities.
Fun outdoor winter activities for kids
Just because the days are shorter and the temperatures have dropped, doesn’t mean that outdoor activities are off the cards. In fact, breathing in that cool, crisp air is super exhilarating and does wonders for your child’s emotional and physical needs. Take inspiration from these fun outside winter activities for kids. Grab those scarves, mittens, and beanies, and layer up. Come on, let’s play outside!
- Go for a walk. If you have young children, you can play eye spy while you're walking.
- Try a winter sport such as ice-skating, snowshoeing, or snowboarding.
- If you’ve had a good snowfall, there are lots of fun things to do outside. You can make snow angels, go sledding, build a snowman, have snowball fights, or build snow mazes.
- Do you live near a playground? If the ground is dry enough, you can take a ball along and go and kick a ball to each other.
- If the weather isn’t too cold for bare hands, shoot hoops in your yard or at a nearby court.
- Grab the bubble mix and blow some bubbles for the little ones to chase. If the air is cold enough, the bubbles will freeze!
Best winter activities for kids indoors
The global pandemic caused many changes in our daily routines. One of them was that it made some of us very creative about coming up with ways to keep young kids entertained when confined to their homes.
- Games like charades, musical statues, and Twister are great for burning off excess energy when you are stuck inside your home.
- Set up an obstacle course with chairs, boxes, hula hoops, and so on.
- Place a selection of pillows and couch cushions on the floor and cover it with a large blanket or duvet cover. Running and playing over this soft and uneven terrain is tremendous for building core strength in your little ones. You can even use the area as the perfect pillow fight play area.
- Draw a hopscotch pattern with sidewalk chalk (tile/wood floors) or masking tape (carpeted floor), and have fun hopping from one end to the other.
- Do animal yoga.
- Put on your kids’ favorite tunes and have a dance-off.
- Compile a “move box”. Fill a container with slips of paper listing different movements the person must make when they pull it out of the box. Actions such as “space walk” or “elephant stomp” are fun children's winter activities.
Active kids are happy kids
A healthy dose of activity each day is critical for stimulating your child’s metabolism, balancing their hormones, and stabilizing their moods. These inside and outside winter activities for kids should do just that. You can also keep your kids busy with creative endeavors such as painting with DIY chalk paint or these awesome free things for kids. And if you love saving money, be sure to download Save.com's coupon book finder for the best deals and discounts in your neighborhood.