Winter Activities for the Kids

Now that the nights are starting to draw in, you can bet your bottom dollar that being in the UK, the rain will come with the dark nights too. Well, when this happens, I find that the kids tend to get a bit restless being cooped up all day as they’ve spent most of the day in school then they come home to not being able to go out in the back because it’s wet or raining which sucks for them because all they want to do is play. So by the time the weekend rolls around, they’re ready to blow but again, if it’s raining then they’re kind of at a loss for things to do when they aren’t doing sports or whatever else we may be getting up to as a family.

As I’m sure some of you may know, I look after other kids after school while their parents finish work and it’s while I’ve been having more children to look after that I got to thinking about ways that I can entertain them, or even better, ways that they can entertain themselves once I’ve set them up with something seeing as they can’t *always* go out in the back and play on trampoline or on the small swing area/play set thing we have in the back garden.

So, I figured I’d put a list together of some good ideas for winter activities for children when they’re stuck inside and are driving each other mad by arguing over the television, or even driving you mad for that matter.

1. Make Silly Putty

I know for a fact that my boy loves this stuff, he’s 9 and it farts when he puts his fingers in it. What is there not to love for a boy of 9?! Anyhow, making it will provide totally new levels of fun and the kids will get their own take home in that they’ll have their own silly putty.

It’s easy enough to make but it’s probably something that you would want to supervise as it could end up being quite a messy affair if you were to just leave the kids to their own devices. In fact, if my kids are anything to go by, they wouldn’t even end up making any silly putty, just a great big mess! If this sounds like something you’d like to try out, check this page out for the instructions on how to make your very own silly putty.

2. Make a Time Capsule

This is a great way to get the kids thinking about all things past, present and future. A time capsule is essentially a box or similar, packed and sealed full of things that firstly your child would be happy to part with and will mean something in 20 years or so when it is dug up. The items in a time capsule are intended to be of that particular time that you make the capsule so here’s some good ideas of things to include your time capsule:

• A local daily newspaper with the date on it. This is a great thing to open up the time capsule to, to see what happened around the time you created the capsule. Also, include a national newspaper as this will give broader coverage of what’s gone on in the world at that time.
• It’s a cool idea to get the kids to a write a letter to someone, whoever they want or whoever they think will find the time capsule and open it up. Get them to talk about their life, what they’ve been doing at school and so on.
• Print something, or find something that can be used that talks about the future. Maybe twenty or thirty years down the line and put that in as it’d be cool for whoever finds the capsule to see what the images of the future were like from the time you made the capsule.
• Finally, get all the kids to come up with some predictions for what they think will happen in the future. Whether it’s robots or holograms, this is a sure fire way to get their imaginations running.

3. Create Your Family Tree

A great activity to get the children thinking about their family members and past generations of family members. This is also something that will likely get you involved with your kids and also get you thinking about your grandparents and great grandparents – and there are so many resources available online to help you get started.

This is an activity that is likely to get the kids to quieten down a bit, I mean, it may not do but there’s a high possibility that they’ll quieten off if they’ve been running around like lunatics. Or, instead of getting the kids to do it themselves, why not make it a family thing? If everyone is home, all sit around the table and think about it together. This is a great website that will undoubtedly help you out when it comes to making your family tree.

4. Plan Your Holiday

This is good to get all the family involved as everyone will have ideas about where they want to go for your next family holiday. There’s tonnes of options open to you with this. You could work it where you decide what kind of holiday you want first and foremost. Do you want to go abroad in the summer, in the winter or do you want to stay in the UK and a little closer to home?

You may decide you want more random and odd days out and long weekends away throughout the year as opposed to having a long, week or two away at one time. There’s plenty of great days out with the kids to be had in this country without spending a fortune on things like travel and accommodation etc.