5 Snow Day Activities With A Twist

I moved from the Bronx, NY to the South, but there is one thing that the North and South have in common and that is the snow and ice. I may be in a class by myself when I say that I do enjoy the snow, not so much the ice. I am also a big kid at heart and love to play in snow. I grew up in the projects and remember sledding down a very big hill next to my building using a huge cardboard box my sister and brother and I, along with some more kids, cut flat and then bent up one side, cut a hole in that one side and threaded a rope through the hole so we would have something to hold on to as we slid down the hill; oh what fun. Let's take the fun a little further. If you haven't thought about adding a twist to snow activities for the kids here are some ideas:

1. Ever heard of snow painting? This is really cool for kids and here's how you do it. Get edible, non-toxic food coloring, clear spray bottles so your kids can see the paint inside. If you can't find or don't have clear spray bottles label spay bottles with a permanent marker, Red Snow Paint, Yellow Snow Paint, Blue Snow Paint, etc. Labeling will help to eliminate the possibility of the spray bottles being used for any other purpose other than snow paint. Fill your spray bottles with tap water, but not all the way to the top, put 4 to 5 drops of food coloring and swirl the bottles making sure the color is consistent. You and your kids are ready to paint.
2. Building a fort in the sand at the beach is a transferable activity. Build a fort in the snow, give it a name and make a plaque with that name and embed it over the snow fort's entrance. Use sand buckets, loaf pans, and plastic ice cream buckets to fashion out your fort. To make the snow fort more interesting mix food coloring in the snow and have a rainbow fort - call it Ft. Rainbow. Don't forget to add a flag to the top of your fort. Take plenty of pictures - the kids will absolutely love this.

   Use this chart below to make additional colors:

   Mix Blue + Red = Purple

   Mix Yellow + Green = Light Green

   Mix Red + Yellow = Orange

   Mix Red + Green = Brown

   Mix Red + White = Pink

   Mix Blue + Green = Blue Green

   Mix Blue + Yellow = Green

3. Do you have a little league pitcher at home? A great way to have some pitching practice is to create a bulls-eye target with at least three colors and give each color a point value. Attach the bulls-eye to a tree or in my case it was on the chained-linked fence around my building. As the kids throw snowballs you keep their score and whoever accumulates the most points wins a prize.

4. I'm sure you heard of a cookie monster, well there is also a cookie snowman. Your kids will love to add the snowman's eyes, nose, mouth and buttons using homemade cookies. If you use chocolate cookies the snowman will be a little more dramatic.

5. After your kids lay down in the snow and make angels, and again using snow paint, color their wings. Make pink wings for your daughter and blue wings for your son.

These activities are not only for the kids, but Mom and Dad can enjoy them too. It beats cabin fever especially when the kids are out of school for snow days. You and the kids enjoy yourselves and have snow much fun.