What to do on snow days

This has been a brutal winter for those who live in the Northeastern portion of the United States. With back to back snow storms, schools have had frequent closings. This is causing administrators, parents, and students to wonder about spring break and when the end of the school year will fall.

Of course, the kids love snow days! No teachers, no books, no homework – a day full of fun, doing anything they want to do! But hold on just a minute. What they fail to understand is that one snow day equals, at least, two days of extra work to make up. Not to mention, parents have to miss work, unless their places of employment have been closed due to the winter weather.

I challenge you to turn off the television, shut down the video games, and put a ban on tweeting, texting and Facebook – at least for a while. There are activities you can do on a snow day that will challenge your children, educate them, and most important, create a strong time of family bonding.

Dig through the closets and find those old board games.

Have you ever played Monopoly with your kids? They may think a board game is lame, but just wait until they get into buying those properties, putting hotels on them and collecting those rents. What a great time, but don’t tell them they are actually learning about finance.

How about Yahtzee? This is another fun game that teaches counting, sets, and many other basic math skills using die that are shaken and thrown.

Boggle is a game where lettered cubes are shaken in a box. When the cubes settle, a time limit is given, and each player creates as many words as possible, as long as the cubes are touching on at least one side. This is a fun game that builds vocabulary and strengthens spelling skills. (To add a challenge, have rounds such as, Verbs only, Nouns only, Adjectives or Adverbs)

Children, who are not reading yet, may enjoy curling up in mom and dad’s bed to listen to stories read by a parent or older siblings. One of my most powerful memories of third grade is the teacher reading to the class every afternoon just before we went home. I attribute this to my love of reading.

There are dozens of ideas for crafts, but I’ll share some simple ideas that can be done with very little preparation and things that can be found in just about every home.

Fashion Show – Have your own Fashion Runway Show

Items needed

• News papers
• Scissors
• Tape – scotch tape or masking tape

Each person designs and creates their own fashion item using only the items above.

Once the item is made, have your very own runway show.

Cut & Paste

Some moms, and grandma’s, may remember doing this on rainy days.

Items needed

• Blank paper
• Magazines
• Scissors
• Paste – (Homemade past can be made using flour & water)

Let your snow bound school children cut out pictures and paste them on the blank paper to create their own collage. Provide a theme for the collage, and give a prize for the collage that expresses that theme the best.

Paper Airplane Races

Each person designs and creates their own paper airplane, with a race to see whose airplane flies the highest, the fastest, and the farthest.

Origami

For those who are a bit more creative and enjoy more of a challenge, origami paper folding might be fun. There are websites that provides instructions and patterns for origami folding such as: www.origami-instructions.com

Everything from “No Bake Cookies” to “Quick Breads” are fun items to make together, and what a way to stay warm – if you are baking – and creating a great snack. There are recipes all over the web for beginners, as well as, gourmet cooks.

Of course, there is always fun in the snow! That’s why schools are closed anyway. Be sure to dress warm, and don’t stay out too long.

How about sharing some of your favorite snow day activities?