Hellobee Boards

Go outside!

Get your kiddo (and yourself!) good winter clothes and head outside! My loved playing in the snow. If it was just cold without snow, she still loved going for walks (walking & in stroller). We've used a beach set (pail, shovel, boat, etc.) for winter fun for 3 years now. My DD also loved pulling a wagon or sled around.

We would typically spend 1-1.5 hours outside in the morning and another hour in the afternoon. It takes a while to put all snow clothes on and off so really this will take up much of your day between meals and naps too

We live in Maine, so if we didn't play outside, we would be stick inside from November to April!

I’ll admit I really hate going outside in the winter in Wisconsin. Things I do:

- Water Play: fill pots/pans with water and bring out bath toys, spatulas, spoons, etc
- Save lots of Amazon boxes to color or play in. After they’ve lost interest after a few days I’ll recycle it, just in time for the next one to arrive and we start over
- Pillow Party: Put all of the pillows from the house in one carpeted bedroom and jump around
- Bin of dried beans and hide little toys
- Bake cookies
- We bring our plastic slide inside
- Homemade salt playdough

I think my biggest hurdle is not that the kids get bored, but more so that I do. That in turn makes me cranky and feel less motivated. So I also try and do a lot of “jobs” for me during the day...
- Go through everyone’s closet once to organize and get rid of things that don’t fit or no longer want. Kids like playing with balled-up clothes
- Wipe all cabinets and give kids a cloth to “help”
- Go through play area toys and donate things we no longer use
- Cook dinner together
It takes twice as long to get chores done, but the kids are entertained and enjoy “helping” and I feel productive after a day of just being at home.

@foodiebee: are there any rec programs, like ice skating? Library classes or rock n tots at the YMCA? Gymnastics? Ski lessons? Not sure what covid looks like in your area but here in NY they still will have some programs for littles. Even once a week breaks up the weeks.

Otherwise we do embrace the winter even tho I bitch about it. Can't tell you how many times I've stood outside in the goddamn freezing cold pulling my kids around on a sled track we made (and he goes to outdoor school).
Nature walks after fresh snow, tubing/ sledding.
Michaels/AC moore, even TJMaxx have cute kids craft sets pretty cheap, like stepping stone things.
Go away for a night
Children's museums?
Family dinners

These are the ways we get through our 7 months winters 🤪

Check out Busy Toddler on instagram. She has a whole category of activities for that age (she calls them "tabies"- not yet a toddler, but also not a baby). She also has a website.

ETA: Her Pom Pom Push activity literally kept my "Taby" occupied for 20+ minutes DAILY when he was that age. Not every kid will respond to every activity, but once you find one they love, they can do it over and over and it never stops being fun.