Snow Day Activities

It is cold.  There is snow. Getting out of the the driveway is a bit of a problem.  Does that mean that we are cooped up in the house?  NO WAY!  There is so much fun that can be had just outside in the back yard.

A little disclaimer:  Cold can be dangerous.  Be aware of the dangers of extreme cold and dress children in snow clothes.  What is cold? It depends where you live.  USA Today has an interesting article on how cold is too cold for recess. 

Build a Snowman

Snowman building tips from Zippy:

1. First make a snowball in your hand.
2. Pack down the snow hard, but not so hard that the snowball break
3. After you build the snowman, make sure you fill in the cracks or the snowman might fall over.
4. After you build a snowman always have hot chocolate. 

Build a Snow Fort

Make blocks by packing snow into a bucket or square plastic container.

Make Snow Angels

Gently fall back into the snow and move your arms and legs up and down.

Go Ice Skating 

Here is a fabulous YouTube video on how to make your very own ice rink in the back yard from superdivamom

Snow Painting

Put water and food coloring into a squeeze bottle.  Kids can squirt designs of all kinds onto the snow.  One better is magic snow paint from the blog Growing a Jeweled Rose.  Hint: it involves vinegar and baking soda.  

A Garden Challenge

I was inspired to do an enrichment unit with the kids. This inspiration came after I read all about the Garden Challenge.  I have been thinking about doing something that would involve both children.  This is a little difficult as there is a vast world of difference between them.  Gardening is the perfect solution, enough interesting things for the big girl and well, dirt, outside, and probably some sort of crawly things for the little boy.

Our family has dabbled in gardening off an on over the years.  I decided to make a new fresh start with our old pea trellis.  We will make a small garden from scratch, drawing out the the plans to decide how big it needs to be to include what we want to plant.  I really want to include Zippy in every stage of the garden.

 

Planting - I want to plant three types of things
(1.) Seedlings that we propagated ourselves - probably peas and chives
(2.) Seeds directly into the ground - green onions
(3.) Plants we buy from the nursery - at least tomatoes, maybe a pumpkin and some herbs

Resources - The thing I really want the children (particularly Zippy) to get out of this experience is to understand where food comes from, and how the cultivation of food is important in many different places. To expand on the garden experience we will be reading several books - some for Zippy some for the Little Dude, some for both.