How to Keep Your Kids Active During the Winter
My three kids that could spend every minute of the day playing outdoors, you can only imagine how difficult it can be some days to keep them occupied during the winter. While we don’t get snow here in Georgia, the temperatures still drop pretty low and can keep us cooped up indoors some weeks. It is so important to make sure that you keep your kids active during the winter, despite not being able to always play outdoors. There are many fun and simple ways to ensure kids stay active during the winter!
Visit Local Indoor Facilities
Take a few minutes to go online and research what indoor facilities are closest to you. Some of our families favorite places to visit is the bowling alley, roller-skating rink, our rec centers indoor swimming pool, the local bounce zone and there is even an indoor playground at our local mall. There are also several local fast food places that have indoor playground, I suggest viewing their customer ratings online first to ensure you bring them to one that is regularly cleaned. We also have some really great family art studies and paint your own pottery shops that are fun places for the kids to enjoy indoors. You can also checkout events at your local movie theater, I know that ours has special days were they play movies that are no longer new releases and charge only a few dollar for admission. Going out doesn’t have to be expensive, just do your research and try to find which days they have specials.
Check out a museum
Walking around a museum and looking at exhibits is a great way for their children to get some exercise. We have lots of kid friendly museums around us that are both fun and educational. You could always do some research about a local museum prior to visiting, create a scavenger hunt for the kids so they can find the items throughout their visit.
Just Dance
If you don’t feel like bringing the kids out that day and would rather stick around the house, why not have a dance party? There are lots of fun kid’s music stations on Pandora. If the kids like to sing and dance along with other children, you can find lots of sing along videos on YouTube. Dancing is a lot of fun, always gets you in a good mood and is a great way to burn off some energy. If you want a more relaxed dance party, try some kid yoga videos!
Build an Indoor Obstacle Course or Fort
These are never not fun to do! Making indoor obstacle courses and creating forts is such a great way to challenge your children to be creative and use their imagination. Have everyone grab their pillows and use them to set up hurdles. Chairs are perfect for draping with blankets to make tunnels and forts. You could also set a stations in different areas of the house to include such activities like jump rope, ring toss, or hula hooping. You can even make a fun pathway by cutting shapes out of colored construction paper and taping them to the floor, and then trying to hop across on only one foot. Let your kids help with the planning and building, that is a great way to keep them busy and ensure they are all having a good time.
Bundle Up & Play Outside
Just because it’s cold outside does not mean you have to stay cooped up all of the time, sometimes it’s good to simply play in the back yard! There are tons of activities that you can do outside in the winter, just make sure they involve lots of moving so that the kids stay warm. You can create an obstacle course using balls, jump ropes and other items from around the house and trees and bushes in the yard. Simon says, races, scavenger hunts… these are all outdoor activities that keep the kids moving. Just remember that even though the months are colder and they aren’t sweating from the heat… they still need to stay hydrated when they are active.
My kids are huge fans of Fruit Shoot® and we pick them up every time we are at Walmart or Kroger. They are the perfect size for their little hands, have a drinking spout on the top that snaps shut to prevent leaks, they have no added sugar and contain no artificial flavors.
Another place we purchase Fruit Shoot® from is our local Pizza Hut® because from Nov 10, 2016 – April 30, 2017, $0.5 of each purchase will go to support the First Book literacy program. Nearly one billion people in this world cannot read and that is why Pizza Hut®, which has been fostering a love of reading for more than 30 years through the BOOK IT!® literacy program, has set a goal of transforming more than 100 million lives worldwide through its largest social impact program ever called Pizza Hut: The Literacy Project.
We would love to know how your family is staying active this winter, let us know in the comments below!
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