40 Ways to Enjoy a Snow Day

I recently read in the news that some schools in other parts of the country are implementing ways to have "virtual" school on snow days. Schools telling families how to spend their snow days is heartbreaking to me. Are we really getting to a point in culture where we are willing and able to say goodbye to the concept of snow days?? No, I refuse.

Authentic play for kids is something I am extremely passionate about. Read my post about it here.

Regardless, I understand that sometimes cabin fever from multiple shut-in days is taxing on parents and kids. Especially unplanned, unexpected ones. But these are not days to fear or dread or virtually escape. They are blessed opportunities to embrace LIFE! I've put together this list of 40 WAYS you and your family can enjoy snow days. I wrote a similar piece a couple years ago, with 20 Simple Ideas; combined, that offers you SIXTY SOLUTIONS FOR SNOW DAY FUN.
Don't fear another snow day, celebrate it! Children are a blessing from the Lord, and each day His mercies are anew. Hope you find these ideas heart warming and adventure sparking.

1. Hot Chocolate Lessons. Dive in to hot chocolate fun: http://toeverypurpose.blogspot.com/2011/01/hot-chocolate-lessons.html

2. Cookbook Quest. Flip through some old cookbooks, or online at allrecipes.com, and find some new meals and desserts to make! Getting creative in the kitchen is a wonderful way to spend time with your kids and learn as a family. Let them take charge!

3. Skate!!! Grab some ICE SKATES from your local thrift store, or head to the nearest ROLLER SKATING RINK, and skate the day away! Pack some high protein snacks and glide on.

4. Spend a Day in Deuteronomy. Here is a full day of activities inspired by Scripture: http://toeverypurpose.blogspot.com/2015/09/sola-scriptura-series-for-home.html

5. Snowboard, sled, snowshoe, cross-country ski! Winter sports are amazingly fun! Don't let the cold scare you away, just make sure the kids and you have plenty of insulation in your winter apparel and proper head covering, and head out to enjoy the snow! If you have or know someone with the right equipment, you can even try ice fishing.

6. Make Maple Syrup! Depending on the time of year, consider tapping your backyard maple trees, or exploring an area nature center that taps them to make homemade maple syrup. It only takes a few trees tapped to make enough for a single family. We love our maple syrup adventures. http://toeverypurpose.blogspot.com/2012/03/from-field-trip-to-our-backyard-maple.html

7. Imagination Day! Unplug and let the kids exercise the creative muscles in their brains. Dress-up clothes, or a few small adult things like a briefcase, purse, and maybe a magnifying glass are some helpful props to get them started. Let them play out a spy mystery mission, or transform the couch or a cardboard box into a space ship, passenger train or hot air balloon. Let them be. Don't supervise. Let them get lost in their world of play. Kids who often have every moment structured for them may take a little longer to calm their stimulation habits to get into this mode, but give them space and remember it is the best thing for their growing minds to absorb.

8. Make a math day. Here are 7 simple ways to mix up your math routine. http://toeverypurpose.blogspot.com/2014/02/seven-simple-ways-to-mix-up-your-math.html

9. Drop Everything and READ day. Start a new book, individually or as a family.

10. Smitten Mitten. Here are some cute ways to enjoy Jan Brett's book, "The Mitten". Board books aren't just for toddlers. Good stories make magic for all ages. http://toeverypurpose.blogspot.com/2010/12/first-snow-and-making-most-of-mitten.html

11. Is it Groundhog Day? Say no more... http://toeverypurpose.blogspot.com/2012/01/more-fun-groundhog-day-activities.html

12. Lego Day. Get building! If you don't have legos, call your local library and see if they have some in-house you can go use.

13. Make beaded jewelry. Bracelets, necklaces, ankle bracelets, barrettes and more.

14. Under the Sea! Explore the amazing elements of sea horses with this fun sea horse study: http://toeverypurpose.blogspot.com/2011/08/see-seahorse-unit-study.html

15. Dance Party Day! Crank up the radio or a mix of your favorite worship songs and dance the day away with your kids! You can even learn a new type of dance. After all the wiggles are out, try looking up steps to the Charleston, or FoxTrot! If you have enough people around, you can even start learning how to square dance! FUN!

16. Make Modeling Dough. Creating things with pottery or modeling dough is fun for everyone. http://toeverypurpose.blogspot.com/2012/07/math-modeling-dough.html

17. Snow Survival Skills. Read through avalanche survival stories with your kids (non-gruesome ones!). Talk about emergency winter preparations. Learn how to build a fire in the snow! My husband and son do this with our local cadet troop during winter camp-out trips. Other survival activities include: learning how to tie knots, make an emergency winter kit for your car, build a solar stove or research how to find food in the winter wilderness.

18. Spa Day. Pamper the kids with foot soaks, homemade food facials, nail painting and bubble baths.

19. Draw something new. Pick up some new step-by-step drawing books (robots, horses, whatever your kids love) from the library, or look online for free tutorials. The ideas out there are endless. http://toeverypurpose.blogspot.com/2012/03/fun-drawing-books.html

20. Feet Paint! Create all sorts of adorable works of art with your kids' feet. Butterflies, trucks, anything you can dream up! Check pinterest for inspiration, set up newspapers and a small tub for rinsing, and let the kids explore foot prints with washable paint.

21. Indoor Obstacle Course. If you have the living room or basement space, create an indoor obstacle course for the kids to do. It is not as complicated as you may think. All you need are some simple station ideas. One wall to do spider stretches/handstands against, perhaps something you can use as a balance beam, string/tape/hoops to use as circles they can hop along, an area to do sets of jumping jacks, a mat or blanket to do somersaults on, etc.

22. Apple of Your Eye. Who says it has to be autumn to enjoy an apple day? Here is a Johnny Appleseed day we enjoyed, but it can be fun any time of year. http://toeverypurpose.blogspot.com/2011/09/johnny-appleseed-day.html

23. Think Spring! Start some plants or sunflowers from seedlings, and make an indoor area greenhouse to grow and track them until the warmer seasons roll around.

24. Homemade Memory Game. We often think of the game Memory as being a card matching game for small children. The truth is, exercising our memory skills is beneficial at all ages, even more so as we age. Try this tray game and mix it up for your kids depending on ages and abilities. http://toeverypurpose.blogspot.com/2011/12/memory-tray-game.html

25. Start a seasonal puzzle. Nothing gathers the family together for quiet, calming, contemplative time like a family puzzle project. Pick up a 600-1,500 piece puzzle, clear a table space and spend the winter coming back to it as the hours melt by.

26. Origami! Learn how to do origami, build paper airplanes, design paper snowflakes and explore other paper folding projects.

27. Farm or Zoo Day. Visit an Amish farm, orchard, or even explore a winter day at the zoo. You'd be surprised how active the animals are in the cold months as they try to stay warm.

28. Animal Shelter. Visit, volunteer or donate items of need to your local animal shelter. Winter is a tough time for abandoned pets. Extra food, blankets, even just time spent with the animals in need will be of great benefit to the shelter and to your children.

29. Freeze Experiments. Eggs, colored liquids, salt, solids, sand, paint, wax, water balloons... let your kids explore the elements by setting up a tub for them to freeze things. Have them track the time and temperatures for their experiments, along with their hypothesis and results.

30. Mummy Madness! Explore ancient Egypt for a day, week, or year! There is endless fun in history adventures. You can make the Nile River, or wrap the kids up as mummies using dollar store T.P.!

31. Tabletop Tennis or Bowling. Any table can be turned into a place for playing ping pong. Also, if you don't want to venture to your local bowling ally, you can create a simple tabletop bowling game with block pins and an all-purpose ball.

32. Habitat Happenings. Track and identify animal prints in the snow, and search out local spots that animals have built their winter homes. Squirrels, birds, fox, skunk trunks and more!

33. Jump into Joshua and Jericho. Here is a day unit with crafts and activities for the book of Joshua: http://toeverypurpose.blogspot.com/2015/10/sola-scriptura-homeschool-series-joshua.html

34. Create a family time capsule. What elements of our living habits today would we need to include to explain our era to generations in the future? Photos, news articles, entertainment, how we eat and clean?

35. Make cards to deliver to the local nursing home. Even simple notes with a special verse or encouraging quote can really brighten the days and hearts of those in assisted living situations. No need to make an appointment, just show up and ask to pass them around. Invest in the elderly of your community and teach your children the value of spreading kindness.

36. Indoor camping. Set up a tent inside your house! Build a cardboard pretend fire, roll out the sleeping bags, and make s'mores. It will be sure to create unforgettable memories for your kids for years to come.

37. Make a Prayer Jar. Decorate a mason jar, or paper cover a shoebox. Write your prayers and favorite verses to collect inside. At the end of each week, or month, or even the end of the year, pull them out and look over the many ways God has grown and blessed you.

38. Book Publishing! Have your kids write and illustrate their own books. They can handwrite or type them out; color or cut-out pictures to paste along with it. You will be surprised at the fun they have, let the creative juices flow. If writing isn't a strong suite for you or your kids, there are countless creative writing prompts and ideas you can find online to inspire your young authors!

39. Learn a New Language. Japanese, Hebrew, Spanish, French, Finnish, German, Danish, Portuguese, Latin... the list goes on. Your local library will have wonderful resources for you to use, and there are many wonderful online resources for introducing yourselves to learn a new language. Spend the day expanding your cultural horizons. Even just a day of dabbling in different languages can be a fun adventure.

40. Play with your Food. Combine snack time with craft time, and the possibilities are adorable.


I promise you don't need screens to pass the time. Forget the video games, television and tablet time. Make the most of this time with your growing children.
While schools keep insisting that *quantity* is the answer, I will consistently push back to urge families to carve out space for creative, quality time together. This not only helps authentic play and learning take place, but it seizes healthy growth in the ways that matter most for child development.
Need more ideas or inspiration? Here are 20 MORE ways to enjoy the days off with your kids. http://toeverypurpose.blogspot.com/2014/01/20-simple-things-you-can-do-to-enjoy.html

20 Simple Things you can do to Enjoy Another Snow Day with your Kids

Here in Michigan, we’re experiencing our third day in a row of closed schools and events due to extreme winter weather. Along with cabin fever, some parents, especially those who aren’t accustomed to having their kids at home with them during typical public school weeks, are struggling with staying sane and finding ways to occupy kids who aren’t used to being home all day. But the truth is, you don’t need to have shelves full of classroom supplies and curriculum on hand in order to have fun and enjoy these extra days with your kids at home. Here are 20 simple things you can do to enjoy yet another snow day with your children.

1. Make Sock Puppets. http://toeverypurpose.blogspot.com/2011/01/simple-sock-puppets-for-less.html

2. The library is open! And free! Get out of the house for a bit, find new books to explore, and some craft & project books.

3. Bake a cake (WITH the kids).

4. Feed the birds. Make peanut butter feeders, or homemade suet cakes. February is National Bird Feeding month, gear up for the Great Backyard Bird Count by getting seed out there and practice identifying backyard birds.

5. ABC Hopscotch. http://www.toeverypurpose.blogspot.com/2011/01/alphatrain-floor-puzzle-homemade-abc.html For older kids, make it fun facts in science or geography that they have to answer to make it to the next square.

6. PLAY IN THE SNOW! Sledding, snowmen, forts, snowshoeing, coloring the snow… Some moms even bring the snow inside to the bathroom in tubs if it’s too cold outside for their littles.

7. Paint. For all skill-levels and abilities, using paper or other surfaces. http://www.toeverypurpose.blogspot.com/2011/04/painting-projects.html

8. Make a homemade movie. Let the kids create their own script or show. If you have a video camera they can play with, use it. If not, they can create a set to perform a play, ballet, or, hey, even a puppet show (see number 1).

9. Hot Glue Art. http://www.toeverypurpose.blogspot.com/2011/01/hot-glue-art.html

10. Color your clothes! http://www.toeverypurpose.blogspot.com/2011/02/color-your-clothes-tie-dye-and-other.html

11. How Things Work? Declare an At-home Discovery Day. http://www.toeverypurpose.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-things-work-learn-and-discover-day.html

12. Field trip to museum or area nature center. http://www.toeverypurpose.blogspot.com/2011/07/museums-and-nature-centers-importance.html

13. Make Stone Soup! http://www.toeverypurpose.blogspot.com/2011/10/stone-soup-making-memories-along-way.html

14. Try a new Board Game. Or invent something new with what you have on hand, like this fun memory tray game. Or this consonant acorn game.

15. Have your kids learn a new hobby, and learn along with them if needed. Sewing, jewelry making, woodworking, scrapbooking…

16. Read or listen to the audiobook of Narnia, then go outside and pretend your backyard is a fantasy winter world.

17. Grab a globe, spin it. Pick a spot, wherever it lands, learn all about that country and culture for the day. Plan dinner around a new recipe of that cuisine. http://www.toeverypurpose.blogspot.com/2011/10/egypt-excitation-our-educational.html

18. Turn your living room into a giant blanket fort, and camp out. Blanket forts never get old.

19. Make a care-giving kit for a family in need. An elderly relative, a shut-in neighbor, or small toys and activities to send to third-world country orphans. You’d be surprised how occupying your day helping others transforms everyone’s attitudes in your house!

20. Create an indoor scavenger or treasure hunt. Hide clues around the house, or pick up a store-bought kit for the kids to unearth together. You can use it as a gateway to exploring adventures in archaeology. http://www.toeverypurpose.blogspot.com/2011/09/archaeology-adventures.html


Above all, enjoy the time you get to spend together! What are your favorite family activities or ideas to enjoy days at home with kids? Share adventures from your journey below! God Bless!

Homeschool Show and Tell Showcase

As home learners, it's important we foster opportunities for our kids to experience show and tell moments, to present projects they've worked on, demonstrate pride in their work, share the excitement of what they have learned with their peers, etc.
Here are some highlights to our most recent showcase, the kids shared their favorite projects from the year with their friends, and got to see the cool stuff built by their buddies. One awesome family displayed an amazing medieval castle they built with their dad--it was the size of an entire room!! It had a draw-bridge that worked, with a courtyard, several buildings and towers, along with a moat and a board report all about knights and castles. Totally great!! Home education rules!

My mom's homemade bird bath

Look how quirky and fun this bird bath is that my mom designed in her backyard! It's an upside down metal garbage can lid on an old milking stool, with the facet of an old sink no one was using paired with it. The birds love it, and there's even a touching story to accompany it. When my mother was a small girl, in the outer suburbs of Detroit, she used to use my grandparents' garbage lid the same way, she'd fill it with water to give the birds a drink. It started her life-long love for birds.

"My Promise, My Faith" Project

My daughter just earned a special pin in Girl Scouts that we worked on at home, called, "My Promise, My Faith". One of the neatest aspects of it was, that it was a project that she could present and share at both her AWANA club and at Girl Scouts.
The award called for us to choose one line from the Girl Scout Law, then to find a story or song from our faith with the same ideas. (We loved this idea!) It also called for us to find a woman in our faith community to discuss it with, and to make something out of what she had learned.

The Girl Scout Promise:
On my honor, I will try
To serve God and my country
To help people at all times,
And to live by the Girl Scout Law.
________________

The Girl Scout Law:
I will do my best to be
honest and fair,
friendly and helpful,
considerate and caring,
courageous and strong, and
responsible for what I say and do,
and to
respect myself and others,
respect authority,
use resources wisely,
make the world a better place and
be a sister to every Girl Scout.

The Girl Scout Promise is something the daisies all memorized just a few weeks in, and throughout this year they learn the law line-by-line as they follow the stories of various flower characters in their daisy book. Since she had already learned the first 3 lines of the law, we started at the top and chose to use HONEST & FAIR for her project.

We looked up the definitions for Honest and Fair in the dictionary, and my daughter copied them out with her best handwriting. Then we looked up Bible verses that covered the same and gave extremely similar, Biblical definitions, which I wrote out on index cards for her. (Honest: Leviticus 19:11, Fair: Leviticus 19:15)
She drew a picture of Lupe, the flower from her daisy book that portrays the lessons of honesty and fairness. Then we also found printables of the Bible story of Ananias and Sapphira.
We also read additional books- biographies from our Value-Series... The Story of Cochise, Truth and Trust & The Story of Nellie Bly, Fairness. She drew pictures of them, too. Loved getting the extra opportunity for those additional historical profiles in for a relevant tie-in.
She presented it to her AWANA leaders and small group. Then the following week she shared it with her Girl Scout Troop at award night and got her My Promise, My Faith Year-1 Pin along with her other badges.
What an awesome opportunity for her to work on a cross-curricular project which she could present at both her weekly clubs. We plan to hold onto it as one of her year-end displays for our homeschool group's End-of-the-Year Showcase, as well.







"Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." -Deuteronomy 11:19