As the first semester of this school year comes to a close and we begin our winter break, teachers everywhere wish their students and families well. Winter break is a chance to forgo the bustle of morning school routines for ones filled with family fun. Children (and their parents) need opportunities to unplug; to find opportunities to spend unstructured time playing together.
Some winter break activities include:
Exploring local museums. Most have free and discount days.
Sledding, ice skating and building snow structures.
Painting the snow and ice with food coloring. To do this, put a few drops of the food coloring into a container with water. A house paint brush is best for little hands as it can be grasped while wearing waterproof mittens.
Creating—any material can be used to create. This includes painting, building structures out of recycled or natural materials, including sticks, pine cones and leaves.
Building forts out of couch cushions, pillows and every spare blanket in the house.
Playing board games. I love the games published by Cranium. They can easily be modified for any age. There is nothing quite like flipping frogs through the house with the hopes of getting one to land in mom’s hair. (An actual instruction from one of the games!)
I wish everyone a winter break filled with joy, fun and rest. We hope the warmth of the season provides opportunities to spend time laughing with friends and family.
Happy Holidays! See you in 2019!