Banish the Winter Blues

I had a friend ask what we do in the winter time when it's too cold to be outside.  Here is my list of things that we find interesting....not all my own ideas, but all good.

We're all girls over here....so we play with a lot of DOLLS....I'm not kidding.  Sophie carries, nurses, changes, wipes, dresses, undresses, bathes...basically she is one good momma to those babies. 

We love it, but we do take a break from raising these dolls into responsible, respectful young ladies to have some fun.  Here is my real list:

My Secrets for Banishing the Winter Blues

My secret weapons (yes, I have these):

**Laurie Berkner Band.  The  Goldfish song here and the Dinosaur song here are our favorites.  We listen to them 80 times a day and I'm pretty sure dancing with my kiddos makes me the coolest parent ALIVE!  She has a bunch of other songs that are all good too. And also on Youtube. 

**Sesame Street on Youtube.  3 minute songs.  These are my kids favorites:

Adam Sandler

Ricky Gervais

Bruno Mars

Will.i.am

(Thank you Steff...I must credit her for introducing me to the real gems of YouTube)

**Make these Egg Shakers (they are the coolest) and dance to this song.

**Buy some of these clear water gels on Amazon and soak them in water overnight.  Cheap and best entertainment EVER....

Other obvious, but good ones:

-Hide and seek

-Playdoh.  Get out every cookie cuter you own and your rolling pins....your kids will love you.

-Build and kick over towers.  We use our blocks sometimes, but I also get out all of my small acrylic paint bottles because they stack easily and it's more fun to kick over towers that are not made out of toys.

-Mom school. I usually pick a new letter everyday and we practice drawing it on her easel and make up stories and songs about it.

-Make movies on your phone or computer and watch them together. Ours are typically dancing and workout videos....don't ask.

-Make movies to send to your relatives.  My family loves getting personal video's from my kids and my kids are obsessed with making them.  Win/win.

-Play kitchen/pretend cook.  We have a play kitchen, but even if you don't you could set one up with your pots/pans and other things around your kitchen.

-Pretend school

-Tell stories. Make props to go with them.

-Write letters to missionaries and cousins.

-Call grandparents or cousins.

-Pretend church meetings.  This one was my daughters idea.  She gets out my YW's binder and pretends to write in it while I ask her questions about nursery, prophets, and Jesus.

-dress-up in mom or dads clothes

-paint nails (we do this so much my 2 year old can paint her own....I kid you not)

Things you have to do anyways:

-Clean (I give Sophie her own squirt bottle filled with water, vinegar, and essential oil and a rag and she goes crazy...it's awesome)

-Cook together
-Workout together (Sophie get's really into it....I'm in the process of making her a set of 'dumbells')

SIDE NOTE--I'm a big fan of letting kids do daily tasks with you.  It will take you longer, but your stuck inside anyways, so who cares?

**A bit more complicated:

-I have a ton of fun ideas on my 'Fun for Kiddos' Pinterest Board HERE.  We've done almost all of them and I think they are all fun.  Not all winter ones though.

Enjoy!