It’s natural to feel cramped up with the family when you have extended time off in the winter. However, this is the perfect time to bond together. Shut off the TV, collect the phones and turn off those video games to enjoy some screen-free quality time together.
Screen-Free Fun: 400 Activities for the Whole Family is a comprehensive collection of 400 screen-free activities to help you and the kids bring back the smiles when the winter blues take over. This book includes chapters focused on embracing your creativity, supporting your community, getting to know the great outdoors and riding out those road trips.
You don’t have to wait for the book to arrive, though, to boost your energy levels and smiles. Here are a few additional activities to compliment our first set of technology-free winter activities.
Tech-Free Fun: Play Hide and Seek
Put a new twist on hide-and-seek by using small items or toys in your home for hunting. Ideal for both indoor and outdoor play, this activity gives your children a reason to search high and low. Simply choose a few small items in your home, such as a toy, trinket, plastic ball, or even tiny pieces of candy (if you hide food, just be sure you know where the kids put it!). Assign one child to go and hide the treasures. Encourage your child to get creative and hide the items in hard-to find places. The options are endless for this game. Once the hiding is complete, allow the rest of your kids to seek to see who can find the most objects. Take turns assigning hiders and seekers to keep this activity going all day long.
From Chapter 1: Embrace Your Creativity
Tech-Free Fun: Have a Snowball Contest
Just because the temperatures are cold and snow is falling, you don’t have to limit screen-free activities to the indoor areas of your home. Bundle up the kids and get ready to test their arm strength with a snowball contest. Once the kids are appropriately bundled up, make a pile of snowballs. While a few of the kids are making snowballs, designate the older kids to create forts. You can create a full snow fort if the downfall is plentiful, or drag out cardboard boxes to create barriers if you only got a few inches. Divide the group into two teams and evenly distribute the snowballs. Once each child is safely secure behind the fort, start launching the snowballs in the air to see which team can dismantle the other team’s fort first.
From Chapter 2: Enjoy the Great Outdoors
Tech-Free Fun: Collect Coats for Donations
When the temperatures are frigid, it’s an ideal time to talk to your kids about their desires to help those in need. Homeless shelters are often in need of warm winter coats, gloves, and scarves. Have your kids start by digging through their own closets for gently used cold weather items. Next, make some flyers to hang up in your neighborhood or community advertising that you are collecting coats. Once you have a hefty collection of winter coats and warm-weather clothing, contact local organizations such as the American Red Cross or Goodwill to determine how to deliver the goods. Take your kids along to show them just how much their efforts are appreciated.
From Chapter 3: Support Your Community
Tech-Free Fun: Word Scrambles
Turn those holiday trips into an educational endeavor with this activity. Using a few words related to the closest holiday and a few handy notebooks and pens, you can help your kids form words and get into the holiday spirit while traveling. Begin by making a list of words related to the nearest holiday. For example, when it’s close to Halloween, add words to the list such as spooky, ghost, or witch. Then, have the kids try to make words from the letters within each of these words. For instance, for the word ghost, your children may come up with words such as hot or got. See how many words your children can create before moving onto the next word while driving along the road. If you have competitive siblings, consider deeming the person with the most words the winner for that round.
From Chapter 4: Put a Fun Twist on Local Travel
When making memories with the kids, you may find that you’re running out of room to do the activities you desire. If that’s the case, eliminate some clutter from your home with the spacious self storage units available from StorageMart. Utilize these climate-controlled, well-lit storage spaces for family time when you need to spread out, or find the perfect spot for excess furniture, appliances and bulky household items. Check out StorageMart to maximize your space this winter.