How To Keep Your Child Active During The Winter
When you come home after a long nursing shift, it can be hard to keep up with your high-energy child—especially if they’re doing remote learning. If your kids stick to the indoors during the winter, it can keep their energy levels high and result in them bouncing off the walls all day.
During the winter and the pandemic, it’s more important than ever to find enriching ways to burn off that stored energy—whether they spend it indoors or outdoors. No matter if you are working the day or night shift, here are tips for how to keep your child active during the winter that will help you and your child have fun and maintain a routine.
Here are helpful ideas to keep your child active during the winter months:
Find New Winter Activities
While winter may provide less-than-friendly climates and fewer options for fun, it does offer a wider variety of outdoor activities and sports that anyone can do alone or in a small group. This year could be the one when you teach your child how to ski or that they finally learn how to snowboard. If they’ve shown interest in any winter sport, prepare them this winter with the right equipment so that they can begin learning early.
Once they’ve learned how to ski or snowboard, it may provide you with future vacation ideas for later years. Just remember to dress them properly for cold weather and ensure that they’re taking breaks when they need to.
Keep The Kids Active On Your Days Off
After a long week of work, you may just want to slump down in your favorite chair and watch your favorite shows uninterrupted. This busy time working and raising small children won’t last forever, so make the most of each day you have. Spend parts of your days off playing outside in the snow with your children. If you don’t live in the snow, plan day hikes or scavenger hunts outside. The extra time you spend with them will satisfy both the need for fun activities and their desire for attention from mom.
Indoor Physical Activity for Especially Cold Days
As much as you may avoid using your home as an indoor playground for your kids, it may be necessary when the weather becomes worse than you or your children can handle. Creating a designated playroom or area is the first step for indoor play that will keep your child active during the winter. Don’t decorate the room with anything fragile, avoid hard surfaces, and ensure there’s plenty of open space.
Get creative when coming up with games, and participate when you can. Classic rainy-day games like The Floor is Lava and Charades are perfect for cold winter days and only require you to move as much as you want to. Even just a family board game night can provide enough activity to make your whole family happy.
Additional recommended reading:
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