Winters on the homestead are an opportunity to slow down from the hustle and bustle that spring, summer, and fall bring. It is a blessed reminder that there is a time for reaping and a time for sowing, a time for working and a time for resting. But if your kids are anything like my three, resting can get boring pretty quickly. Especially if you are housebound for days or weeks on end. Over the last two years, I have found fun, low-stress, and creative ways to entertain our kids on the homestead in the winter and this post contains my best ideas.
When we left the city, we moved to a small town with fierce winters compared to what we were used to. And living in a small town means limited road access during severe snowfall for days or even weeks. We were slowly losing our minds and needed ways to expel energy despite being stuck inside. When the kids were super little I would do simple crafts or activities, but as their energy cannons got bigger and longer-lasting, those little activities sprinkled throughout our daily routine no longer cut it.
Though there are still times when they will become absolutely enthralled with a bug crawling across the floor and entertain themselves for half an hour, I also needed a list at-the-ready for when the dreaded “B” statement came spilling out: “MOM! I’m bored.”
Outdoor winter activities
These ideas have been born out of our city life and homesteading life. These will work wherever you are! On those snowy days in the long winter months, it is difficult to find fun and excitement when thinking about getting outside. It takes a lot of effort to get all of the kids bundled up and facing the cold and wind.
While a snowball fight, snow fort, and making snow angels are fun in theory, they aren’t the most practical for younger children. Also, if you live in a really cold area, your children likely won’t be able to stay outside for very long. This equals not much fun for Mom, who likely invests more time and energy in getting the kids dressed than they spend outside.
A lot of the time, my little kids looked more forward to the hot chocolate to warm themselves up after playing outside than they did going outside at all. They found an easy way to get a nice treat after the cabin fever set in. And though I don’t blame them, as I tend to treat myself more when I’ve had enough snow and it’s only the second week of January, we needed more physical activity and fun that didn’t require outdoor activities for the smaller children.
Therefore, although playing in the snow can be a great time and it is worth it on occasion, with three kids six and under, I had to come up with more ideas to entertain my kids and give myself breadth throughout the cold days. Whether you subscribe to the 1,000 hours outside goal or not, hopefully we can all agree that fresh air is extremely beneficial to humans and Vitamin D is super important, especially in the winter season.
That is why when the sun is shining but there is still snow on the ground, I will fill a water bottle with water and food coloring and let my children “paint” the snow or create their favorite snow animals with realistic colors. This is one activity that will keep them outside a little longer than if they are expected to simply free range and explore outside unsupervised.
We will also collect pinecones in the fall/early winter to create bird feeders for the birds that don’t fly south for the winter (or for our own backyard chickens). This is a great activity for the days that are simply just cold but doesn’t require snow.
When the temperature is just way too cold and the wind is blowing like a madman, we will collect snow from the back deck and make “snow ice cream” or put the snow in a tote for a fun sensory bin to explore inside.
Indoor activity ideas for the winter days
Our first winter on the homestead, I struggled with being so home-centered and finding things for our young children to do all day. In the city, we were rarely home-bound and after about two days I began to feel like a caged rat if I didn’t leave the house. It is now common for me to go a week or more without ever leaving the house in the winter, so I have gotten creative with keeping the children busy and too distracted to rip each other’s hair out over the orange play-doh.
Speaking of play-doh, it doesn’t hurt to invest in a play-doh tool set to keep the kids’ creative juices flowing. My kids love to roll out the dough to make “cookies” and “cakes” with all sorts of cut shapes as decoration. Even the one-and-a-half year old is entertained for 10-15 minutes if I can keep her from eating it and losing privileges. I try to keep toys and clutter to a minimum in our house, but these things are worth the money and storage space!
There are also fun winter activities that require only things that you probably already have around the house. Some of my favorite ways to entertain the whole family during a cold winter day are decorating the house, planning an art project, teaching the children a new skill, and inviting them into the kitchen.
Decorate the house to shake the winter blues!
Beat the winter season funk by decorating the house. It could be for an upcoming holiday (see here for a fun list) or to simply shake up your routine! I really enjoy making my kids feel special on their birthdays by decorating above the kitchen table and their bedroom door and other places around the house. Therefore, we have a plethora of the cheap dollar store paper streamers and balloons stored in the basement. Because it is super cheap, I don’t mind using it on days when mentally I need a break or some cheering up.
One of my really fun ideas that the kids like to recreate over and over is decorating the house for different events. Whether it is for a birthday party, a random Tuesday, or National Donut Day, my children are here for it. While I really enjoy decorating the night before for birthdays and surprising the kids the next day, there are times we hold parties or get togethers for friends and family that I allow the kids to help plan for.
This could be considered a hosting skill, which would fall under a valuable life skill for homesteaders and city folk alike. But it also unleashes creativity and honestly just brightens even the dreariest of winter skies. I honestly thought balloons and streamers were just for kids until I started having kids of my own. Now I realize they are for the entire family! And what better way to combat the winter blues than to find a reason to celebrate?
We can also extend this house decorating to being an entire palooza event outfitted with a dance party, fun indoor activities like board games and a winter scavenger hunt, and our favorite snack with a side of hot cocoa.
I love this idea because I can be as involved and highly prepped as I want to be. Or I can let the kids go to town on the decorating and planning and just show up to the party.
If you don’t have the energy to decorate the house alongside your children, that’s okay! Just hand them the steamers and let them go to town! There are some days that I just need a mental break but don’t want to plop my kids in front of their tv babysitter. So on those days I started breaking out the really cheap party decorations and created stories about what has happened in a fictional land, what the characters are, and what celebration we are decorating for. There are times I will join in, but a lot of the time, they take the reins and want to surprise me with their completed work. Score!
On this day, I was a new zookeeper who wanted to welcome the new baby pandas to their exhibit by throwing them a surprise party. My older children acted like a cheetah and a mermaid while decorating, which was also entertaining to watch and provided them physical activity to boot.
So often we strip our kids of their individuality and their creativity by doing things for them. Now that my girls are getting older and the middle daughter is getting better at narrating stories and pretending, I typically stand back and watch. If they need a little prompting, I will gladly give it, but I love to watch their little minds at work (and play). What a privilege it is to be an observer and a student of my own children!
Art projects and crafts for winter fun
Spending the day stuck inside doesn’t seem so boring when your creative juices are flowing. That is why I love to come up with crafts and projects for the older kids to do that can still be adapted for our younger family members. This is also a great way to still fulfill homeschooling art requirements any time of year and in a fun way.
There are times that I will be a fantastic mom and plan ahead of time for more involved indoor winter activities. I’ll pull out the pipe cleaners and beads to make cute little winter birds with googly eyes. Maybe I’ll even plan for a few different activities for hours of entertainment, like painting a canvas for an upcoming holiday or grandparent’s birthday with all three of the kids’ handprints on it or make a gingerbread house with graham crackers or even build towers out of marshmallows and toothpicks.
When I am not that ambitious (aka 98% of the time because that takes effort and effort is very tiring with younger kids), I like to complete easy winter crafts that include snowflakes and the color blue but the primary supplies are simply a toilet paper roll, some stickers, and a marker or two. Paper snowflakes are a good idea because we can incorporate some school into it, discussing how they are made and how every single one is unique, much like each and every person we meet.
When I’m feeling like one of those real Pinterest moms, I’ll even pull out the white coffee filters and let all three of my small children cut and color them. Then, by dripping water on them with a thin straw, we can create really cool and abstract watercolor snowflakes to decorate the windows with. You may need a towel and some extra patience in case the water gets spilled, but it’s totally worth it. And they make great pictures!
Another great option is decorating a huge box with tissue paper, markers, stickers, and construction paper to pretend to be a race car driver or an astronaut or even a little kitty mermaid stuck in an underwater castle. We still have kids in diapers at City Folk Homestead, so there are many times that we use these boxes as modes of transportation into fantasy lands. Large mailing boxes also work or even just an old plastic tote lying around. Kids do not need as much adult participation as we think they do. They really just need our encouragement (and sometimes supervision when working with different tools!).
Practice homesteading and homemaking skills during the long winter days
Every other season in the year seems to usher in a mountain of projects that need to be accomplished. Perhaps it’s the rejuvenation I feel with the longer days of sunshine. Perhaps it’s just the cultural norm. In any case, the hustle and bustle of growing to-do lists in the home and around the homestead leaves little to no room for additional activities or discipleship unless you make it.
It is easier for me to make this time in winter when my food preservation projects really only consist of learning new recipes from scratch and stocking the pantry with broths I’ve stored in the freezer all summer and fall like a squirrel stockpiling its nuts.
I have found the beauty in slow living over the last two years. Not without difficulty, however, as I am not accustomed to this heart set or lifestyle. My city folk roots still want to rebel against slowing down and sacrificing convenience for personal capability, but I’m pretty good at ignoring them now. At least most of the time.
In the winter, I am able to slow down and truly invest in my children. While I am learning new recipes and mastering different ways to preserve fall crops for the following year, my children are also inspired and encouraged to learn new skills of their own. This winter I learned how to dehydrate onions and garlic and make my own homemade powders for the first time. I’ve also perfected my frozen minced onion pucks for my cooking preferences. This meal prep technique is explained in my post here.
During the time I was in the kitchen learning new skills, I took advantage of teaching my kids about the things that slowed me down. This included peeling the garlic and onions and putting the papery skins in freezer bags for broth, cutting a new variety of foods like apples and cucumbers, peeling oranges and saving the peels for simmer pots, and my oldest now even knows how to properly ladle broth into the jars for canning.
The first priority for me was to identify the things I wanted to accomplish this winter and how I could complete these goals with the children in the home. This looked like prepping for a project with the kids’ help but waiting until my husband got home to really dive in or simply waiting until the girls went to bed. I also evaluated each child’s skill level and experience in the kitchen, looking for ways to bridge the gap in their knowledge or how to build upon the foundation in new ways. This did take a bit of prep work and forethought on my end, but the growth we have experienced in our home this winter was well worth the effort. I was especially motivated with the new baby’s pending arrival and knew next winter season may not be as productive. And that’s okay. Life is all about balance, which brings me back to the beauty of the slow, housebound winter season.
Teach your children a new homemaking skill, such as sewing, knitting, or building with construction materials
The first suggestion I have for investing in your children’s skills during the winter is teaching them a new homemaking skill. This can easily be applied to both girls and boys, though the final product can look really different depending on your kids’ needs, skill level, and interests.
As of now, we only have our three girls. Soon we will be adding a boy to the mix and I will be able to speak on encouraging homesteading skills in both genders. But for now, I only have the experience with my girls to go off of. They do have extremely different interests, though, which does prompt me to get creative in bringing all of my children to the same table when projects need to be done or lessons need to be learned.
In the last two years, our oldest daughter has shown interest in sewing. I do not really know how to sew other than a button on my husband’s dress shirt. Sewing is not an area I feel confident or even competent in. I don’t want that excuse to stop my child from pursuing her interests though. So I asked around and learned where I could buy plastic sewing needles and some scrap fabric and let her go to town. She has made pillows for her dolls and even a large pillow for her sister that she sleeps with every night. It is so sweet to see their sisterly bond. It’s helpful to remind myself of these moments when they’re fighting nonstop like cats and dogs!
She has also always enjoyed working and building with her hands. She has been helping Daddy change the tires on our cars, fixing circuits in toys with electrical tape, and patching holes in the drywall since she was a toddler. We really try to equip our kids with hands-on skills and therefore each of the girls are invited to work with us in these projects. So far, the oldest is the most interested in these types of projects, which is totally fine. We want to encourage, not push our own agenda onto our children.
Homesteading has really helped us in giving our girls exposure to working with their hands and building things. If we do not have the proper tools for a certain project, however, we do have to outsource.
Our local community recently held a woodworking workshop for dads and daughters to bond and learn new skills together. Sometimes we don’t have the tools or knowledge ourselves, so we have to seek those resources and opportunities elsewhere. Look into your local community offerings and be intentional with investing in your children. This event was free, others are not. My husband and I have decided investing in our children’s knowledge and physical capabilities of providing for themselves and building with their hands is much more valuable than any toy or zoo trip we could provide them.
Though it isn’t always practical to have one-on-one time with each child due to childcare scheduling, budgetary restrictions, etc., it is absolutely worth it when we can. Especially when a lot of these experiences are free or limited cost! If this is something you truly can’t do, whether because of the issues I already presented or simply your children’s ages at this time, stay tuned. There are plenty more ideas in this post (and the rest of them can happen in your very own home!).
Our middle daughter is still a toddler, but she has her own interests that I try to frequently provide opportunities for. For the last year, she has really enjoyed helping Mommy by cleaning the dishes in the sink and making her own sandwiches for lunch. We have made it a parenting rule in our home to not punish behavior we wish to see repeated (thank you, Jordan Peterson), so I encourage her to explore these interests often. She also enjoys running the vacuum and mopping and is a really big help to me in the cleaning department.
The youngest sister is really only into touching, exploring, and tasting pretty much everything. But that’s to be expected of a one-year-old. Whenever we have a kitchen activity that the whole family is working on, I make sure everything is safe for her and let her do her thing. She’ll learn what tastes good and what doesn’t very quickly this way!
Invite your kids into the kitchen!
It is particularly fun for me to learn alongside my children—when I am not on a time crunch and have the mental bandwidth to embody slow living and a heart of discipleship. There are many days when I am learning a new recipe or cooking technique that I do not invite my kids into the kitchen with me simply because I need to conserve my focus and energy so I can get dinner on the table unburned.
But there are also many times that I enjoy learning new things alongside my children, as they can see how an adult processes things and even remembers things. By repeating them, over and over and over again. In the picture above, my mom came over to teach me and my oldest daughter how to roast a turkey. My daughter claimed ownership over basting the turkey and did a fabulous job. As a mom, that was pretty cool to see her get so excited about trying something new and succeeding in it. The satisfaction on her face when she tasted the meat for the first time was awesome.
Check out my post “A ‘How To’ on including small children in the kitchen” for specific steps on how to include your children in the kitchen. Although this will slow your meal preparation down, when you’re stuck at home, what’s the rush? Take the time to teach your child a new skill and invite them into what is typically your space. As it becomes easier and more natural, and your child’s capabilities expand, you won’t regret investing in the future in this way.
Your children will appreciate you recognizing their capabilities, as everyone likes to feel more “grown” than they really are. And you will be establishing a strong relationship built on trustworthiness, respect, and shared memories that truly will last beyond your lifetime.
Do you like these ideas but wish there were more?
I have a free downloadable list of 54 unique winter kids activities that I would love to share with you! This is a great list to have on hand and whip out whenever boredom strikes in the home. There are extremely low effort ideas and also ideas on how to get your kids involved in a fun and exciting way to clean your home and put away the laundry! Don’t miss out! Get your free list of absolutely UNIQUE indoor kids activities below.
Sign up for this free list here and start making fun winter memories with your kids today!
More on young kids & homemaking from City Folk Homestead
Low-Effort Tips for Homemaking with Young Kids
Gift Your Little Chef The Best Kids Kitchen Tools for Winter
How To DIY This Simple Citrus-Scented Vinegar!
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