Anyone else getting a bit of cabin fever these days? That shining sun makes me long for the warm weather but one step outside and I know it’s not happening anytime soon! brrr….
Here’s 5 ways you can keep your boys busy inside while the weather is frightful outside!
1. Toy Swap
Toy swap can be done a few different ways. Siblings can trade of a toy each for the day or if you have friends with kids the same age, a family trade can be a great way to add new and exciting toys and games to the mix without having to buy more stuff. Swap a couple of your families favourite board games with friends or neighbours for the weekend and both families will have fun trying out something new! One of them might just become your new family favourite too! The same can be done with video games, books and movies!
2. Get Cookin’
I love having my boys help in the kitchen, it’s actually one of the things I miss the most having them all in school now and sometimes I’ll wait to do my baking until after school so I can have a little buddy help me out. March Break and Snow Days are a great time to bake and cook to your hearts content! Make large batches and freeze some for busy weeks ahead!
Have your child meal plan! Let each child pick the menu for one dinner and have them work in the kitchen with you to prepare it! I know my boys would pick homemade pizza and it’s a fun one for the whole family to get involved with! Sometimes when Dad is away, we skip the dough making and each make our own personal pizzas using pita bread as the base! It’s perfect!
3. Fort Building
This one does require some patience because it’s hard to watch all the blankets and cushions in the house pile onto to the floor, but it’s a great activity for the kids and can fill a fair bit of time! From the building process to the playing inside and if you lucky an afternoon nap, the fort can be put to good use for the whole day! Add in some stuffies, pillows and books and offer up some mess free snacks to nibble on it there!
4. Get Creative
If your boys love to build and craft, save some big boxes for indoor days. Let them colour them up and create rocket ships, houses, cars or whatever their heart desires.
Not so crafty? Try some homemade playdough or gak (Flubber)!! Search online for playdough recipes, there are so many! I love the ones that use koolaid to colour the playdough because they smell so good! And I don’t know a boy alive that could resist playing with the slippery, stretchy gak! Follow our instructions here.
5. Sticker Books
My boys were never really into stickers until they got their hands on sticker books from DK Canada. From the movie Frozen, to Angry Birds and LEGO, there is a sticker book for every kid in the family. DK Canada sticker books are way more than just stickers though, they are super thick and come with more than 1000 stickers! The pages offer spots to match the stickers in the back of the book to build the story for each page and the stickers are reusable too so you can peel them back up and move them around.
My boys each got a book for Valentines Day, which also happened to coincide with a road trip that weekend. My 7 year old happily worked away on his book in the back of the van and only stopped because it got too dark out for him to see! He is on book number four in the Harry Potter series, so he loved that this sticker book referenced all of the books together! He could remember scenes from previous scenes and got really excited about the images from the Triward Tournament that is coming up in his current book! The LEGO Movie book was perfect timing as well, since we just took the boys to the theatre to see it last weekend! Middle Man whispered to us throughout the movie, “that’s in my sticker book!”
Visit the DK Canada Website to see the full selection of books available.
Right now you can Buy Two Sticker Books and Get a Third one for Free!
Congrats on the Canadian blog award!
Thanks so much Freda!
I loved GAK when I was a kid. I had a bunch of different colors. Making sounds by pushing it into the container was the best lol 🙂 Recipe looks so easy, pinned for later!
I’ve never used the store bought stuff, but I totally love the odd sounds too, makes us giggle!
It has been a long long winter!! With it being so cold, there are only so many times we can go out side. Inside is getting rather boring! These are great ideas!! I love sticker books!! They keep the kids busy for hours and are great for the car or dr office!
I used to love sticker books as a kid. I bet these were a lot of fun. Also who doesn’t love fort building?
my brother and I were always building forts when we were kids!
My 4 year old is all about stickers these days. If only she’d confine them to her sticker books, you know? 🙂
so far we haven’t had that problem, but I can imagine! lol
My youngest son still loves building forts while my oldest son is taking an interest in cooking. Two great ways to keep them entertained during the winter and all year long!
You’ve got great ideas but the one I remember doing myself is building a fort and I loved it