SHELLEY HEAPHY for The Parents’ Voice
This past weekend blanketed our ground with beautiful, sparkling snow. I am just like my kids, when the first flakes begin to fall I get super excited and all warm and fuzzy inside. I ignore the cleaning off of cars, and mucky feet and concentrate on Christmas vibes and fun snow activities. My kids were so excited to get out there and make snow angels, shovel and have some fun. Of course with the new snow means a few changes with outdoor gear.
Read on for some tips and tricks for winter weather and kids.
1. Get winter gear ready. The whole bit, snow pants, coat, neck warmer, waterproof mitts and a tuque. Once snow hits to ground the waterproof mitts are much more useful to your child. Not many children refrain from touching the snow.
2. Label everything. You can use a permanent marker and put their initials in everything or use labels. Mitts are the quickest things to go missing (we went through three pairs for one child last year.)
3. Have a place to dry mitts and boots at the end of the day. Choose a heat register or mitt drying rack, each day these items will most likely need drying.
4. For school send extras! Extra socks and mitts, every day. Kids go outdoors three times a day.
5. For little ones consider a one piece snowsuit, some older kids like one-piece suits as well. I think I used them until ago two. For under two-year-olds its often much easier to dress them if it’s a one-piece, it can often be a bit less bulky which helps them be able to move around better.
6. For really little ones that are still in a bucket seat, outdoor walks are great for mom and them to get some fresh air. I used the bucket seat covers with very warm clothing underneath and a hat.
7. At the end of winter search for extra mittens for the next year, they are so much less expensive.
Winter Activities
Sliding — A favourite over here and such good exercise. Climbing up that hill time and time again is great exercise. If your littles are little, its great exercise for you having to pull them back up. All you need is any kind of slide.
Snowballs/Fort — The best way to let creativity run wild is to build, build, build. I’ve seen my little ones make bathtub, libraries and parks in the snowbanks. The sky is the limit. You can use paint to enhance anything they create in the snow.
Snow sensory bin — On days when it’s just too cold out for your little ones bring the snow inside. Get a tub and fill it up with snow. Add warm water (you can even colour it), measuring cups, spoons, pails and anything else you can think of. Make sure you get their mitts out for them so their hands don’t get too cold.
Snowshoeing — This is a great way to explore our beautiful fields. If you don’t have any snowshoes you can search the for sale sites for some cheap ones.
Skating, skiing, snowboarding —These are all wonderful, fun winter sports. This may be the best winter to help your child learn a new sport. Looks like we will have all the time in the world to spend evening and weekends outdoors together.
However you and your little ones decide to enjoy the beautiful snow, put everything else in your brain on hold and just enjoy the moment.
*Last week I wrote about winter and car seats. If you missed that article send me a Facebook message, some really important information that I love to share before winter.
