A Day of Winter Indoor Activities

Today is still super cold, so I think we'll spend the day indoors. Which, of course, means to pull from my repertoire of indoor activities.

So, knowing that so many families have to keep the kids occupied inside, here's a day of planned out for you to use as is or as a template for your own plans:

Some Cooking: Start a pot of stew! That way, by this evening, we'll have a nice, comforting meal ready and waiting. My favorite stew recipe is Five Hour Beef Stew found at the Kids Recipe Club (http://www.kidsrecipeclub.com). There are also a few other stew recipes.

If you have a favorite stew recipe that you'd like to share with the Recipe Club, please do so. Just click "submit your recipe" in the "Kids Recipes" menu box.

While we cook, we'll talk about the different nutrients in the vegetables and why they are important to our diets.

Some Homeschool - we took a day off yesterday because the kids weren't feeling too well, but today is a definite. We will need to burn a little brain power to help deal with cabin fever and built up energy.

For your your kids, you might enjoy the free Math worksheet at http://wwww.homeschoolcookbook.com/free_math_worksheet.htm or the free coloring pages at http://www.homeschoolinglibrary.com/free_kids_coloring_pages.htm .

Some Lunch - today we will be having sandwiches and home made hot chocolate. I like to do sandwiches with the kids as another way to help develop hand muscles. Slicing (when age appropriate, of course!) and spreading require use of gross and fine motor skills.

The homemade hot chocolate creates camaraderie and is just downright enjoyable on a cold day! Here's where we'll select our beverage recipe: http://www.kidsrecipeclub.com .

Some Energy burning - yes, I realize that the hot chocolate has sugar that's going to escalate things :-), so we'll immeadiately do something very taxing!

We'll start with some jumping jacks. The kids love them and that helps with coordination too.

Then we'll do a "bear hunt" and walk around the house doing movements for marching, swimming, climbing - hey, we'll probably go up and down the stairs a few times too. That'll give me a nice workout!

And then, to cool down, we'll play a little tug of war with our puppy.

Some quite time - after our physical activity, we'll all sit down on the sofa and I'll read to them.

Right now, we are reading two books. And, the one I'm pretty sure they'll want to hear today is some more of "Where the Red Fern Grows". I'm just dreading getting to the end!!!

Some cooperative working together - it'll be getting close to dinner time by now. So, as a family, we'll set the table and get everything ready to enjoy our heart-warming stew!

So, whether you follow or plan or create your own, winter indoor acitivies can be fun and educational without emptying your wallet or leaving you exhausted. Plan your own "shut-in" day.