Stuck Inside

In Upstate New York, the cold weather and snow has forced parents to be more creative in terms of occupying the little ones inside, especially during the pandemic where we cannot go in public as much.

The temperatures outside lately have been quite frigid and therefore, we have not been able to play in the snow as much as I would like. I love playing in the snow and I am beyond pumped to build some igloo’s and tunnels with Noah, once we get a nice blast of lake effect snow.

Since we have been stuck inside, I have tried to be creative and keep things interesting so that we do not get bored easily.

Here are some of the things I have done to mix things up a little bit.

· I bought a 100 pack of glow sticks and we play in walk-in closets or in the bath tub with our glow sticks.

· We set Noah’s small table with pretend food, and put different animals in the chairs and pretend that we are cooking for them or feeding them.

· We take all of the toilet paper, paper towels, and tissues and construct giant towers in the family room.

· We use kitchen chairs to create forts with blankets or use cushions for tunnels.

· We clear the family room floor, put on music, and go wild and have a dance party!

· We have a floor mat (probably 5 ft. X 5 ft.) that has roads and vehicles on it. We gather Noah’s toy cars, school bus, food truck, garbage truck, and pretty much everything that has wheels, and chase each other, or make up silly stories.

· We facetime with family or friends and show them new tricks or toys.

· We chase each other on the ride on car and ride on horse. Noah always makes me ride on the horse and I am much too big to fit on that thing, but what the heck. Maybe it’ll break and I won’t have to ride on it again (is that terrible of me to think?).

· We manipulate our Nugget Couch pieces and create a slide, tunnels, forts, hide-outs, and pretty much anything we can crawl in, climb on, slide on, or jump on.

Adults get bored doing the same thing over and over, so why should kids be any different. Keeping things interesting and different has allowed us to be creative and have fun with the same toys, but in multiple ways.