Wondering how you can entertain your kid this winter? Whether they prefer being indoors or are yearning for an outdoor adventure, these winter family bonding activities are a great way to make memories and keep active. Here are 5 activities to bond with your child during a Kentucky winter:
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Winter Picnic with Frozen Bubbles
Picnics are always a hit. You get to spend some quality time together with good food and games. It’s also an excellent outdoor activity to get some fresh air and sun– as little as it may be.
When the weather is slightly warmer than usual, pack a winter picnic basket and head to a local park for your picnic. Try to find a park with tables or shelters so you have somewhere comfortable to sit.
Some meals that may go down well:
- Soups in a thermos.
- Sandwiches or wraps in foil
- Sourdough bread and cheese/salami?
- Tea, hot cocoa or coffee
- Ingredients for smores
You can either build a fire when you’re there or make some food and take it with you so you can focus on other activities. If you have younger kids, packing ready-to-eat meals will work well so you can focus on hiking, trail watching and making frozen bubbles.
They will adore blowing bubbles and watching them freeze from the snow! You can use regular bubble solution and a regular bubble wand for this activity. The trick is to blow the bubble, then catch it on the wand. Try go for your picnic on a day with less wind so the bubbles stay put while they form their delicate crystal consistency.
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Skiing
Two Skii resorts worth visiting are the Perfect North Slopes and Paoli Peaks. Perfect North is an hour and a half drive from the Kentucky border. It has 23 trails allowing for different skill levels from beginner to expert. It also has a tubing hill if your kids want to take a break from skiing.
Hello, road trip. Paoli Peaks is about two hours from Louisville, so you’ll want to pack some pre-ski snacks like trail mix or granola bars for energy. Sing along to your kid’s favorite music and play ‘I Spy’ to bond with your kids on the trip.
Paoli Peaks They have a bunny hill for young ones, and several types of terrain for beginners, experts and even some with trees. They offer rentals and lessons, which helps if skiing is just a once-in-a-while endeavor for you.
Before skiing, you will want to prepare your kids for sliding around in the snow.
A proper ski outfit has several layers:
- Base layer – thermal vests, socks and tights
- An insulating layer – fleece
- Ski jacket and socks
- Ski pants – should be insulated, waterproof and breathable
- Neck gaiter
- Gloves
- Goggles
You should practice wearing ski clothes at home so they’re comfortable in gear by the time they start skiing and can focus on cool tricks and having fun.
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Make Festive Greeting Cards
Maybe your family has always taken Christmas photos for greeting cards or sent out store-bought ones with messages inside. This winter, you could huddle up with your kids and make cute, memorable cards for your loved ones. Imagine their delight when they receive a personal card handmade with love.
Arts and Crafts activities have bonding benefits like improving communication, boosting confidence and building problem-solving skills. As you explain directions, discuss ideas and work on the project together, you connect on a deeper level.
It’s also a great way to show praise and support them, which can help them feel confident in their abilities. Crafts are bound to bring up oopsies that need fixing, which is an excellent opportunity to model problem-solving skills and develop the skill in your children.
Some ideas you may want to try
- Fingerprint cards: Your kids can make cute decorations with fingerprints and paint on plain cardboard paper. It could be a fingerprint Christmas tree or multi-colored lights (for this you will need different colors, and to draw the string as a guide before they start) or reindeer.
- Shape cards: You can turn a simple triangle into a beautifully decorated Christmas tree or Santa’s hat with tiny tinsel and cotton.
- Snowman cards: You’ll need cotton, felt cards for bows, buttons and hats and other accessories.
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Fun Day
One of the best ways to bond with your kids is to play with them. When temperatures drop below 28°F in Kentuckiana, keep the winter blues away with a fun day. While staying in on super cold days may seem like the best option, you can still get your kids their recommended 60 minutes of moderate exercise by visiting a fun center.
You can take them for a bowling trip to Dixie Bowl in Louisville, or you can take them to Ralph’s Fun Centre in Glasgow for a jamp packed afternoon of laser tag, bowling, rollerskating, miniature golf and arcade games. The center opens at four p.m., which gives you plenty of time to prepare and get ready before heading off.
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Find and Feed Winter Birds
Welcome the winter visitors with a bird feeder and some seeds. Bird-finding is an engaging activity that teaches them more about nature and compassion for animals. Some may only approach certain kinds of feeders, so you may have to research and make an adventure out of finding the bird feeder for the birds your kids want to see.
Some birds you might find:
- White-breasted Nuthatches: A small chunky bird with a long pointed beak and a short tail. It’s grey with a black crown and tail fathers. They eat black oil sunflower seeds, peanuts and suet.
- Carolina Chickadees: If you spot one of these, you will enjoy the ‘chick-a-dee-dee-dee’ call and ‘fee-be, fee-bay’ song the bird is known for. It has a grey back, wings and tail and a pale gray flank and breast with a black and white face. They will eat seeds, black oil sunflower seeds and suet from any bird feeder.
- Blue Jays: This bird will stand out with it’s blue, black and white feathers and the black ring wrapped around it’s head. They eat sunflower seeds and peanuts from hopper or platform feeders.
- Northern Cardinals: These small birds have thick orange beaks and black chin and throats. male birds are bright red while the females are brown. They eat sunflower and safflower seeds from platform and hopper feeders, but will also eat on the ground.
Fun Ways to Bond With Your Child This Winter
Make winter memorable with these family bonding activities. From a winter picnic to bird feeding, these activities will be a hit.
