Here in central Indiana, winter can be a trying time for parents. You can only send the children outside in the snow for so long before you start worrying about frostbite and hypothermia. Kids have energy they need get out, an endless desire to get into stuff, and exceedingly short attention spans.
Couple that with parents suffering from cabin fever and a general desire to hibernate until May, and you can cut the tension with a knife.
After about a week of being cooped up in the house with our five-year-old and four-year-old, my wife and I are usually just as ready to climb the walls as are our kids. Since we’ve never been able to get a money tree to grow in our back yard, we’ve had to find free or inexpensive ways to save everyone’s sanity until the sweet, sweet sunlight reappears on the back side of winter.
Here are ten free or cheap activities–plus a special treat–that have worked for us:
Free
Play areas at fast food restaurants: Many fast food restaurants have elaborate indoor play areas that provide equipment for kids to climb on, run around, and slide down. (Shopping malls are often good for indoor playgrounds, too.) We’ve found that going at times other than meal rush hours–say, 3 p.m.–is a great way to avoid some of the crowds. It’s not like the restaurant police are making sure that you’re purchasing food there, but even if they are, by going at off-meal hours, a simple coffee or hot chocolate or a snack off their value menu is an inexpensive way around the rule. You can take the kids, sit there in the glass-enclosed play area and let the kids run wild and scream their lungs out while you monitor the one way in and out for escapees. Ear plugs are optional.
Sleepovers: Our kids love spending the night at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. They also love spending the night at a friend’s house. Assuming you’re comfortable with where they’re spending the night, dropping the kids off in the late afternoon and picking them up after breakfast can provide parents a break and some alone time for an evening. Excellent for recharging those parent-batteries. Grandparents enjoy spending time with their grandchildren, and other parents usually don’t mind the occasional sleepover because it establishes a reciprocal relationship, and they know they’ll have the same opportunity for a night out at some point down the road.
Public libraries: Not a good place to just unleash the banshees for an hour or two, but libraries are an excellent place to find stuff to do for free. Most libraries have regular activities or crafts, especially during the winter, and even if they don’t, there are enough books, magazines, and other resources there to keep kids occupied for quite some time.
Food coloring in the snow: Everyone’s pretty well-versed on not eating yellow snow, but what about blue snow? Green snow? Red snow? Grab some food coloring out of the cupboard, pour it in the snow, and let the kids create an artistic masterpiece. Our kids love having the yard as their canvas, and they enjoy discovering things such as that when red and yellow mix, they make orange.
Pool party in the bathtub: Fill up the bathtub, add some bubble bath, put the kids in their bathing suits, break out the cheap goggles, snorkels, squirt guns, and beach ball that you probably already have from the summer, turn on some fun music, and have yourself a pool party in the middle of winter!
Cheap
Coloring castle: My parents brought one of these coloring castles over for our kids recently, and I thought it was one of the most ingenious ideas ever. It doubles as a fun fort for the kids to play in and an enormous coloring book. For somewhere in the neighborhood of $20-25, you can get one of these castles that comes with pens that the kids use to color it on both the inside and the outside. A drawbridge and pop-out shutters on windows provide kids an imaginary kingdom, as well as an opportunity to color quietly. Our kids have played with theirs for weeks. Once it’s used up, it’s easily recyclable.
Baking for neighbors: Our kids love to help in the kitchen, and they love to sample the wares. Baking for neighbors is a fun activity for parents and kids to do together, plus it teaches kids a lesson about giving and sharing. It also gives parents a way of getting out of the house and socializing with other adults, even if only for a few minutes, as you walk with the kids to deliver the treats next door or across the street. Plus, a unexpected plate of warm cookies or a fresh tray of brownies puts a smile on anyone’s face, and that’s just cool.
Bounce house: We are fortunate to have a bounce house like this one in the Indianapolis metropolitan area. I assume they’re fairly universal, so you may want to see if you have one in your area. These things are awesome. At the place we visit, it’s $7 per kid, parents are free, and there are several air-filled apparatuses for the kids to jump on, slide down, and otherwise wear themselves out on. You can stay for 30 minutes or 8 hours. Whatever it takes to run those little hoodlums into the ground.
Family movie time: There are any number of ways to rent a movie, none of which are overly costly. Throw a movie in, pop some popcorn, everyone cuddle up on the couch under a blanket, and spend an hour or two of time together, sending your brains somewhere other than where it’s cold and snowy. Pixar movies are my favorites because they entertain adults and kids. If you want to slide this one up to the “free” category, check with other parents or family members to see what movies they have. Offer to trade a few, so you get some fresh material (even “Toy Story” gets old after the 93rd time watching it). Local public libraries also often have movies that can be borrowed.
Community resources: Our town’s Parks & Recreation department frequently offers crafts and activities for kids that are either free or dirt cheap. There are also nature parks, sledding hills, and other facilities owned by your city or county that can provide sources of entertainment for low or no cost. You might look into local organizations such as a YMCA (actually, I think they call themselves The Y now), Boys & Girls Club, and the like for winter programs, camps, or things to do, too.
Special Treat
Children’s museum: In Indianapolis, we have one of the–if not the–best children’s museums in the galaxy (not that I’m biased or anything), but I’ve also seen such museums in other cities, so I know the concept isn’t unique to Indy. These things are chock full of stuff designed to keep kids entertained and active longer than their little bodies can stand it.
The kicker is that these museums are quite expensive–at least the one here is–so this is an activity we have to plan and save our pennies for, and we just go there as an occasional treat. An annual membership is the way to go if you want to visit on a regular basis–or really, just more than once a year–but those are expensive, too. Here’s an idea: suggest to family members and anyone else looking for holiday gift ideas for your kids that they pool their money together and purchase a gift membership to your local children’s museum.
It’s the gift that keeps on giving.
This author is a Featured Contributor for the Yahoo! Contributor Network. You can follow him on Twitter at @RedZoneWriting and on Facebook.
