The snow has finally arrived; it looks like a Christmas card with powdery snow and the day looks brighter and happier.
We jump in to our snow gear and head out to enjoy the great weather. I’m a northern girl and I love all the seasons, because there are so many different activities we can do outside. I even get to change my wardrobe because of the change.
I actually like that fact that I can dig out my winter clothes and start using them again. I also like to try new products
that can be both fashionable and functional. The one important thing for both adults and children in the winter is you have
to dress according to the weather. (No bad weather, only bad clothing) If you do that you can really enjoy Mister Frost.
Why should we go outside when is cold? First of all, children (if they are properly dressed for the weather)
love natural changes in nature. And if you remember back in your childhood, I’m sure you have found memories about playing in
the snow.
According to Norwegian early childhood professor, Ingunn Fjørtoft, there is a consensus in Scandinavian countries that children who spend a lot of time outside are getting less colds and flu then kids that spend more time indoors.
One study in Sweden by Sôderstrôm, M. concludes that viruses spread more in closed environments than in outside environments.
When the fall and winter seasons arrive we start to be indoors more where viruses survive longer out of the body and spread
more easily by air and surface contact.
Another incentive to get outside in the winter is to fight the winter blues and to get some vitamin D. Getting outside and
getting some exposure to the sun can increase vitamin D and help prevent the winter blues for both children and adults.
Cross Country Skiing
A great way to encourage sports in children it to introduce cross-country skiing to your child.
My daughter had her first ski when she was 2 years old. I’m a fairly good cross-country skier (well, I am Norwegian)
so I put on some training skis on my daughter and was delighted to see she loved it. We plan to have many fun memories
this season as a family on the trails and even in our little park. You also don’t need a lot of space to start practicing
with your child. Almost everywhere there is a little bit of snow and flat ground (can be your local park or your backyard)
and you and your child can start practicing for the nature adventures you are going to have for the future.
If you are not confident teaching your child yourself, Canada has a nation-wide cross-country skiing program for children.
The Bunnyrabbit Program, for children five years of age and younger and the Jackrabbit Program,
for children six to nine years of age.
Alpine Skiing and Snowboarding
Most downhill resorts in Canada offer programs for children from 3 years of age to start skiing.
Check out your destination if they offer lessons for your children.
Skating
Skating is quite possibly the number one national sport in Canada. It is a fabulous cardiovascular workout that develops
balance and requires very little equipment. There are still outdoor rinks around and if you want you can even build one your self.
Many municipalities offer skating lessons for children as young as
3 years old. Check out your local listings in your area for locations and times.
Tobogganing
The options for toboggan are many, what are you going to use for sledge and what is the best hill for your child.
For toddlers, you don’t have to have a hill; a little bump is enough for them to have fun.
Children also love to pull each other or some stuffed animals on flat ground.
For smaller children it is best to use plastic toboggan. They will continue forever.
It is great way for them to exercise.
Snowshoeing
Snowshoeing is great way to spend family time together. It also does not require many skills.
If you can walk you can snowshoe. Many winter resorts offer beautiful trails and renting snowshoes is not a problem.
Ice fishing
Make a journey out in the nature and fish on the lake! Don’t forget to bring food with you. Check out our picnic recipes.
Check out where you can Ice fish in Canada.
Nature hikes
Go for a hike in your community or in the forest. Look at animal tracks in the snow and help your child try to figure out what made those tracks.
Bird watching
Take your children to a local pond, a park, your backyard; you can even organize a trip out to the forest.
Buy a book about the birds in your area and learn the names of the local birds in your community so you can teach them to your child. When you are on field trips like this, show your child how to go quietly and slowly though the forest.
Take pictures of the birds and when you come home look up any new birds in your field guide. Where do they live, which trees do they prefer. You can also talk about migration and why certain birds away in the winter and that they will
return in the spring. It is important to make this session fun for kids,let them explore and discover nature at their speed.
Star gazing
Go out in the afternoon in a local forest or your Ravine, find a spot where you can see stars clearly.If you live in the city avoid lights as best you can. Explain to you children about stars before you go out show
them a map of stars and what we you are going to look for.
Have fun in the snow in your backyard or in your local park
Sand toys.
Don’t put the sand toys that you use in the summer away in the winter.
Sand shovels and buckets that make sandcastles in the summer can just as easily make snow castles.
Children love it, and the adults in our group seem to enjoy it as well.
Snow angels
Of course this requires freshly fallen snow, but the best part is that you can make them anywhere. One day my daughter and I made snow angels on every snow bank from our house to the park. It was really fun to count how many were still there on the walk home.
Snowman and snow hut
Make big snowballs and make snowmen and snow huts. Instead of making a big one make small snowmen on a child’s level.
Play tag In your Local Park or backyard make a huge circle. Next make to 2 paths through the circle, and then add ional two more paths through the circle. The entire circle should look like a giant circle with a plus sign in the middle.
For this games 4 players or more should participate. Choose 1 player to be ‘it’; the other players are ‘free’. The player who is ‘it’ tries to tag all ‘free’ players. Once tagged, the ‘free’ players must go to the ‘dungeon’ located at the centre of the circle, and stay there until tagged by a ‘free’ player.
The person who is ‘it’ has to protect the ‘dungeon’ while tagging all the ‘free’ players. All players, including the person who is ‘it’ must stay on the paths that we created. If a ‘free’ player leaves the path while being chased, they must go to the ‘dungeon’. The ‘it’ person can only tag players when they are on the path.
The game ends when all ‘free’ players are in the ‘dungeon’ or once the ‘it’ player becomes too tired!
Spray bottles
Put food color in water and use spray bottles or condiment bottles to squirt and spray art and color on a snow bank.
Bottles game
Use plastic soda bottles; fill them with water and food coloring. When you are mixing it inside you can teach
your children about colors. Teach them about the basic colors, and how you can mix colors and end up with a different
color.
Freeze them, or not. This can also be a science adventure as well, what happens when thing are freezing.
On a gentle slope, help the kids made slides for the bottles to scoot on. If the snow has a little depth
you can make troughs that wind their way down the hill. Make more than one “bobsled track” and you can have
races between the colored bottles and see who comes in first, green or the blue? This sounds simple,
but small children will walk up and down a hill with these bottles for hours.
Wild crafting Ice as art
Use Ice for a different art project is great way to use the cold weather to make something fun.
You can make an ice lantern out of a buckets and water. Put water in a sand pail or use your imagination and find
other shapes. Put another shape inside that makes room for a candle and let it freeze.
(Don’t forget to use food coloring to jazz it up) Now you have an icy candleholder.
You can experiment with different shapes like yoghurt boxes, milk cartons or anything that can hold water.
The only limit is your imagination. You can use cookie cutters in a pan filled with water and use the shapes
for decorations that you can hang outside on trees and balconies.
Christmas decorating
Go for hikes or investigate your backyard and find twigs, pinecones, branches and straw. Maybe you have some evergreen from your yard you can use. Did you trim your evergreen hedges??? Grab a bag and have your little one help collect them so you can make wreaths out of what you have collected on your trips.
You and children could turn a rock into Santa Claus. Cloths, with felt hats and googly eyes combined with a
little glue and some imagination.A bunch of grass straw can bound together to make a heart for you windows.
