8 Simple Ways for a Fun Snow Day!

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Click here to read 8 Simple Ways for a Fun Snow Day! on Hands On As We Grow

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Create your own snow day game plan with 8 snow day activities for kids!

Snow days always throw me for a loop. What to do with the kids… make them a day to remember with these 8 indoor activities for kids to do on a snow day!

After having so, so many of snow days this year, I’m finding a few types of indoor activities that are my go-to snow day activities for kids on these kinds of days.

You’ll help to make them fun snow days that the kids will remember!

8 sure-fire snow day activities for kids!

Simple, easy to do, and quick indoor snow day activities for kids! Plus there’s always 32 snow theme activities for kids to do too.

1. Games, puzzles, coloring books

All very good. My kids are on a game kick right now, so snow days are a perfect time to really get some game action in.

2. Tape

Getting the kids moving…. and being stuck inside… usually makes it difficult, but I have found tape to be a lifesaver. Yep. Tape. I love tape activities. From the sticky spider web to mazes on the floor to just a simple line of tape, all work wonders. But my favorite – a bunch of lines of tape on the floor to see how far they can jump (the day will fly by!).

3. Couch cushions

Fort building and ‘island’ jumping or walking along all the cushions. Let them find a challenge for the day!

4. Scavenger hunts

Find anything and everything with a scavenger hunt. A simple ‘can you find…?’ as you think them up, or a more thought out one that has clues placed around the house for them to solve and find.

5. Bring the sandbox inside

With rice, flour, oatmeal, or whatever you have. Let them drive their cars and trucks in it in a small tub or tray. Or add measuring tools and cups to measure and pour or mix things up.

6. A Box

I couldn’t leave out a box. If you’re lucky to have a huge one, go dumpster diving for treasures! Or see what they can make from any kind of box you may have (even a cereal box can lead to something)!

7. Crafty stuff

Crafts are a great way to spend a snow day. Threading anything is a great calming ‘busy’ activity. Thread a necklace with straws, or a bird feeder with cereal, or use beads to make something special for someone.

8. Let them get creative!

Lay out a big sheet of paper and see what they come up with! Bonus for putting it in an odd spot – they’ll think its fun! Try the coffee table, the floor, or underneath the table even.

What’s your favorite activity for a Snow Day?

Here are some more ideas:

• Turn these 15 Outdoor Activities into Indoor Activities for Kids
• Top 10 Indoor Activities for Toddlers
• 12 Snowy Activities for Kids to do Indoors
• 28 Cute Winter Crafts for kids plus 30 snowflake crafts and 24 snowmen ideas

A Lovely Week of Valentine’s Day Activities for Kids

Hands On As We Grow http://ift.tt/2nJZlVk

Click here to read A Lovely Week of Valentine’s Day Activities for Kids on Hands On As We Grow

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Enjoy lovely Valentine’s Day activities with the kids for a fun week full of love!

I don’t usually go overboard with holidays (at least not too much). When it comes to blogging about our activities, its usually better if I start blogging about holiday activities 6+ weeks before the holiday.

And that just is too hard for me.

Even for Christmas, that’s hard!

So this week, I’m going to make it a lovely week with the kids to celebrate Valentine’s Day!

I planned a week of Valentine’s Day crafts and activities to do, and thought you might enjoy them too.

Here’s this week’s activities for Valentine’s Day:

Monday: Heart Garlands

Cut many hearts from red, purple, blue papers. Cut several long pieces of string to tape hearts onto. Hang in a window as garlands.

Supplies needed:

• paper
• scissors
• tape
• string, yarn or ribbon

Find details: Heart Garland for Valentine’s Day

Tuesday: Texture Heart Painting

Tape a heart on paper, then use unusual objects to paint! Make textures with combs, roll on the paint with a rolling pin! Remove the tape when dry.

Supplies needed:

• painter’s tape
• paper
• paint
• comb or fork
• rolling pin

Find details: Valentine Art for Toddlers: Scratch, Roll, Resist

Wednesday: Valentine Sensory Foam

Make sensory foam with dish soap and a little bit of water and red, pink or purple food coloring in a food processor. Put on a tray to explore!

Supplies needed:

• water
• dish soap
• food coloring
• food processor or blender
• tray

Find details: Soapy Sensory Foam Activity

Thursday: Stuffed Heart Valentines for Friends

Make Valentines for friends. Decorate paper to your desire. Cut a set of hearts out of the decorated paper and another set of hearts from plain paper. On the plain paper write ‘to:’ and ‘from:’ for Valentines. Staple hearts together half way. Fill with desired ‘Valentine’ (candy, play dough, or other surprises!) and staple heart closed, include a ribbon at the top for a handle.

Supplies needed:

• paper
• paint
• stapler
• Valentine gift
• ribbon

Find details: Stuffed Heart Valentines

Friday: H is for Heart

Cut a heart out of pink or red paper. Write in the middle “H is for Heart”. Write various letters around the edge of the object (with many of them being H or h). Find the letter that the object starts with and clip each with a paper clip.

Supplies needed:

• red or pink cardstock
• scissors
• marker
• paper clips or clothespins

Find details: Find the Letter on the Heart

Saturday: Healthy Heart Snack

Make a heart snack by spreading cream cheese on crackers. Dip end of celery in jam and stamp onto cream cheese to make hearts. Eat up!

Supplies needed:

• crackers
• cream cheese
• celery stick
• jam or jelly

Find details: Kid-Made Valentine Snacks for the Classroom

Sunday: ‘I Love You’ Scavenger Hunt

Go on an ‘I Love You’ scavenger hunt. Hide hearts (or just hide one a day) with words of how you love your child written on each heart.

Supplies needed:

• paper
• markers or pen

Find details: Valentine’s Scavenger Hunt to Find the Ways I Love You

More Valentine’s Day activities and crafts can be found here:

• 21 Valentine’s Day Crafts for Preschoolers
• 33 Kids Valentines for School

A Lovely Week of Valentine’s Day Activities for Kids

Hands On As We Grow http://ift.tt/2nJZlVk

Click here to read A Lovely Week of Valentine’s Day Activities for Kids on Hands On As We Grow

---

Enjoy lovely Valentine’s Day activities with the kids for a fun week full of love!

I don’t usually go overboard with holidays (at least not too much). When it comes to blogging about our activities, its usually better if I start blogging about holiday activities 6+ weeks before the holiday.

And that just is too hard for me.

Even for Christmas, that’s hard!

So this week, I’m going to make it a lovely week with the kids to celebrate Valentine’s Day!

I planned a week of Valentine’s Day crafts and activities to do, and thought you might enjoy them too.

Here’s this week’s activities for Valentine’s Day:

Monday: Heart Garlands

Cut many hearts from red, purple, blue papers. Cut several long pieces of string to tape hearts onto. Hang in a window as garlands.

Supplies needed:

• paper
• scissors
• tape
• string, yarn or ribbon

Find details: Heart Garland for Valentine’s Day

Tuesday: Texture Heart Painting

Tape a heart on paper, then use unusual objects to paint! Make textures with combs, roll on the paint with a rolling pin! Remove the tape when dry.

Supplies needed:

• painter’s tape
• paper
• paint
• comb or fork
• rolling pin

Find details: Valentine Art for Toddlers: Scratch, Roll, Resist

Wednesday: Valentine Sensory Foam

Make sensory foam with dish soap and a little bit of water and red, pink or purple food coloring in a food processor. Put on a tray to explore!

Supplies needed:

• water
• dish soap
• food coloring
• food processor or blender
• tray

Find details: Soapy Sensory Foam Activity

Thursday: Stuffed Heart Valentines for Friends

Make Valentines for friends. Decorate paper to your desire. Cut a set of hearts out of the decorated paper and another set of hearts from plain paper. On the plain paper write ‘to:’ and ‘from:’ for Valentines. Staple hearts together half way. Fill with desired ‘Valentine’ (candy, play dough, or other surprises!) and staple heart closed, include a ribbon at the top for a handle.

Supplies needed:

• paper
• paint
• stapler
• Valentine gift
• ribbon

Find details: Stuffed Heart Valentines

Friday: H is for Heart

Cut a heart out of pink or red paper. Write in the middle “H is for Heart”. Write various letters around the edge of the object (with many of them being H or h). Find the letter that the object starts with and clip each with a paper clip.

Supplies needed:

• red or pink cardstock
• scissors
• marker
• paper clips or clothespins

Find details: Find the Letter on the Heart

Saturday: Healthy Heart Snack

Make a heart snack by spreading cream cheese on crackers. Dip end of celery in jam and stamp onto cream cheese to make hearts. Eat up!

Supplies needed:

• crackers
• cream cheese
• celery stick
• jam or jelly

Find details: Kid-Made Valentine Snacks for the Classroom

Sunday: ‘I Love You’ Scavenger Hunt

Go on an ‘I Love You’ scavenger hunt. Hide hearts (or just hide one a day) with words of how you love your child written on each heart.

Supplies needed:

• paper
• markers or pen

Find details: Valentine’s Scavenger Hunt to Find the Ways I Love You

More Valentine’s Day activities and crafts can be found here:

• 21 Valentine’s Day Crafts for Preschoolers
• 33 Kids Valentines for School

How to Make the Easiest DIY Light Table + Activities!

Hands On As We Grow http://ift.tt/2EdXcvx

Click here to read How to Make the Easiest DIY Light Table + Activities! on Hands On As We Grow

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Learn how to make a DIY light table with Rachel!

This is one of my very favorite things we have ever done – and my kids love it too!

We made our very own DIY light table, and it really couldn’t be easier. I promise you can do this!

We actually made this for the first time about 4 years ago, and it definitely needed a little refreshing!

Build Your Own DIY Light Table:

There are lots of ways to make your own DIY light table, and about a zillion things to do with it.

Check out these other light box ideas, too!

For ours, I used a translucent under-the-bed storage bin.

I filled it with a few strings of white holiday lights. I used 3 or 4 strands of mini lights.

Then I taped white tissue paper to the inside of the lid. My storage bin happened to have a gap at the handle so I just snaked the plug out the handle, plugged it in and we were ready to go!

The tissue paper diffuses the light to make it easier on little eyes. It’s also just really pretty!

Endless Fun with Your DIY Light Table:

There are tons of ways to play with your light table. You can try things that require a little bit of prep but are super cool, like this making faces activity.

Hannah hadn’t used the light table in a while, so I kept it simple so she could really explore.

You can use clear objects around the house or buy some new items. We picked out special toys from Amazon.

You can also go super simple and still really fun, like this tracing activity.

First, we did some shape matching.

I set up some shapes on the table and then had her make matches. We talked about each shape and color as she was matching.

Then we moved on to colors.

Hannah started with a pile of the colorful bingo chips and sorted them by color. The chips we used are on the smaller side so manipulating them is a little bit of bonus fine motor work!

Note: please keep a close eye on little ones with these because they are nicely mouth-sized.

The last thing I got out for Hannah was these really pretty rock slices.

The original idea when I bought these was for some science exploration, and we do use them for that. My 8-year-old loves inspecting them and noticing all the tiny details.

However, right after we bought them I dropped them on the concrete floor in our basement and several of them broke. So now some of them are puzzles!

We also have these really cool letter construction shapes for the light table. They are a little tricky still for Hannah, but my 6 and 8 year old love them.

You use simple shapes to build every upper and lower case letter.

Recently, my older two have been using them to build other shapes. They have been combining everything to make intricate designs and pictures.

All three of them also love just playing with their dolls and action figures on the table as well.

It’s so worth the little bit of effort and gives them a great change of pace in their playtime.

How would you use a light table with your kiddo?

How to Make the Easiest DIY Light Table + Activities!

Hands On As We Grow http://ift.tt/2EdXcvx

Click here to read How to Make the Easiest DIY Light Table + Activities! on Hands On As We Grow

---

Learn how to make a DIY light table with Rachel!

This is one of my very favorite things we have ever done – and my kids love it too!

We made our very own DIY light table, and it really couldn’t be easier. I promise you can do this!

We actually made this for the first time about 4 years ago, and it definitely needed a little refreshing!

Build Your Own DIY Light Table:

There are lots of ways to make your own DIY light table, and about a zillion things to do with it.

Check out these other light box ideas, too!

For ours, I used a translucent under-the-bed storage bin.

I filled it with a few strings of white holiday lights. I used 3 or 4 strands of mini lights.

Then I taped white tissue paper to the inside of the lid. My storage bin happened to have a gap at the handle so I just snaked the plug out the handle, plugged it in and we were ready to go!

The tissue paper diffuses the light to make it easier on little eyes. It’s also just really pretty!

Endless Fun with Your DIY Light Table:

There are tons of ways to play with your light table. You can try things that require a little bit of prep but are super cool, like this making faces activity.

Hannah hadn’t used the light table in a while, so I kept it simple so she could really explore.

You can use clear objects around the house or buy some new items. We picked out special toys from Amazon.

You can also go super simple and still really fun, like this tracing activity.

First, we did some shape matching.

I set up some shapes on the table and then had her make matches. We talked about each shape and color as she was matching.

Then we moved on to colors.

Hannah started with a pile of the colorful bingo chips and sorted them by color. The chips we used are on the smaller side so manipulating them is a little bit of bonus fine motor work!

Note: please keep a close eye on little ones with these because they are nicely mouth-sized.

The last thing I got out for Hannah was these really pretty rock slices.

The original idea when I bought these was for some science exploration, and we do use them for that. My 8-year-old loves inspecting them and noticing all the tiny details.

However, right after we bought them I dropped them on the concrete floor in our basement and several of them broke. So now some of them are puzzles!

We also have these really cool letter construction shapes for the light table. They are a little tricky still for Hannah, but my 6 and 8 year old love them.

You use simple shapes to build every upper and lower case letter.

Recently, my older two have been using them to build other shapes. They have been combining everything to make intricate designs and pictures.

All three of them also love just playing with their dolls and action figures on the table as well.

It’s so worth the little bit of effort and gives them a great change of pace in their playtime.

How would you use a light table with your kiddo?

28 MORE Winter Crafts for Kids That Are Adorably Cute

Hands On As We Grow http://ift.tt/2DDWqoK

Click here to read 28 MORE Winter Crafts for Kids That Are Adorably Cute on Hands On As We Grow

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These are some cute winter crafts for kids that are all about Brrrrrr! 

I have been on a kick of finding winter crafts for kids to make when its cold!

Alright, as I’m writing this, I really, actually want winter to just be over. I’ve had it with the subzero temps and snow falling, blizzards, late school starts, and cancellations. We need to get back to normal and be able to go outside and play!

While I may be tired of winter, I am absolutely not tired of seeing these adorable winter crafts for kids everywhere! Crafts somehow makes all the above not so bad after all.

Outdoor Winter Crafts for Kids:

Crafts can be brought outdoors to enjoy! Things that freeze are generally fun to hang outside because other times of the year it just isn’t doable! Plus feeding the birds can be fun to watch.

Winter Animal Crafts:

You cannot have winter crafts for kids to make without making the animals of ‘winter’. Penguins and polar bears may be on opposite ends of the earth, but you can create them side by side! Don’t forget those beautiful snowy owls and arctic foxes, too!

Winter Tree Crafts:

Trees without leaves are a staple of winter. They’re beautiful with the snow fallen on them or icicles hanging from them. You can create some gorgeous winter tree crafts to enjoy indoors as well.

Snowflakes, Snow Globes, Snowmen & Igloo Crafts:

Celebrate all things snow with fun crafts and projects! These crafts spring to chilly life in 2D and 3D.

Did I miss any winter crafts for kids to make?

What about pine cone crafts? Would you consider that a winter craft?

28 MORE Winter Crafts for Kids That Are Adorably Cute

Hands On As We Grow http://ift.tt/2DDWqoK

Click here to read 28 MORE Winter Crafts for Kids That Are Adorably Cute on Hands On As We Grow

---

These are some cute winter crafts for kids that are all about Brrrrrr! 

I have been on a kick of finding winter crafts for kids to make when its cold!

Alright, as I’m writing this, I really, actually want winter to just be over. I’ve had it with the subzero temps and snow falling, blizzards, late school starts, and cancellations. We need to get back to normal and be able to go outside and play!

While I may be tired of winter, I am absolutely not tired of seeing these adorable winter crafts for kids everywhere! Crafts somehow makes all the above not so bad after all.

Outdoor Winter Crafts for Kids:

Crafts can be brought outdoors to enjoy! Things that freeze are generally fun to hang outside because other times of the year it just isn’t doable! Plus feeding the birds can be fun to watch.

Winter Animal Crafts:

You cannot have winter crafts for kids to make without making the animals of ‘winter’. Penguins and polar bears may be on opposite ends of the earth, but you can create them side by side! Don’t forget those beautiful snowy owls and arctic foxes, too!

Winter Tree Crafts:

Trees without leaves are a staple of winter. They’re beautiful with the snow fallen on them or icicles hanging from them. You can create some gorgeous winter tree crafts to enjoy indoors as well.

Snowflakes, Snow Globes, Snowmen & Igloo Crafts:

Celebrate all things snow with fun crafts and projects! These crafts spring to chilly life in 2D and 3D.

Did I miss any winter crafts for kids to make?

What about pine cone crafts? Would you consider that a winter craft?