Curbing Cabin Fever

Not only do adults get cabin fever children do too!  With snow storms spreading across the nation over the past couple of weeks I thought it would be a good time to share some fun activities to help you entertain your little one(s) when stuck inside.  As a mother of two “active” children I’ve had to get creative.  And after this past weekend, when they were nearly climbing the walls, I started scouring the internet for fun things for them to do indoors. Here are some of the things I found and have tried:

-Fill the bathtub or kitchen sink with snow and let them play in it 
-Make snow ice cream
-Put towels down on your kitchen table or the kids’ table, fill up some containers with water and let them have a “tea party”
-Make a hopscotch board by painting squares and numbers on an old sheet
-Put some masking tape down on the floor to make a balance beam
-Stick them in the tub, no water, and let them draw with shaving cream
-Make mini muffins together by filling a mini muffin pan with muffin mix and then letting them decide what to mix into the muffins.  Put their choices in a regular muffin pan (chocolate chips, dried fruit, sprinkles, coconut., etc) and let them mix with a toothpick.
-Make a fort.  Line up the dining room chairs and drape a blanket over them to create your child’s own playhouse.
-Play games with your child like Simon Says, Hide and Seek and I Spy.
-Clean out the garage, bundle up the kids and let them go out there to jump rope, hula hoop and ride their bikes.
-Exercise with your kids.  I dusted off my old “Tae Bo” dvd the other night and my kids were entertained just watching me and then joined in to get a little exercise themselves.

If you have any suggestions to curb cabin fever please share them with us.  The good news is Punxsutawney Phil didn’t see his shadow, so before we know it Spring will be here and we can get back to the playground and swimming pool!

For more fun play ideas paired with developmental milestones, visit our HOME PAGE!