A Guide For Winter Family Fun
Winter time can be a wee bit harder for this summer-loving mama. In the summertime, my kids are outside, always finding something to do. I’m pretty sure we are not the only family that spends 75% of their summer days enjoying the outdoors—water sports and activities, bike rides, evening walks, golf cart rides, camping, pickleball, etc. Sure, some days are extremely unbearable and too dang hot (p.s. we live in Texas!), but there is just something about the warm sunshine that (literally) brightens our moods-- have I mentioned we are Texans?!
Despite how much we enjoy the summer months, there are three other seasons... and we must take advantage of all of them. Afterall, they each provide opportunities to enjoy something unique.
Maybe you live in states where wintertime is your jam because that’s when you get outside. Snowboarding, skiing, snowmobiling, and all the snow fun! I get it—those activities are amazingly enjoyable too! But, if you’re like me, winter months can cause a boredom challenge.
“When you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” (Benjamin Franklin) And in this blog, I’m addressing how you, summer-loving mama, can ensure that your family doesn’t waste the winter season with your family because you failed to plan for it.
Whether it’s your finances, personal life, eating habits, or intentionality as a family… if you fail to plan, you’re going to fail. You’ll blink, and winter will be over, the TV was on every night, with little conversations or moments of connection with one another. FOR MONTHS.
So here are eight activities and winter boredom busters to try with your family during these cold months to avoid the disconnection!
1. Create a book club
Book clubs are popular for girlfriends. There are even movies about women’s book clubs! But, here's a fun spin-- instead of gathering outside individuals to participate in your book club, do it as a family activity!
Regardless of your kids’ ages, find age-appropriate books to read. Read out loud, read individually but physically together, or read separately. Recruit the entire family to read the same book and have discussions about it.
Who are the main characters? What problems are they facing? What mystery is being solved? Who’s the villain? What do you think will happen? Who will win? What’s the biggest lesson?
Go to a coffee shop for book club discussion night. Bake some cookies. Make hot chocolate. Start a fire.
Make it memorable, educational, and intentional!
2. Start a puzzle
If your kids are younger, grab a 500-piece puzzle. If they’re older, go for the biggest puzzle you can find.
A puzzle is like a magnet-- having hundreds of pieces spread all over the kitchen table draws everyone to grab a seat and spend quality time together.
If you have a game room, glue the pieces once the project is completed and create a memory wall. Choose puzzles around a theme, like nature or animals, or just get anything that interests your kids. If you don’t have a place to display the finished project, just break it apart and place it back in the box! You’re not missing out on anything from working on a puzzle for several hours only to put it away afterwards. Instead, you gained hours of quality hours with those you love.
3. Game nights
Maybe a puzzle requires too much stillness for your active crew. Game nights bring fantastic indoor fun!
Just like seasons come and go, kids’ interests also change. Some days (or months), they’re feeling super competitive. While others, they want to play mindless games.
Stock up on the options in your house, so you can flow with everyone’s moods.
My kids are 12, 7, and 5, and these have been some of our staple games these last 6 months:
Mexican train dominoes
Uno
Billiards
Indoor sports (soccer, football, baseball, tag, laser tag)
Clue for Kids
Aggravation
Games are also fantastic opportunities for younger ones to master colors (Uno) and number (dominoes) recognition, practice simple math and negotiating skills (Monopoly), as well as learn how to handle losing in the safest environment. So, not only will the family be having fun and making memories together, but you will also be teaching your kids valuable lessons.
4. Treasure movie nights
Of course, movies are a must when it’s cold and dreary outside. In fact, movies are even better when cuddled up with a big blanket and hot cocoa in your hands!
The key word is treasure. Instead of a movie just being on because the TV is always on, make it special. Talk movie night up! Pair it up with popcorn, cookies, or ice cream. Bring out the fluffiest blanket. Start the fire. Have countdowns until showtime.
Avoid having the TV on during dinner (unless it’s part of the moment, like pizza + movie night). Way too often, the TV is the center of attention during dinnertime, when those at the table should be. It sounds all too cliché, but it’s just the truth: today is a day you’ll never get back. Use every minute of it to the best of your ability.
One of the ways to do that is to enjoy each other’s company by minimizing distractions during precious moments, like dinnertime. Think about it: you’ve been at work and your child at school for 8+ hours. You only have a few hours together (maybe 4?!) before bedtime.
Don’t let the noise of screens steal that from you. Treasure movie nights.
5. Create a memory journal
Remember when photo albums and scrapbooks were a thing?? Nobody prints pictures anymore. But how fun is when you find an old album, hold it in your hand, and browse through it reliving the memories?! Typically, it’s at grandma’s or your parents’ house, right?
Your kids probably enjoy every second of seeing your younger self and hearing the stories that go along with the images.
This winter, go back to that and combine it with a journal.
Take daily pictures and actually print them. Whether you use a polaroid camera (those were in for a while too!) or your own printer. Buy a journal to store all those pictures and ask your kids to pitch in on the memories made that day. They can even be the ones to write it down. Either way, create a memory journal where no memory is forgotten from that particular winter break.
6. Learn something together
Photography, cooking, baking, dancing, painting, foreign language, calligraphy… anything! Talk to your kids and find something that interests everyone.
If you’re the parent of a teenager, community colleges and universities offer tons of options. I’ve even taken a Saturday class on tips to travel for free at my local university. There are amazing courses with flexible dates. Otherwise, shop local or even online—you’ll find just about anything you’re looking for.
At Dr. Kelly Cagle, we offer lots of options for you to learn together. In particular, the Back to School workshop would lead to a fantastic, enlightening experience for you and your child! If you want your child to learn answers to questions, like: “how am I wired and how do I learn?” “What strategies work for me to learn new stuff?” or “How can I establish good study habits?” The information provided is vital to their development as students! P.s. you are a student as well… you learn new recipes, how to build shelves, and how to file new reports at work, right? Can you answer those questions about yourself??
Learning something together is a fantastic opportunity for you to 1. Spend quality time together and 2. Lead by example as a lifelong learner. You’re never too old and should definitely not be too proud to say you don’t know how to do something. Get creative and learn something new together!
7. Motivation Monday
On Mondays, pile up on the couch and have each person take turns sharing things they love about themselves. Here's an example:
"1) I have been very patient with my brothers today. 2) I have made my bed every day this week without reminders. 3) I am the hardest worker on my team." And so on.
Positive self-talk is a game changer in guiding our thoughts towards becoming confident.
Yes, it's wonderful to be showered with words of affirmation from others. But oftentimes, we walk through drought seasons, where the praises just don't come.
During those seasons, it's even more important for us (parents & kids) to turn Motivation Monday into a weekly activity.
8. Invite them
The final fun way to avoid boredom with winter activities is to invite your kiddos into your space.
Are you wiping the counter tops? Invite them to spray before you wipe.
Cooking dinner? Have them chop the veggies for you (depending on their age, maturity, and knife skills, of course).
Folding clothes fresh out of the dryer? Ask them to feel how warm the clothes are.
Typing a report for work? See if they’d like to type for you while you read the data.
Make this about being together rather than asking for favors or assigning chores. Tell them how much you enjoy being with them and teach them new lessons in the meantime as well!
These are eight fun ways for families to avoid boredom and make it a winter to remember packed with indoor memories! Do all eight activities or just a few. Either way, stay intentional by creating a plan to guide your winter; otherwise, wasted time will follow.
Finally, I want to invite you to check out the weekly episodes of the Parenting IQ podcast, where we equip you to bring learning to daily moments. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube so you don’t miss strategies or waste any opportunities to raise curious, independent, competent, and lifelong learners!
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HEY THERE! I’M DR. CAGLE… DO YOU NEED HELP WITH CREATING GREAT HABITS???
Parenting is hard work. It requires tons of boundaries, daily consistency, so much awareness, as well as lots of patience, grace, wisdom, and filters. Combine that hefty list with all of life’s demands and others’ voice may become louder than yours in your child’s life, increasing their anxiety, fears, and doubts.
Healthy parenting is about seeing yourself as your child’s #1 teacher, saying the right words (or nothing at all) at the right time, and having the right tools to be intentional and impactful. Guessing your way through life, which is what most parents do, is a recipe for failure, but following the lead of someone who has two decades of research-based information and fully understands the demands of parenthood is a recipe for a full life— for you and your child.
With a PhD in education, I’m here to teach you how to use daily moments are learning opportunities so you raise confident and competent lifelong learners that thrive in an ever-changing world.
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