I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for cheap inside fun in the winter. I have a 2 year-old son. So I'm looking for things to do with him, as well as things we can do as a family. I know it's still summer, but I'm trying to hatch a good plan now, before the snow flies!
My second child was born in the cold months so she was too young to take outside. My son was two years old and wanted to play in the snow. I put snow in the kitchen sink for him to play.
--Have an indoor campout. Use an old blanket, sheet, etc. to make a tent between two chairs. This will take some imagination skills on the part of an adult, but your son should have no problem.
--Have a picnic on the floor with some fingerfoods and juice.
--Play hide and seek.
--Make homemade playdough (many recipes available on internet) and let him make stuff from it....plastic silverware can be used for tools, a can or other cylindrical object can be used to roll it out flat, and cookie cutters, or other objects that have a thin edge (plastic cups, cans, etc.) can be used to cut out shapes.
--Make homemade finger paints (lots of internet recipes for these also), put down newspapers or plastic (an old plastic table cloth will do nicely for this) in the area where he will be painting and have an art session.
--Get toy hotwheels cars at yard sales/thrift stores. Put your imagination and his to work and use empty plastic bottles, cereal boxes, and other stuff that you normally throw away after use to make tunnels, houses, and towns for the cars to drive through/around. An old sheet can be used for a play mat for this, and if you wish, fabric paints (or even homemade paints) can be used to paint roads and landscapes for the buildings and cars.
--Cut pictures out of old magazines (these can be gotten very cheaply from thrift stores/yard sales/public library sales racks) and let him make scenes or collages from them by gluing the pictures on a piece of paper. Even paste can be made at home....this website has lots of recipes for the things that I have mentioned: http://www.perpetualpreschool.com/glue.html
--Its never too early to start teaching reading skills to a child...Find magazine/newspaper advertisements with big-size print. Cut out individual letters and glue them on paper or thin cardboard (cereal box pieces could be used for this)...or draw letters on the cards with a marker. Add a picture of an object that starts with this letter (A is for apple) and you have a set of flash cards.
--Cut out individual letters from ads, glue them to thin cardboard to reinforce them, and put a magnet on the back. These can be put on the refrigerator and moved around. You can also cut out individual shapes, such as triangles, circles, squares, and rectangles, from colorful paper and glue a magnet on the backs. These can be used to make pictures on the refrigerator. Magnetic sheets can be found at craft stores, and the magnetic business cards that some people give out also be used for this. (I was fortunate to find ready-made sets of magnetic plastic letters and plastic shapes at Dollar Tree...$1 for a set. But if you have the time, creating them yourself would be a lot of fun).
--Let him look at pictures in library books or old magazines and identify the objects that he sees. Make up stories about the pictures while he looks at them....let him use his imagination to add his chapter to the story also.
--Let him think that he is helping you do work around the house. My three-year old loves to "help" me when I am doing things, and he also likes to watch me when I am doing something in the kitchen...has to always bring his little step stool in to stand on to get a better view.
i was at a friends house and her daughter was riding her 2 wheeler bike inside. winter time couldnt go out. i thought thats cool. your son could play on his big wheel or what ever inside if you have a basement etc. just wash the wheels if it has been outside. maybe you have already thought of this but i had never. roller skating to inside. you could do some home schooling. tell him you both are going to school like the big kids. have story and color time. teach how to call 911 and grandparents.
You can "bowl" indoors using 2 liter bottles as "pins" and a small ball.
You can have a memorization game. Put 10 items on a cookie sheet. Let the kids have 3 minutes to memorize all the items. Cover it up and see how many they remember.
Board games are always fun. Checkers, Chutes & Ladders, Candy Land, Hi-Ho Cherry-O.
Have a storytelling session. Have each kid make-up a story and tell it to the family.
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