Beating the Winter Blues

Is anyone else's kids going a bit stir crazy?  All this cold weather is getting to Parker I think.  He doesn't get outside much, and I know I should take him out more but I hate the snow and the cold! But when he is inside, he just wants to watch Paw Patrol all the time, which I hate!  So here are a few things that I do to try to keep Parker occupied.

Change Location
He often plays upstairs, so just by saying let's play downstairs, it sometimes gets him excited to play with different toys. 

Put Toys Out of Reach
Certain toys I put away and only get out when he needs a suggestion for an activity.  I do this with puzzles, games and his Melissa & Doug fishing set.  Then, he doesn't lose all of the pieces amongst his other toys and he's excited to play with it when I do get them out.

Get Creative
I like to get Parker's paint set out or a colouring book when he's bored.  To be honest it's not a long activity usually, but it gives him something different to do.  And because it's not something he does a lot he really enjoys it.  As he gets older we will likely start doing more specific creative activities and crafts!

Learning Activities
I love getting out the paint set or some other learning activity for him to occupy his time. Education.com is a great website to find a variety of worksheets that will keep your kids occupied while they are learning something!  They have so many worksheets, games, colouring pages.  I find that if I give Parker something productive to do he is entertained and so much happier.  I think some of their items might be too tricky for Parker yet, but there were also a ton of preschool worksheets that could get him started with tracing shapes, colouring and writing letters.  

Education.com has provided my readers with a free word search that you can get my clicking the link below.  The answer key is there too in case you can't figure it out!  You can find more resources that help with specific things such as spelling here.  I was a huge nerd in school and I think I would of loved if my mom had of printed out worksheets like this.  There are still kids out there like me, right?

Word Search 

Answer Key

Do you have any other ideas for fun ways to keep kids occupied when it's cold outside?