10 winter break activities to keep your kids playing (and learning)

The kids are on winter break as of today. I’m excited. I love all of the down time these breaks give us, I also love the extra time we get for playing together. Since I’m such a planner, I’ve already been compiling a list of winter break activities to enjoy with the kids. How about you? Do keep a list of go to activities or are you more of a decide in the moment parent?

Either way, I think you will love these 10 winter break activities I’ve prepared for you.

Winter break activities for kids

1. Use the kitchen for some fun science experiments. We had a blast experimenting with food in our kitchen science: How does food Change? experiment. It’s a great way to get little hands on foods that may be new to them.
2. Set up a pretend play area. I’ve always been a big fan of having a rotating pretend play area. Knowing that you will be home for 2 weeks is a great time to set up (and leave up) a fun pretending space. We loved our pretend play office, grocery store and laundry day.
3. Get creative with mazes. This hidden maze is so cool! Just think of all the ways you could expand on it!
4. Set up a winter sensory snow tray. (Something special for us, since we only have sunny winters around here).
5. Have some in the house fun with an All About Me Scavenger Hunt. If you’re stuck inside you might as well make an exploration game out of it!
6. We enjoyed this simple backyard balloon toss outside, but it would easily transform into an indoor activity. Use masking tape to mark circles on the floor and make sure you aren’t facing towards any lamps or framed pictures. 🙂
7. Use the weather. Is it raining? Try a rainy day experiment with materials. Is it sunny? Spend the day making a homemade sun dial. Enjoying some snow? How about snow science – exploring melting rates.
8. Make homemade playdough and then do an activity or two with it.
9. In my opinion it’s always a good time for storytelling. Here are three of our favorite storytelling activities:  storytelling with crayon names, storytelling with Mini figs or storytelling with props.
10. Read a book and pair it with an activity. Have you read Charlotte’s Web? We loved it!

Your turn! What winter break activities will you doing?