At Whitehouse Landscaping, the only thing we love more than outdoor living spaces is spending time with our families. This blog focuses on outdoor winter activities for kids.
Life is good when you see children playing happily outside. As a landscape company in southeastern Pennsylvania, we’re in the business of creating great outdoor spaces to feel good in. Through our landscape design and build work, we hope to inspire our clients to improve their quality of life by spending more time outside. And although most our work is enjoyed in the warmer months, we all know that kids love the outdoors anytime of the year!
Bundle up the kids for some fun outdoor winter activities that will keep them actively connected to the great outdoors in spite of your yard being buried under a foot of snow. Snow is the best part of winter for a child!
Winter Outdoor Activities
Build a mini ice rink. Use an old kiddie pool and fill it up with water and let them slide around it once it is frozen. For bigger kids, there are ice-rink kits or you can research on how to make your own.
Get out your beach toys. There’s not much difference between sand and snow when it comes to digging. Build snow castles with buckets and dig with shovels. Think how long the beach entertains kids. Snow can have the same attraction.
Build a construction site. Take a few construction vehicles outdoors and watch how that bulldozer can move snow. Let them build roads, bridges and tunnels and anything else their imagination comes up with.
Make snow paint. Buy some spray bottles at the dollar store and fill them with water and add some food coloring. Let them paint your yard with rainbows, flowers or cool designs. You’ll be surprised what little artists you have under your very own roof.
Build a bonfire. Who says you have to wait for summer to make s’mores. Roast marshmallows or sip hot chocolate and take your winter fun to a warmer level. Think about throwing an outdoor winter party. With a roaring bonfire, tell your friends and their children to dress warm, serve some hot refreshments and plan to play winter outdoor games.
Snowball target practice. Your targets can be as easy as a circle in the snow made with your spray bottle with food coloring, or place a large box or laundry basket so children can take aim. Or keep it totally simple, and have them aim their snowballs at tree trunks.
A trip to the playground. Has your child ever seen their favorite playground transformed by snow and ice. It could be interesting to watch them go down the sliding board.
Make snow pies. Use cake/pie pans or aluminum pie pans to make delicious pies. Let the kids decorate them with stones, leaves or any other objects from nature. Some stale breadcrumbs or bird seed can be sprinkled on top and left for the birds’ enjoyment.
Photo: Heather Weston
Make Animal Critters (cool criters). Let the kids sculpt their favorite animal and decorate it with bits of nature such as pinecones, leaves, etc. This idea was taken from http://www.parents.com/fun/activities/outdoor/snow-activities-kids/ and be sure to check out some of their other fun activities.
Bring snow inside. Just too frigid to be outdoors? Then bring the outdoors in. Fill up a bin with snow and collect various objects that might be fun to play with like measuring cups, a scoop, toy cars, a rake. Maybe bring Mr. Potato head and make some fun snowmen with potato head features.
Make a Water Ice Stand. Give the kids a few buckets or containers and have them make pretend water ice or snow cones with food coloring. Give them some paper cups and be their first customer to buy some blueberry water ice.
Have fun with your kids exploring the outdoors this winter. And while you’re cooped up inside and you find yourself dreaming about your next outdoor improvement, give Whitehouse Landscaping a call. We’d be happy to discuss your ideas and share our thoughts. It’s never too early to start planning. We can design your job over the winter months and have it ready to go for an early installation date come spring.
If you would like a free estimate for your outdoor living space, contact us at 484-300-4290 or contact us on our website. We are passionate about creating outdoor living spaces and we’d be happy to talk to you about your outdoor living project.