by Charlotte Howard

Created on: November 11, 2009

Keeping children amused can be difficult at the best of times, but during the winter it can be worse, with cold, wet weather and dark miserable days. However, parents should not despair as there are plenty of fun winter activities to do at home with kids.

Snowmen

Possibly the most fun part of the snow, is building a snowman, or in some cases an entire snow family! Enjoy this moment with your child by helping them to gather coal and sticks to decorate their snowman. You can also show your own creative side by helping build the snowman, or other snow-creatures. Just make sure you all wrap up warm!

Arts and Crafts

Help develop your child's sense of creativity by encouraging them to make pictures, cards and presents. Some of the nicest gifts are handmade. Use old Christmas wrapping paper and decorations to make your own Christmas or Thanksgiving cards, new decorations and collages of autumn leaves and twigs.

Games and Jigsaws

Jigsaws and games are fun and can bring the family together. Make it a daily occurrence to sit down at the end of the day and play games such as scrabble, helping to teach your child how to spell, and putting jigsaws together, helping to develop co-ordination skills.

Baking

Stereo-typically seen as a Mother-Daughter activity, fathers and sons should join in and help to bake winter warming foods. You can start with something small like cookies and slowly build up to stews, soups and cakes. Some schools and communities will hold bake-sales for charities during the winter months and it can be fun to join in and show off your child's baking skills.

Knitting and Sewing

For older children, it might be fun to teach them how to knit and sew, making toys and decorations to give to other family members, or sell for charity. You can show them how to make scarves and blankets to begin with as they are fairly easy, and slowly progress onto clothes, finger puppets and tree decorations.

It is usually a good idea to keep a stockpile of arts and craft materials in a cupboard. Glue, paper and glitter can be fun to play with on the coldest and wettest of days. These activities do not need to be confined to winter months either, but can be fun throughout the year. As children get older, they can use their skills to teach younger kids how to use their imagination to create wonderful treats that can be given away as presents at Christmas.

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