50 Activities to Keep your Kids Busy this Winter

At GoGo squeeZ®, outdoor, active play is one of our favourite things, but we know it’s not the most practical option in winter. This doesn’t have to mean a couple of months of boredom for kids though! We polled some of our resident parent experts (AKA some of the parents here at GoGo HQ) for some of their favourite ways to keep kids busy and boredom-free this winter. We put our favourites into one downloadable, printable list for you to keep at home. Download the list here.

If you like all our ideas, we’ve included some blank boxes for you to fill in either with the rest of our ideas below, or some of your own. Bonus points: you can make this Winter Fun Jar for your kids, so when boredom strikes, they can close their eyes, reach into the jar, and pull out a fun activity to do that day. Once they go through all 50, they can put their favourites back into the jar to do a second time.

1. Write a story based on their favourite fictional characters.
2. Have an indoor scavenger hunt.
3. Play Super Chef, kids edition and have them whip up their very own recipe. Or, use one of ours here.
4. Have an indoor hula hooping party (if space permits).
5. Play board games, or better yet, create your own.
6. Build a blanket/pillow tent or fort (to hide from the cold weather zombies, of course).
7. Play “I Spy” indoor edition.
8. Decorate healthy cookies.
9. Write a letter to someone (they can write fun little notes to their classmates using these GoGo squeeZ® pouch covers.
10. Create a comic strip (complete with both the images and text).
11. Write a poem only using words you cut out from magazines. Bonus challenge: make it into a short story.
12. Create puppets and put on a puppet show.
13. Play grocery store (or help Mom and Dad make a real shopping list).
14. Do a puzzle.
15. Practice your presidential acceptance speech in the mirror (dream big, right?)
16. Make a collage using magazine photos.
17. Have a tea party.
18. Make sock puppets using old socks. Then, put on a show.
19. Have your kids prepare you lunch or dinner (which may take the form of a sandwich and salad to avoid using dangerous kitchen tools).
20. Play a game of “who am I?” where kids act out a character, and guess who each other are.
21. Whip out the traditional card and board games and have a marathon.
22. Have a dance party with only oldies but goodies.
23. Clean out the closets and toy bins. Make bags to donate to charity.
24. Have a blind taste test with some unique spices, herbs, and ingredients to see how diverse your child’s palette really is.
25. Similar to #24, have your kids feel different fruits and vegetables while blindfolded, and see if they can guess what they are based on how it feels.
26. Learn to make origami.
27. Make paper airplanes, and see who can fly theirs the farthest.
28. Do yoga together.
29. Paint macaroni and make macaroni necklaces (only to be worn with the fanciest of attire).
30. Make an obstacle course.
31. Have a read-a-thon.
32. Make a collage of old photos.
33. Have a new food taste test by going to the grocery store and picking out 5 new foods to try.
34. Have an indoor picnic.
35. Make fruit art.
36. Play indoor hopscotch. (if space permits)
37. Play balloon tennis by hot-gluing paper plates to popsicle sticks and using them as racquets to hit around a balloon.
38. Start to brainstorm April Fool’s pranks. (it’s never too soon, right?)
39. Create a game using a deck of cards where each card corresponds to a different easy exercise such as jumping jacks. Then, pick a card and do 5 of that exercise.
40. Make a self portrait using only fruits and vegetables.
41. Play restaurant, and have your kids help seat their guests (parents) and set and serve the table.
42. Collect recyclables around the house, and make crafts with them.
43. Bake some healthy goodies for your neighbors. We have plenty of ideas on our recipe page!
44. Create a home spa with the food in your fridge (cue the cucumber eye masks!)
45. Play hotel by adding numbers to bedrooms. Show people to the spa (bathroom) or the restaurant (kitchen). Have the beds made and rooms tidy (bonus- the house gets cleaned too!)
46. Find some old, white or light colored T-shirts and have a tie dye party.
47. Make an indoor laser maZe by criss-crossing yarn throughout different rooms in the house.
48. Go on a hunt to find every flavour of GoGo squeeZ® and pick a new favourite.
49. Create a new dance to your favourite song.
50. Watch a movie you’ve never seen before.