Enjoy Winter Sports Indoors!
In my last column I wrote about keeping kids active when it’s cold outside, recommending a blend of indoor and outdoor activities. Here’s another way to keep children active in the winter, in essence also blending the indoors and the outdoors: pretending to do indoors what you’d normally do outdoors!
Three of the most popular cold-weather activities are skiing, skating, and sledding. Talk to your child about the differences among these activities, especially emphasizing the movements that each requires. If you can, show your child pictures of the three different activities. (This is especially helpful if you don’t happen to live in an area where these activities are common!)
Teach your child the following song, sung to the tune of “Farmer in the Dell.” Then encourage her to act out the sport mentioned in each verse! Leave enough time between verses so that she can adequately experience the movements involved in depicting each sport.
- Making angels “in the snow” on the rug
- Pretending to walk through deep snow (how high can knees be lifted?)
- Playing a recording of a waltz (Emil Waldteufel’s Skater’s Waltz and Johann Strauss’s Skater’s Waltz are perfect) and asking your child to imagine she’s figure skating in the Olympics
- Giving him two paper plates on which to practice his gliding! Then, should he have the opportunity to do the real thing, he’ll be better prepared!
Activities like these provide exercise for the body and mind, as your child will have to use quite a bit of imagination to create a “winter wonderland” in the comfort and warmth of your home.
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