Five Ways to Have a Swell Snow Day

Clearly I do not live in Hawaii.

This year, if you live just about anywhere except Hawaii, you've had a lot of snow days A lot. Even our southern friends who don't usually get to spend one of these charming surprise vacation days with their kids have gotten one - and sometimes even more - this year.
With it looking more likely than not that another super-fun snow day will be happening this week for folks all over the East Coast, I'm sharing five super-fun ways to have a swell snow day... just in case you're running a little short on ways to entertain the kids.


1. Have a Yes Day. This is a day where you say yes to all of your children's outrageous demands, which luckily can't be too outrageous because you're housebound. We did this on a snow day last week, and while it did force me to live tweet my descent into madness, fighting amongst the offspring was at an all-time low due to their easy agreement that the day should follow this pattern: TV-candy-TV-candy-Wii-candy-TV.


2. Have a Backwards Day. Start the day with books in bed reading the back page first, then have dinner for breakfast, with dessert first of course! When you get dressed, put on your clothes backwards, walk backwards, write backwards, maybe even play some backwards games like seeing how many tries it takes to recite the alphabet Z to A. End with breakfast for dinner, and let the kids sleep in their clothes if they want to keep the game going until the last possible moment.


3. Have a "Perfect Mother" Day. This is one of my favorite strategies for surviving a snow day. I make a schedule for everything for the whole entire day, which includes games, crafts and snacks, and then stick to it as best I can. My kids usually love following a list if I make a big show of writing it all down and having them cross the items off one-by-one as we go along. For my "Perfect Mother" Day, I have projects planned (and supplies sourced the night before), a few good books that aren't overly-familiar ready for reading, and maybe a surprise or two I actually think-up beforehand. (A scavenger hunt outdoors in the snow or an obstacle course indoors are usual favorites.) I actually set the table for breakfast before the kids wake-up in the morning, and I pre-plan what we’ll eat for all three meals and the two snacks throughout the day so I don’t have to rush around figuring this out like I usually do when I'm having a normal "Regular Mother at Best" day. I even make the kids put away one toy before they take out another, all the while using the schedule as the reason why we need to finish one activity and cross it off so we can move on to the next one.


4. Have a Guest Mom Day. I have this day all the time. For this day, I beg my mother/best friend/distant cousin/neighbor to come over and help me out. If the roads are passable, I hire a babysitter. And if all else fails, I plead with my husband to take the day off, please.


5. Have a Be Yourself Day. Another favorite at our house, this day is not as easy as it sounds, but it’s a great option. Be yourself, even if that person is cranky, tired, and maybe even just a teensy bit impatient with her beloved children. Let your kid be himself, even if that person is whiny, fighty, or prone to saying repeatedly “I’m bored.” Just be glad there is no school to be on time for, no homework to do, no ballet class to go to, and my personal favorite, no lunches to pack.


And remember what people tell you all the time and you know deep down must be true, or why would people say it all the time… they’re only young once. Enjoy it. 


Even on the *$@* snow day this season.


Need a few more ideas for keeping kids entertained on the snow day? Check out:

• Lazy Mom's Guide to Snow Day Activities
• Snow Day Ice Cube Scavenger Hunt
• How to Make Snow Ice Cream
• How to Make Q-Tip Snowflakes

It's the 100th day of school!

Do your kids celebrate the 100th day of school?

Mine do, and for the first few years I went insane (or more accurately pin-sane) trying to figure out the most clever project ever for my kid to commemorate the 100th day of school in a totally unique and memorable way.

Now, I just let them do what they want. For my daughter Kay this meant decorating 100 in 10 rows of 10.

Perfect.

Happy 100th day, Kay!

For plenty - possibly even too many - 100th day ideas, visit my 100th Day board on Pinterest.

Super Bowl Sunday Math Fun from Bedtime Math

 

 

Do you know about Bedtime Math? It's a great idea from New Jersey mom Lauren Overdeck that kids should have a bedtime math problem just like they have a bedtime book.

 

Lauren was nice enough to share these tips for a math-erific Super Bowl Sunday. When the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens play for the championship title, here are some math problems you can solve with your kids.
 

1. Practice adding and subtracting with Roman numerals. This year’s game is the 47^th Super Bowl– Super Bowl XLVII. For older kids, put a fun – and challenging– twist on regular addition and subtraction by introducing the concept of Roman numerals; then, use this different number system to practice adding and subtracting. L minus X (50 – 10) equals 40; V plus II (5 + 2) equals 7.

2. Choose game day snacks and count change. Everyone needs some yummy snacks to munch on during the game. Have your kids set up a Super Bowl snack bar at home, and attribute different prices to each food item. Use play money to ‘buy’ snacks from the snack bar, and have your children count out the correct change for each family member’s snack ‘purchase’.

3. Countdown. A football game is divided into four quarters, each of which lasts for 15 minutes. Throughout the game, keep an eye on the timer, and have your kids figure out how much time has passed in the quarter based on the amount of time remaining. If the timer reads 13:24, how much game time has already passed?

 

 

Lauren Overdeck studied astrophysics at Princeton, and founded Bedtime Math in 2012 to help parents inspire a love of math in young kids by finding exciting opportunities for math learning in everyday activities.

Through Bedtime Math, parents receive a nightly math problem to do with their children; each problem is adapted for various age levels (Wee Ones, Little Kids, Big Kids) and draws on real-life, kid-friendly examples.

You can sign-up to receive email with the daily problem at BedtimeMathProblem.org, or you can find the daily problem on Facebook /bedtimemath and Twitter @bedtimemath..

Snow Day Fun: Have an Ice Cube Scavenger Hunt in the Snow

A while back I read about this really cool ice cube scavenger hunt in the snow on Parents.com. With snow in our forecast I decided I would freeze a batch of red hearts for my kids to look for in the snow.

To have an ice cube scavenger hunt in your snowy yard all you need is:



Snow - we used the ones provided by nature, but if you have a snow maker, that would work fine, too.

Frozen Ice Cubes - we have heart shaped muffin trays, which were perfect, but regular ice cube trays are just as good. I used two different colors so each kid could search for their "own" hearts. I added a few drops of food coloring to water in a cup, then poured into the trays and froze.



Good Hiding Skills - while your kids aren't looking, go outside and hide the ice cubes for the scavenger hunt in the snow.



Depending on your kids ages, you might want to make them a map to use to find the ice cube hearts, or you could give them clues or riddles to solve to lead them to the hidden ice cubes.



Warm Clothes to Bundle-up - now go outside and enjoy your snow day ice cube scavenger hunt!

You can find some fun facts about ice to add an educational component to the ice cube scavenger hunt at Go on An Ice Cube Treasure Hunt on NWF.org.



What are your favorite things to do outside with the kids on a snow day?

If you're visiting from Pop Sugar a big hello, welcome and glad you're here!

Be sure to check out more crafts and fun on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter!

And for some serious laughs, check out my husband's grocery list and these reviews of Haribo Sugarless Gummy Bears.

Candy Cane Craft: Do a Pepermint Stick Experiment!

I recently got a very awesome book in the mail to review: Candy Experiments, by Loralee Levitt. In a word the book is awesome. My kids and I spent an afternoon doing just about every experiment in the book, and they were totally and completely engrossed.

And the side-effect of the experiments that I liked the most was that they used candy. Candy for science instead of for eating.

How perfect is this book so kids will use up at least some of their Halloween candy doing experiments?

One of the easiest and most fun experiments we did was fill a bowl with water and then see what candy floated, and which sunk. You'd be surprised by the results, and I was surprised by how much candy this particular experiment was able to use up as the kids kept asking to try "just one more!" Of course, kids. Of course.

If you want to try your own candy experiments, here's a fun one from the book that uses Candy Canes, Crazy Canes:

Time: 10 to 30 minutes
Skill Level: Get a grown-up

Snap! That’s what happens to your candy cane if you try to bend it. Is there a way to bend candy canes without breaking them?

What you need:
Oven
Aluminum foil
Baking sheet
Candy cane or straight candy stick

What to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 250°F.

 

2.  Tear off a square of aluminum foil. Fold it in half, then fold again and again to make a rectangular strip about 3 inches wide (wider than the candy cane). Bend this strip into a fun shape, like a zigzag, an S-curve, or a bowl.

 

 

3. Place the foil shape on the baking sheet and put the candy cane on the foil shape. Heat in the oven for 5 to 20 minutes. (The melting time will depend on the size of the candy cane.) Check frequently until the candy cane has softened and curved into the shape of the mold.

 

What's happening:

When you’re melting an ice cube, you can see it turn to water. An ice cube is a solid, made from molecules locked together as crystals. When it melts, the molecules break apart. The solid becomes a liquid.

 

The molecules in a candy cane don’t make crystals. Instead, the candy cane contains lots of kinds of molecules jumbled together, like the fruit Life Saver in the Life Savers Melting Race experiment on page 96. When it gets warm, it doesn’t turn liquid right away. Instead, it gets softer and softer as the molecules shift around. That’s why you can turn a warm candy cane into a crazy cane.

 

In fact, your candy cane has already been heated and bent. A candy cane is made from a straight candy stick that’s bent into a cane shape while it’s still warm.

To purchase the book visit CandyExperiments.com.

I was not compensated for this post. I did receive a copy of Candy Experiments - and I highly recommend it.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 24: Halloween Math Activities

 

 

Want to teach a little math with your Halloween fun? Laura from Bedtime Math, shares some of her favorite Halloween math activities for kids:

1. Make counting fun with candy: Halloween candy is perfect for practicing counting. When you get home from trick-or-treating, your kids will love to count all their candy to see how many treats they picked up. You can also count by specific candy type (Candy Corn, Gummy Worms, etc.) or by general category (chocolate candies, gummy candies, etc.). If you want to get fancy, older kids can count the number of little candies in a packet, then multiply out over several packets to guess the total number of candies they scored.

2. Learn about geometric shapes with a jack-o-lantern: Everyone likes to carve pumpkins for Halloween. As you and your little ones work on your jack-o-lanterns, introduce them to different geometric shapes. A pumpkin is round, of course, and you can carve triangles as eyes, squares as teeth, and countless other shapes to make your pumpkin unique.

3. Trick-or-treat distances: While walking from house to house to trick-or-treat, have your kids count how many steps it takes to get from one house to the next. Compare these numbers to introduce them to the concept of ‘distance’ – if it takes twenty steps to get to one house and forty steps to get to the next, which one is further away?

 

Math and Halloween, the perfect combination!

 

To learn more about Bedtime Math, visit BedtimeMath.org, follow them on Twitter @BedtimeMath or like them on Facebook /BedtimeMath.