Theme Week Archives - Family Fun📍Cincinnati & Beyond

February 18, 2021February 3, 2022

11 Fun Indoor Activities for Winter

Looking for some fun ideas for the family during those cold winter days? Here are 11 ideas you can do at home with things you already have around the house!

1. Indoor Dive In Movie

Bring summer to your living room. Swimsuits, pool floats, snacks and more! Checkout my Indoor Dive In Movie blog post for all the fun including food, drinks and movies to watch.

2. Host a Snowman Dinner

Make dinner a little more fun for the family by hosting a snowman dinner with things you likely already have around the house. This idea includes place settings for the table, decor and games to make it a fun family event. Check out my Snowman dinner blog post.

3. It's Shark Week Somewhere

Sometimes a theme just makes everyone’s attitudes better, right? Try hosting Shark Week at home with this blog post, even if it’s not the actual week! There are online activities, things to watch and learn to keep the kids entertained.

4. Lego Challenge

If you have multiple kids, make it a competition and award the most creative with a treat from the pantry. Or, make it a quantity challenge. Using the 30 Day Lego Challenge from That Brick Life, see how many challenges they can do in an hour.

5. Board Game-a-palooza

I love a good board game. I’m not afraid to admit that my competitive nature comes out, even with my kids ;). See how many games you can play in a row. Here are my favorites – click the link to add them to your amazon cart!

Battleship – Kindergarten+
Sequence for Kids – 3 yrs+
Candyland – 3 yrs+
Kids Create Absurdity – 6 yrs+, a great card game for kids – it’s the clean version of Cards Against Humanity.
Headbanz guessing game – 3 yrs+
Zingo – 4 yrs+
Rummikub – 7 yrs+, this is my all-time favorite game!
Yahtzee – 8 yrs+, this helps with math skills and they don’t even know it!
Uno Flip – 7 yrs+, this is a fun twist on the classic Uno game.
Wooden Box Dice Game Kindergarten+ – I have no idea what this is really called, but it’s pictured above. You roll 2 dice to cover any combination of numbers until all are covered or you bust. This a sneaky ‘math’ game they don’t even realize they are learning because it’s fun!

6. Take an Online Art Class

Want to draw a famous book character? Learn origami? Make robots from upcycled materials? There are tons of great art resources out there that are FREE! Try one of these free art tutorials!

7. Dance With 'The Stars'

Check out my blog post and have a dance party with a celebrity at home with the family. Dance with JoJo Siwa, tWitch and the Kidz Bop team. Choose from several different options.

8. Kids Yoga Online

Yoga for tots, tweens and everything in between. If your kids need to get their wiggles out, you want to do something as a family or something you can turn on for the kids to be engaged while you relax. Check out all the options on my Yoga for kids online blog post.

9. Bring A Disney Vacation Home

This is a fun one from my friend at Consistently Curious. If you can’t GET to Disney, BRING it home! She includes Virtual Disney Rides on YouTube, Parades and more fun!

Check out her blog post How To Create A Disney World Experience In Your Own Home

10. 'Go' To The Zoo

‘Take’ your kids to the zoo! Get up close and personal with animals and their caregivers from The Cincinnati Zoo. They recorded and archived over 100 videos of different animals in their habitats with Q & A from fans! It’s on their YouTube page here –> The Cincinnati Zoo Home Safari.

You can watch the video and find a craft or educational resources that pair with the video here on The Cincinnati Zoo website.

11. Restaurant Week at Home

Turn your play kitchen into a restaurant. Or, rest-ter-re-raunt as my kids call it. This is something your kids can likely do unassisted.

Give your restaurant a name and create a logo
Make a menu featuring the specials
You can even create a kids menu with games or activities for the kids to do while they wait for dinner
Make placemats for your guests with the name and logo you created for your restaurant
Get in uniform and have the guests dress up for dinner
Take turns being the chef and the server and see who creates the best dish
Don’t forget a music playlist to create the right atmosphere

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January 14, 2021January 22, 2021

Fun Kids Dinner Idea

Spending a lot of time at home with the family this winter? Turn a regular winter dinner into a fun kids dinner event with a few easy steps! Here’s how to host a snowman meltdown dinner.

Fun Kids Dinner Table setting

This is a fun family dinner for all ages made from things already likely to be in your home. Here’s what you need to create the snowman dinner:

white plates, 1 small salad plate and 1 dinner plate per person
red napkins, 1 per person
black construction paper
bag of chocolate chips
carrot, 1 per person
White plates are key! If you down own them, grab a set of small and large ones from your local party store. This will become the snowman’s body.
Red napkins will become his scarf. If you don’t own the cloth kind, you can purchase red cloth napkins here or just use paper ones.
With the black construction paper, you can make his top hat. If you need an outline to track, print out this top hat shape to color or trace.

Build the Place settings

Now you’re ready to assemble the snowman!

Line the small and large white plates on top of each other to make the body and the head.
Use chocolate chips for the eyes, mouth and 3 buttons on the belly and the carrot for the nose.
Roll the napkin and fold in half. Place it between the plates to serve as his scarf.
Tape the top hat to the small dinner plate.
Use the fork and knife as arms by placing them on a diagonal.

Create your own snowflake decor

My 7 year old son brought this snowflake sheet home from school and he’s completely obsessed! It was a STEM project and it was right up his alley since he loves origami (see my post on origami tutorials). Click here to print the snowflake making instruction sheet. In 5 easy steps, you’ll have some unique snowflakes!

Snowman Table Centerpiece

Find 2 boxes the same shape but DIFFERENT sizes! We bought 2 boxes from the UPS store but you can also search for something laying around your home like tissue boxes.

Wrap them in white butcher paper – you can buy here from Amazon to use for future art projects too or the white paper on the roll from Ikea.

Cut a carrot shape from orange paper for the nose. (cut 4 if you decorate all 4 sides).

Tape the top hat (from link above) to the top of the snowman’s head.

Use a black marker to draw eyes, mouth and buttons.

Snowman hot chocolate bombs

Hot cocoa bombs are a fun way to enjoy hot cocoa, but have you tried the white chocolate hot cocoa bombs?

These are perfect for melting with hot milk. We ordered ours from F & Goode Desserts. They have TONS of other flavors too!

Snowman Games, Books and Movies

Want to keep the party going? Here are some great books, movies and games you can play after dinner.

Of course, Frozen is a perfect movie to watch, because Olaf!
Rent Frosty’s Winter Wonderland from AmazonPrime Video
Check out one of these 23 Books About Snowmen from Fun With Mama.
Have an indoor snowball fight with these indoor snowballs or play the snowball toss, similar to cornhole. You can buy from Amazon below.

I have used affiliate links on this page. I will get a small payment if you purchase using the link, at no cost to you.

May 1, 2020August 12, 2020

Shark Week

The yearly celebration of Shark Week on Discovery Channel has popularized discovery and wonder about sharks with kids. Why not make a theme week out of it and explore these fun activities!

SHARK WEEK CRAFTS

I’m loving the zen doodle patterns my oldest did in school. We decided to zen doodle sharks today on this shark coloring page. If that’s not your jam, you can choose a craft that fits your child’s interest from one of the 25+ options below. Or do one craft a day and display your artwork around the TV while you watch the show!

25+ Shark Week Crafts and Activities for Kids

Grab these inexpensive shark fin ice cube trays, freeze blue kool-aid in them and serve them in water cups at meals for a little extra fun.

Be a hero and grab a Snuggie Tails Shark Blanket for them to use while watching the shows! A great reward for learning new things!

SHARK SNACKS

Everyone is happier when they are fueled, right? Check out these cute Shark Banana Pops from Food Network Kitchen! Just 5 ingredients and wooden pop sticks.

LIVE SHARK CAMS

Observe shark behavior by watching these LIVE SHARK CAMS:

SHArk SCHOOL

Learn about sharks from Outschool who is offering a 60 minute class for $15 taught via a video chat session.

Shark Stewards, a non-profit out of California, hosted weekly Facebook Live sessions called the Ocean Action Series that teaches about ways we can preserve and protect the sharks and the ocean.

SHArk Movies

If you dare, watch the classic, Jaws. Soul Surfer and Shark Tale are much more our families speed. 😉 Make a shark snack and curl up in your shark blanket as a family to watch the movie!