Spring Break Activities Our Kids Love

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How Are We Already Almost Into March?

It’s already more than halfway through February. We’re in almost-March territory. Where in the world has 2020 gone so far? We’ll soon be talking about spring break and trying to figure out our time with the kids. We were so busy making summer plans this winter that we completely forgot about spring break. For us Maryland folk, we’re celebrating a week off during the first week of April. It got me to thinking about what types of family activities we can do through that week off from school.

So, our kids are pretty ingenious when it comes to creating their own games, or at least expanding the rules for some of those games. Recently, the kids have been taking charge of their playtime, especially with cold and rainy weather. In doing so, they’ve been thrilled to share their games with us and it’s pretty cool to see their enthusiasm wrapped around their own creativity.

Bowling for Creative Play

Our kids have this bowling pin set and they’ve gone non-stop with this thing for the past few weeks. Hey, some toys only last a day or two, so a few weeks is playtime gold for parents. The bowling pins light up when the plastic bowling ball makes contact. So, there are many times they play with the lights out. Now, something new they’ve done is to try and see how many throws or seconds it takes to knock all the pins down.

So, yeah, they don’t follow the traditional two-throw rule. First, they’ll track how many throws to see who can win with the least number of rolls. The latest rule they’ve implemented is something they’ve actually used to encourage each other, and quite honestly, it’s darn cute. Marshall and Adelaide will take turns counting to 20 seconds to see if they can knock them down in that amount of time. Most of the time they’ll knock them all down in a few seconds, and then they’ll run upstairs to talk about who did best. “Marshall knocked them all down in one second. It was really amazing.”

That’s the kind of fun I love seeing them have together. As many parents can probably relate to, sometimes, just a little bit, siblings don’t get along. There are these brief moments of a nasty tone or getting upset about a toy that no one has touched in years, but they want to play with it because the other one is playing with it. Yeah, that “never” happens. *sigh*

Don't Drop the Stuffed Animal

We’re not huge fans of throwing balls in the house, because the obvious worry of broken glass. Their playroom doesn’t have any glass, beyond windows, so we think they have enough control to toss around non-hard plastic balls in the playroom. Well, they’ve advanced their game of playing catch to include their beloved stuffed animals.

Playing catch is one of the most basic activities you can do with a kid, and it’s actually not an activity our kids have ever truly enjoyed doing. Now, our kids love taking their stuffed animals from their rooms to their playroom downstairs. And, yes, there are times when it’s frustrating when they get out of bed right after being tucked in, because X, Y, or Z was left downstairs. But, they have crafted the, “don’t let monkey fall.” Adelaide adores this small, pink monkey so much that she’ll take it on the car ride to school in the morning. Then, one day, we started tossing it around to each other. Little did I know that it would turn into an event where they catapult a variety of stuffed animals into the air, with many shouts of, “Catch him” or “Don’t drop her!”

This is a simple game and they don’t track points. There are times they’ll talk about how one of them didn’t even drop a stuffed animal even once, but they haven’t developed a point system, yet.

Freeze Tag: Dodgeball Edition

Playing freeze tag outside is a game that has one special rule: Daddy plays. Our freeze tag has evolved over the past year or so. Originally, it was the standard – I try to freeze both kids, so they’re frozen at the same time. Now, it has developed into a Dodgeball style freeze tag. First things first. Face shots do not count as being frozen. I never have any intention of hitting my children in the face with a semi-deflated kickball, but…

So, sometimes my kids duck and as they duck, well, it lands right on the cheek. Or, other times, they’ll just be running around our swing set and, well, I aim too high. Okay, all joking aside, it’s only happened a couple of times and they are super troopers about it. So, outside of getting hit in the head, if I toss or kick the kickball and it lands on them, they’re frozen. One of the best things that they’ve done is create an epic way of “freezing.” A lot of times, when one is already frozen, and they’re running to tag and unfreeze them, I’ll tag them with the ball. Then, they’ll do this epic fall where they take a couple more steps forward, falling to the ground. As they fall, they reach out and unfreeze their partner in crime.

It’s a lot of fun to see them want to expand the game by creating this dramatic sequence. As a parent, I love to see them have this much fun – and I get to be a part of it. It’s a pretty cool activity.

Dear Future Writers

Adelaide started writing her own books. Yes, that’s right. She takes pieces of paper, creates a cover, has some kind of story in the middle, and then puts “The End” on the last page. Sometimes, these books read like cards you send to loved ones, and other times, she’s created some kind of story within. Adelaide will sometimes color the pages and other times she just uses words. Any of the books she creates are something I truly treasure.

And she doesn’t stop at stacking the pages together and then folding them. She will actually staple the edges or poke holes and use binder rings to put her book together. How awesome is that? And now, with Marshall reading and writing a lot more, he’s starting to follow in her footsteps. I love how creative my kids are and seeing that turn into something I can see and also hold onto is one of the greatest things, ever.

Sharing Spring Break Activities

What activities are you looking forward to during your spring break? If you have special activities your kids have created, or even if you’re planning on taking a trip and your kids have go-to activities for the road trip, share those activities with us. You can also share this article with all of your friends on social media. Please head over to Facebook and Twitter to like and share this post, and make sure to follow our blog and social media channels to stay up-to-date on all things Winey Parent.