Just get outside and let kids play in the snow. Sledding is always great fun and you should be able to find a slope that is perfect for the age and ability of your children. Making snow men ( or snow people) is a great collective project. Making snowballs and throwing them at targets is a good preliminary to snowball fights ( which must be orchestrated with great care if you are the responsible adult involved!). And there is nothing like catching snowflakes on your tongue in a light flurry or facing the elements in a blizzard ( or what my grandfather described as “snowing like a winding”).
But beyond these staples of cold weather fun, children just like fooling around outside in the winter. Icycles provide endless fascination, especially when you can eat them. My kids have been “mining” ice plates and chunks, bartering them for other special items, and sprucing up their outdoor spaces with ice collections. Some kids like to tramp around on the snow and slip, slide and skate on impromptu “ice ponds” that form in depressions in the school yard or the park across the street. Then there are the many spontaneous games that we come up with, from playing “air hockey” on a large planter with a frozen top, or our version of “broom ball” ( we wrap a whiffle ball in electric tape and wack it around with little brooms and sticks on the ice and snow ).
Something not to be missed,if possible, is to get down to a river or pond and check out the crazy ice formations that form on moving, melting and freezing water ( it goes without saying that we never venture out on the ice; I leave that decision to parents and people who are knowledgeable about specific bodies of water). We recently spent a great afternoon throwing rocks out on the ice and inventing in the process our homespun version of curling ( that strangely compelling Olympic sport where mixed doubles was introduced for the first time in this year’s PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games).
And remember, “don’t eat the yellow snow,” or snow that is any other color than white!
