Are you like me? Do you have a little child who needs all your attention? Winter is tough in the northern hemisphere; the days are short, freezing and just finding inspiration to entertain a little one is exhausting (even just cooking dinner can be a challenge!). But I’m here to share simple creative ideas to enjoy winter with your toddler…
In my last post, I wanted to Cherish A Cosy Calm Christmas which was my inspiration for this week’s post. I wanted to spend more time with my child at Christmas, but really looking at the winter season as a whole.
Upon writing this, the temperature in the scottish highlands has dropped dramatically. Gritter trucks go past every day clearing snow and ice and as I look out the window, the landscape is covered, everything dusted like a white iced christmas cake. Which is beautiful. But when we spend more time in darkness than in light, and inside instead of outside – it can get pretty hard to have any motivation to do anything.
It’s important for me to take my little one outside to get some vitamin D – for him and me! But it’s cold out there…so cold! So I prioritise our mornings for outings, then by late afternoon we have a task to do inside when it gets dark around 3pm!
I did these creative things with a toddler and the outcome was so wonderful that I wanted to share. If you find yourself in the same boat during a long winter season, give these a go:
Easy Winter Bird-feed
I recently noticed all the small birds fluttering around our house. I found it odd that there were so many for this time of year – seriously it feels like spring with all the birdsong! But it got me thinking, what will they eat this time of year? It’s so cold, that I found myself worrying about them and what they would eat in the barren landscape. So I decided one dark afternoon, to make an easy birdfeed and distribute it around our garden the next morning.
Now, doing anything in the kitchen with a toddler can be a nightmare, so choose to do this with help (aka with your little one around) or by yourself. I did this with my very excited toddler and he ate alot of the birdseed mix, but I didn’t mind too much – it was fairly healthy!
This recipe is very easy, I’m not going to give exact quantities – you can feel you way with this:
Easy Birdfeed Recipe
A cup of dried fruit (soak beforehand for about an hour)
A cup of rolled oats
About a tablespoon of coconut oil (heated up and runny)
A tablespoon of peanut butter
The consistency should be a little more on the sticky side. Mix up and press down in flat circles on baking paper. I put these inside biscuit cutters to mould the shape.
Use a thin wire/matchstick to make a hole in the middle for string.
Leave in freezer overnight.
The next morning, thread string through the hole, tie a knot and hang up around bushes for little birds to nibble at their leisure.
It’s such a delight exploring outside and finding a perfect spot to hang these. My toddler loved doing this, we made it our task over the few mornings afterwards to see if they had all been eaten.
By the second morning they had all disappeared!
Dried orange & holly bouquet
I love homemade wreaths. They make a door look traditional and festive, but I find they need time and effort in order to make them beautiful.
I knew having my toddler ‘help’ make something for the wall or door, meant I needed to be flexible.
Plus, having a wreath meant I needed to buy the circle base, and wire to secure it.
For this project I wanted to source everything around my home. So I decided on this dried orange & holly bouquet. It’s easy and there’s no real way you ‘have’ to do it – which means you can’t get it wrong!
I basically ‘winged’ this, and welcome you to also.
Dried orange & holly bouquet recipe.
What you’ll need:
Oranges, tangerines, blood orange (whatever you have to hand!)
Rustic twine
Holly branches
Scissors
Cinnamon sticks
I went in search for holly with my toddler. We went all around our surroundings, up the back hill and into the woods. He helped hold the bag and I managed to pop in a few branches. I collected only a few branches, but he had such a wonderful time holding the bag open for me and selecting which holly I picked from the tree.
I didn’t have any oranges, so I cut up three tangerines thinly. I placed them on a tray lined with baking paper and put them in the oven at low heat. It’s a good idea to do this while you’re cooking something else in the oven. Oranges take about 45 minutes at least – but keep checking on these as they could easily burn around the edges!
While the oranges are drying out – tie the holly together using rustic twine.
Once oranges are out of the oven and cooled, pop rustic twine through the orange hole in the middle and tie it around a holly branch. Loop several of these around various holly leaves. For this part I let my toddler play with extra dried orange pieces and the twine, which kept him distracted while I dealt with the prickly holly.
As an extra decoration – tie cinnamon sticks together and secure to the holly branch.
Winter time creativity
I found just doing these sorts of crafts with my toddler made him eager to be involved with creating and gave him a sense of helping mummy.
There’s lots of time for me to be ‘busy’ with other things, but spending these short moments doing a task together has made me fall in love with the winter season again. We focus a lot of energy on Christmas, but winter continues on for months afterward, so we need to acknowledge and enjoy it.
Take it slow. Go with the season. Relish any creative time you do have. Encouraging our children to be creative, even from a very young age is important for them…and us.
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
Do you plan any fun projects with your little ones during winter?
If you enjoyed this, please have a peek at my previous post – How to keep your creativity alive when you’re blocked
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