We love to celebrate winter’s wonderland at Goldfish Swim School – and you should, too! You can (and should) keep swimming all winter, but here are some other unique winter activities for kids to do this snow season:

Snowmen with a twist

A corn cob pipe and button nose – or a carrot nose – are for amateurs. Go big or go home, right? Pull out all the stops and make your snowmen the best ones on the block this year! Choose a theme and let your imaginations run wild. Try a snowman family that mirrors your own, and use each family member’s clothing and accessories to adorn the figures. Perhaps the kids have a favorite movie with characters they’d like to model their snowmen after, or a scene to recreate? We’re kind of partial to a watery winter wonderland. Build a big wall of snow and smooth it out to form waves at the top. Turn your “snowmen” into ocean animals: A big fish, with a big ball of snow as the base, a tail fin and fins on the sides; a shark; an octopus; a turtle; or whatever else you and the littles dream up! Who wouldn’t love a snow Bubbles in their front yard?!

Bring the snow inside

If you’re not in the mood to bundle up (or if there’s no snow outside), bring the snow inside and make your own winter wonderland! The good thing is you’ll likely have the ingredients already…all you need is baking soda and shaving cream or hair conditioner, plus a large container.

Dump a box of baking soda into whatever container you’ll be using. Then, gradually mix in the contents of one can of shaving cream and mix until you get the desired consistency. If you want more snow, simply double or triple (or quadruple!) the baking soda and shaving cream while keeping the ratio 1:1.

If you don’t have shaving cream, you can use hair conditioner instead. However, you’ll need three cups of baking soda for every ½ cup of conditioner – and white conditioner helps make the indoor snow look more like real snow, while colored conditioner will give it a more artistic look.

Use ribbons, beads, toothpicks and other craft supplies to make indoor snowmen!

Pro tip: Those water tables or empty sandboxes that get no use during winter make great indoor snow play areas! Plus, the sand toys are just as fun with the snow, too – and so are Play-Doh and Kinetic Sand molds.

Create a cardboard box sled

Don’t throw away those large holiday boxes. Instead, save them and have a GOLDEN experience outside by turning them into sleds!

To turn your empty boxes into sleds, you can put in as little or as much effort as you’d like.

  • For a basic cardboard box sled, simply fold the box down flat – with double layers for added strength – and go to your nearest snow-covered hill.
  • For a little more speed, cut open a plastic garbage bag and secure it to the bottom side of the flattened box.
  • For speed and color, wrap the entire cardboard frame in specialty duct tape.
  • For added ease, make carrying handles. You can either cut out a large opening near the top so your hand can slide through to grab it – or, you can make holes near the top corners and thread a rope though it to use as a carrying handle.
  • But if you really want to go all out, the sky is the limit! Keep the box open, cut it down to size as needed for entry, shape the box if desired, cover the bottom and decorate the entire thing.

Have each family member make their own cardboard box sled, then see who can go fastest down the hill!

Make SNOW ice cream

Yes, you can make ice cream out of snow! It may not taste quite the same, but it sure is a memorable experience for the kids (just remember not to use yellow snow!).

Besides several cups of snow (around 5-6), you’ll also need a cup of milk, ½ cup of sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. Mix all the non-snow ingredients together, then go outside to scoop up some snow. Stir half of the snow into your tasty ingredients, then add in more snow a little at a time until it becomes fluffy and you’re able to scoop it up. Put the snow ice cream into serving bowls and enjoy – with or without sprinkles or other fun toppings.

Paint the snow

While you can certainly take real paints and brushes outside to color the snow, you can also paint it in a less permanent and safer for your lawn kind of way. To create your snow paint, find and clean out several spray bottles (you can start saving the ones from household cleaners to use). Simply fill the spray bottles with water and add food coloring to get your desired “paint” colors.

Bundle up the kids, hand them the homemade spray paint and let them paint pictures in the snow all over the yard!

Pro tip: Gel food coloring will give you a more vibrant paint color than regular liquid food coloring.

Celebrate at Goldfish Swim School

And, of course, when you’re done with the cold and ready to warm up, come hang out with us at Goldfish, where our water is always 90 degrees – and so is the air temperature in our pool room. Plus, we have hair dryers and other cool perks that make taking swim lessons in winter more fun. Stop by a location near you and sign up for Goldfish swimming classes today! Our instructors use integrity, compassion and trust to teach kids as young as 4 months old how to swim with pretty extraordinary results…plus we have some WOW! customer service that you’ll love.