Activities for Winter (for teens & adults, too!)

We went through quite a cold spell here in early January. Then we had a few glorious weeks of warm, nearly spring-like weather. And now we’re getting rain nearly every day. Not that I’m complaining too much! After living in the desert where we got somewhere between 2-4 inches of rain per year, getting that much sometimes in a week is good for my heart (and the garden).

The kids spend some time outside every day (yes, even on the crazy cold or rainy days – and they think running around with an umbrella is fun), but during winter we all definitely keep busy with a lot more inside activities.

These are some things we’ve loved during the cold months, and I hope you’ll be inspired by some of them, too!

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Dungeons & Dragons

I mentioned this last week, but we completed a basic D&D starter campaign as a family over winter break, and it was one of the most fun things we’ve ever done together! My husband had played a game once online with some friends, but the rest of us were completely new to it. Our 7 year old all the way up to our teens loved it, and everyone did an amazing job participating. And we laughed so hard we cried at some of the mishaps and fun along the way.

One of my favorite things was seeing how each of the kids developed their own characters and interacted with other creatures and puzzles as part of the adventure. We all had to use our imaginations as everything was described, and battles were fought on printed graph paper I made (I’ll show you how to do this sometime!), marked with pencil and stand-in Lego figures for our characters – and it was honestly such a blast.

My husband had the brilliant idea to have each of the kids write a “What happened next?” story about each of their characters – each of which were nearly as entertaining as the campaign itself.

Now that we have a little experience under our belts, we’re planning our next full campaign soon!

Whittling

This is something we’ve gotten into recently, and we’ve enjoyed it so much. This is definitely an activity for older kids (and honestly us adults too, because it’s way too fun). There’s a bit of a learning curve, but making things with your hands is so satisfying. I’d highly recommend getting a starter kit. Beaver kits are the ones that we heard great things about, and we’ve found them to be a great way to get started and learn.

Video tutorials have been the way we’ve found easiest to learn. Two channels we enjoy:

• Carving is Fun – and I’d recommend jumping into his Starting Guide​
• ​Beaver Craft Tools​

Reading

Perhaps an obvious recommendation, but it deserves a mention! Winter is the best time for cuddling up with a book and a child, or dog (or both) and a nice cup of hot chocolate or tea. My ten year old recently picked up The Complete Adventures of the Borrowers to read, and he’s been loving it. And one of my teens couldn’t put down Brandon Sanderson’s Skyward series.

Recently I read Slow Productivity by Cal Newport, which was very thought-provoking. I also thoroughly enjoyed his Digital Minimalism book a couple years back. And I’ve also been reading a smattering of fantasy novels – both re-reads and new-to-me books.

Some of our most popular book posts: Dragon Books | Graphic Novels