Fun, Frugal At-Home Activities for Snow Days

Kids are always excited about the first snow of the season and having a snow day. Parents may not be as excited about having kids home from school unexpectedly because of the chaos this may create. Planning ahead can make these moments of tension melt away. Before the first snow falls, make a list of fun frugal activities that can be organized at home. Having this preparation time, will allow you to have any supplies or materials on hand. Some frugal at home activities to consider are: making play-dough, making home-made finger paints and doing -melted crayon art.

Homemade Play-dough: Fun, Frugal At-Home Activities for Snow Days

Most of the ingredients you need to make play-dough at home on a snow day will already be in your cabinets. You need: 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup salt, 2 Tbs cream of tartar, 2 Tbs oil, 1 cup water and food coloring. You can also add scent by adding vanilla, cinnamon or other flavor you have in your pantry.

Mix the flour, salt, cream of tartar, scent and oil in a saucepan and slowly add the water stirring to make the mixture smooth. Now it is time to put the pan on the stove and turn on the heat and stir until the mixture forms a ball. When it has reached the ball stage, take it out of the pan and let it cool on wax paper. When it cools enough to work with, add the food coloring a few drops at a time while kneading it to work the color into the dough. Have a lot of tools the kids can use with the play-dough such as rolling pins, cookie cutters, plastic knives, forks and spoons.

Washable Finger Paint: Fun: Frugal At-Home Activities for Snow Days

This washable finger paint is good but it doesn't mean there aren't some kinds of materials it will stain. To avoid disappointment, have the kids wear smocks or something to cover up their clothes. Make the finger paint by putting 2 Tbs. of sugar and 1/3 cup of cornstarch in a saucepan, then slowly mix in 2 cups of water. Cook this mixture on low heat for 5 minutes, stirring constantly until it reaches a smooth gel consistency. Let the mixture cool and add ¼ cup of dish washing soap. Divide the mixture into baby food jars. Add as many drops of food coloring to each jar as it takes to get the color you want. If you used colored dish washing soap, the colors will not be true to the food color. It is usually fun to see what colors you get. Have paper and paint brushes for the kids to use.

Melted Wax Art: Fun: Frugal At-Home Activities for Snow Days

Most families have lots of old crayons that have broken or are too small to be used easily anymore. This at home activity uses these up in a spectacular way. Of course, if you don't have a good supply of broken crayons, any crayons will do. This melted crayon art home activity results in a spectacular melded together whirl of colors with a cool rough texture.

Gather together lots of crayons, a pencil sharpener that crayons will fit into, wax paper, a kitchen hand towel, an iron and ironing board, a pot holder or hot pad and scissors. To begin, have the kids take off the paper on the crayons and use the pencil sharpener to make shavings. When there are a lot of shavings, have the kids spread them all over on a sheet of wax paper and put another sheet of wax paper on top.

Carefully cover the wax paper with a towel, place it on an ironing board and iron until the crayons have melted. Take the towel off and put the hot pad on top of the wax paper and run it over the wax paper to make the colors spread and look cool. When the wax paper is cooled, cut it into pretty shapes such as flowers or stars.

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