According to legend, by February 2, we will know if we are in for 6 more weeks of winter or if it will be an early spring. Whether Phil sees his shadow or not, winter will be with us for a few more weeks for sure. If your family is showing signs of cabin fever, we’ve compiled a list of fun things to do during the winter, and most of them cost little to nothing!
Build some great memories for your children and perhaps start some new February Family Traditions. Be creative.

Go to a museum, children’s theater or participate in library activities.
Saturday, February 6 is the 12th Annual Sacramento Museum Day. 25 museums are offering free admission. For a list of participating museums, visit www.sacmuseums.org/museumday. Sacramento’s B Street Theater has a Family Series that will feature The Conductor: Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad through March 14; and Beauty and the Beast April 8 – May 23. For more information about the B Street Theater, go to www.bstreettheatre.org/family-series. Check out the local Sacramento libraries for monthly activities at www.saclibrary.org.
Bring the outdoors in.
Try roller skating in your garage. Garage space is also good for jump roping, ride-on toys, slides and little tots play structures, soft/lightweight balls and hula hoops. Build a fort or princess tent in your living room. Use pillows, blankets, sheets, chairs, sticks (mops and brooms work well) and boxes to build a secret hideaway for exercising the imagination. Let the kids color/paint the boxes for even more fun.
Have Family Game Night/Day.
Bring out the favorite board and card games and enjoy them as a family. Make popcorn and hot cocoa. If you have a Wii® or other video game system, have a family tournament and get everyone involved.

Cook together.
Baking cookies is something that’s commonly done, but why not get out of the box and make a meal. One that’s particularly fun is making pizza. You can make it a very simple project by buying English muffins or the biscuits in the rolled can. Give each person one muffin/biscuit (rolled out to make it thin and big enough to work with) and then let them apply their own sauce and toppings. Use jarred pizza/spaghetti or even Alfredo sauce. Add cheese and other favorite toppings then bake until cheese is melted. Bake cupcakes/cookies and have a decorating party!

Go skating.
Skatetown offers ice skating in Roseville and has themed skate nights. You can check out their calendar of events on their web site at www.skatetown-roseville.com. Right down the road is Roller King – www.rollerkingroseville.com
Fun with learning.
Teach your kids about winter. Living in Northern California doesn’t always give our children a broad scope of the four seasons. One child recently wanted to know why the bulletin boards in a local preschool still were “decorated for Christmas”. When the teacher looked at the board in question, she found it amusing to see that it was decorated with snowflakes and snowmen. The teacher then realized that a lot of children associate snow with Christmas when they live in area that doesn’t get snow. Make paper snowflakes or build snowmen out of marshmallows and pretzel sticks, using white frosting and small candies for features. Collect magazines and let the kids make their own winter collage pictures.
Walk the malls.
Several of our area malls have play centers in them as well as some kid-friendly stores like the Disney® Store. Even if you just walk through and window shop it’s a chance to get out of the house. A couple of bucks will get you a tasty snack to share, too.

Have a weekly book club.
Have each member of the family read the same book or read it together and then discuss it – what they liked/didn’t like, their favorite characters, etc.
Put on a play/puppet show.
Go to a thrift store or garage sales and pick up some pieces of clothing to use as costumes, paint or color scenery on boxes let your kids make up a play or perform their favorite story. Another idea is to make puppets from paper bags using paper plates, yarn, buttons and crayons or markers to decorate them.

Create scrapbooks.
Take pictures of the things that you do and then help your kids make scrapbooks to capture their memories in.

Again, be creative. Encourage your kids to try new things. Think back to when you were a kid. Did your parents do different things with you? Is there something you always wanted to do as kid, but never did? Ask your kids for advice. Have a family planning meeting and plan to do one new thing each week. Make sure you have a camera read to document all the fun you’ll have.

Do you have some other ideas or want to share some of your favorite winter activities? We’d love to hear from you. Please send me an email to share your ideas and memories: tina@northsacnews.com.

Stay warm and enjoy the wait this year.