Well, we’ve made it to the point of the Christmas season where we are so close to the big day that the boys are completely wound up, and yet we have four more days to fill until Christmas day is here!  Yesterday we had fun with a little active play indoors.

I made the boys some “Texas” snowballs by stuffing some of Jonathan’s outgrown baby socks with fiber fill, cutting off the ankles, and sewing them shut.  The baby socks were a good size for this, although any size of old socks would work.  The fiber fill stuffing is so lightweight that they are great for throwing inside the house!

Indoor snowball toss game

We played with our snowballs two ways, in addition to using them for an indoor snowball fight!

Play Catch with a Plastic Milk Jug

Indoor Snowballs

An empty plastic milk jug makes a great ball catcher for a preschooler!  Just cut off the bottom of the jug.  Owen had fun catching the snowballs with his.

Snowball Toss Game

Snowball Toss Game

I made a snowball toss game out of a tri-fold display board from Walmart.  I cut three circles with a utility knife and labeled them with point values.  Gresham is just learning his addition facts, so I used single digit numbers.  The boys each got a turn throwing all our snowballs (4) and then we added up the total.  Games with points are a great way to sneak in some math practice!

Owen wanted to walk right up and toss the snowballs in the holes, so I made him a masking tape line to stand on.

Indoor Snowballs (made out of socks!)

Owen thought this was a great game!  I was worried about the size of the holes, but it turned out to be a good difficulty level for him.  Not too hard, but not too easy either.

indoor snowballs 5

We put the game board up on our train table so that it would be at a good height.  We also used masking tape to secure the game to the table.

Snowball Fight!

And of course, if you’re going to have snowballs, you have to have a snowball fight!  Since we live in Texas, this is probably the only type of snowball fight the boys will get this year!  Two years ago, we had a record breaking foot of snow, but most years we just get ice or (at best) a dusting of snow.

I just started a Winter Pinterest board for activities for winter that are related to the season and not specifically Christmas.  Check it out for more ideas!

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  1. June Dees Dec 21, 2012

    such a great way to have fun , and learn too. looks like the boys were really enjoying it.

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  2. CathyH Dec 21, 2012

    You might have them switch hands when they throw and when they catch. I'm thinking there are lots of educational reasons to do this. Practically, it will extend the spent time on the activity. (And being a switch hitter in professional baseball has financial rewards!)

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  3. Terri M Dec 27, 2012

    This looks like so much fun... if you don't have time to sew the snowballs, have the kids wad up old news paper or scratch paper. This is really good for their fine motor skills as well. Encourage the kids to wad a piece of paper in one hand without touching anything!

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