• We have been snowed in this winter more times than I can ever recall. Being stuck inside all day is fun once in a while, but more often than not it ends up with bored, grumpy, and restless mommy and kids. One of our favorite ways of beating the indoor blues is by playing board games. Not just any board game though. Giant board games, and the pieces are our bodies and the board is our house. The method is super simple. When I make our games I print out large shapes on paper. Or if your child is learning letters, use those. Heck use both letters and shapes and numbers. For good measure, throw in some colors too.

    You can use regular dice, but we like ones that only go as high as four. This makes the game take a bit longer therefore, the activity lasts more than ten minutes. We decide ahead of time what each square will mean. For example, if you land on a square you have to go back three spaces. If you land on orange, you have to do five jumping jacks.

    You get the idea. The key is to keep the kids moving and burning off that pent up energy!

    All of our games tend to have an epic story to go along with them. We like to up the fun that way. Last time we were running to get away from a giant lizard who was foaming at the mouth. The end of our board game was safety. Our couch in the living room. First person around the house and back to the couch wins!

    If you have older kids you can use sight words, or math facts on your board pieces as well. If they get the wrong word they have to go back a space. Same with the math facts. A wrong answer makes you go back a space.

    It’s a fun way to keep your kids moving, and learning on a dreary inside only day.