What exactly do you do on cold, rainy, snowy, days, when you spent
your whole day inside? get bored? let the kids drive you crazy? There
MUST be better things to do than that.........
:-) Here are some suggestions for activities you can do with the
family (but alone too).
~ Have Fun! ~
Video
The easiest way is to rent a video cassete. But which one should you
rent? Here are my suggestions...
Love, Romance, Drama
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- Scent of a Woman
- Breaking the Waves
Not for kids!!!
- Casablanca
- As Good As It Gets
- Deer Hunter
- Rebecca
- Stand by Me
Great Great Great Film!
- Rain Man
- In the Name of the Father
- Secrets & Lies
- Gone with the Wind
- Forrest Gump
- Sense and Sensibility
one of my favorites!
- When Harry Met Sally...
- Jean de Florette
one of my favorites!
- Titanic
- A Room with a View
one of my favorites!
- Smoke
one of my favorites!
- Fried Green Tomatos
- Cyrano de Bergerac
one of my favorites!
- Precilia Queen of the Desert
- The Untouchables
- The English Patient
- Driving Miss Daisy
- Dances with Wolves
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Kids & Family
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- Princess Bride
Great Great Great Movie!!!
- The Sound of Music
- Mary Poppins
- Home Alone
- Home Alone II
- Lion King
- The Little Mermaid
- Beauty and the Beast
- Alladin
- Mulan
- Pocahontas
- Cinderela
- Snow White
- Dumbo
- Hercules
- The Hunchback of Notredam
- Wizard of Oz
- Toy Story
- Fantasia
- Babe
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Scarey
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- Psycho
- The Silence of the Lambs
- The Shining
- The Birds
- Alien I-IV
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Comedy
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- Monthy Python and the Holly Grail
- Much Ado about Nothing
- The Full Monty
- A Fish Called Wanda
- Little Shop of Horror
- My Best Friend's Wedding
- Four Weddings and a Funeral
- Top Secret
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Action
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- Die Hard I-III
- True Lies
- The Terminator
- Terminator II: Judgement Day
- Eraser
- Total Recall
- Lethal Weapon I - IV
- Speed
- Rocky
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Fiction
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- Star Wars I - III
- Star Trek films: I - VII
- Star Trek TNG: Generations
- Star Trek TNG: First Contact
- The Fifth Element
- The Avengers
- Armageddon
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Games
Here are some games to keep the kids busy :-) Don't forget to play with them too!
- Home News: Put a nice empty notebook in the
living-room (or family-room), and add crayons, pencils and pens to it.
All the members of the family are welcome to scrumble, complain, draw,
praise or write anything in it. One can be the food reporter of the
house, the other one - the weather reporter, etc. Spend some time
every evening to read with the whole family the reports of the day
;-)
- Board Games: all the well-known games, like:
Trivia, Backgammon, Checkers, Chess, Dominoes, Monopoly, Risk, The
Clue, Scrabble.
- Card Games: Bridge, Poker, Black Jack,
Canasta, Gin Rummy, Hearts, Solitaire, Egyptian Ratscrew. You can
play with the kids on cookies or candy (remember The Roseanne Show?)
- Treasure Hunt: Hide a small
token or gift around the house. Prepare notes with clues to different
places inside the house. The last note should point out to the place where the treasure is.
Hide the notes, while each note directs the kids to another place in
the house, where the next note is. Give the kids the first note, and
send them out searching. They MUST do it together. it's not a competition.
They must search TOGETHER.
Me and my sister used to play this game a lot in our childhood.
You can also urge the kids to make their own notes & hide their own
token. Even if your kids can't write yet, they can always draw the
clue.
Baking & Cooking:
cooking & baking with the kids can be messy and tiresome, but it
can also be a lot of fun! It all depends on your attitude. Share
with the kids your love of cooking (if you have such a thing...).
Even a small child can help a bit: stir, fetch things from the
refrigerator, etc. Think of the kids' joy feeling like grown-ups!
Not to mention the joy of eating the cookies afterwards.... ;-)
You can also try to do experimental cooking or make dishes
from other countries every day (British, Chinese, Italian, French,
Spanish, etc...).
Reading
Read with the kids. There are many great children's book that are
great for grown-ups too. Here's a partial list:
- Winnie-the-Pooh - A.A. Milne
- The House at Pooh Corner - A.A. Milne
- The Wizard of Oz
- The Little Prince
- The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Graham
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- Comet in Moominland - Tove Janson
- The Exploits of Moominpappa - Tove Janson
- Moominland Midwinter - Tove Janson
- Pippi Longstocking - Astrid Lindgern
- The Children on Troublemaker Street - Astrid Lindgern
- The Brothers Lionheart - Astrid Lindgern
- Ronia, the Robber's Daughter - Astrid Lindgern
- Merry Poppins
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Caroll
And ofcourse there are many more.....
You can get more ideas from:
- Rainy Day Projects
Directed to parents and sorted out by the children's age. Each
week feature another project.
- Lego Scala - Creative Corner
This site is directed to girls, but in my opinion there's no
reason why a boy can't join and do some of the activities suggested.
In this page they show you how to make all sorts of stuff
(through pictures, not words), You can make up stories, Print pictures
to color and send virtual postcards.
and the most important thing is...Have Fun! Do Stuff Together!
~ Other Winter Pages ~
~ Other Places in Racheli's Meadow ~
© Racheli Sokol