You can make a huge impact with your child in just 10 minutes a day. Spending one-on-one time with your child strengthens your relationship and creates a space for open communication. And you can do it in just 10 minutes every day. Check out these ideas of one-on-one activities for winter.
If you want to read about all the great benefits to one-on-one time and how to get started, read this article One-on-One time, It Really Works. And don’t forget to join our One-on-one challenge and get an email every day with different ideas each day for 3 weeks.
Benefits of One-On-One Time
Spending quality time individually with your child can be beneficial for you and for them, but most importantly for your relationship. Here many of those benefits:
- It communicates to your child how important they are to you
- They learn respect
- Your child opens up more easily to you
- They learn social skills
- It reduces stress in your child’s life
- They learn kindness
- This connection with adults builds resiliency for children
- Sometimes, unexpected things happen that create a special bond between you and your child
- One-on-One time can reduce sibling rivalry
- You fill their LOVE tank
Unique and Exciting Activities For One-On-One Time
Spending time with your child doesn’t need to be difficult. It also does not need to be an elaborate activity. Just sitting down and sharing a snack together (without distractions), or going for a walk together can have some of the same benefits.
But, if you are looking for additional ideas for this time, look no further. Here is a month worth of exciting and unique ideas for one-on-one time this winter.
- Make frozen sun catchers
- Spot animal tracks outside
- Create a winter scavenger hunt for someone else in your family.
- Create a pirate map with treasure in your house
- Create a snow maze
- Take a tour to look at holiday lights in your neighborhood or city
- Make maple syrup snow candy
- Make a bird feeder
- Go snow shoeing
- Go cross country skiing
And There’s More!
11. Go on a nighttime walk
12. Make kindness rocks & place around the community
13. Build a bat house with your kids
14. Sledding at your favorite hill
15. Build a fort inside
16. Build a snow fort outside
17. Make smores over a fire outside
18. Take photos outside and create a collage
19. Decorate your windows – window clings, dry erase markers, washable paint
20. Make snow angels
21.Go on a candy cane hunt outside – Have someone hang in trees, bushes, etc.
22. Find winter constellations
23. Have a snow sculpture contest
24. Shovel for a neighbor
25. Clean out a closet and donate items not used
26. Start a book club together
27. Do an online workout together
28. Learn American Sign Language (ASL) together
29. Rearrange your bedroom
30. Make a fleece tie blanket together
31. Find a new recipe to cook.
Whatever you choose to do, remember that it is time spent together. Remove distractions from other things and just focus on enjoy each other.
Building Gratitude Around The Holidays
Lisa Edwards, M.E., Parenting Coach