March Break is coming up quickly. For kids, this is super exciting: it means a whole week with no school! For parents who stay home during March break, getting some extra family time with the kids is fun, but there’s also the daunting task of keeping them entertained for a whole week…and stay on budget!

With a bit of planning, though, it’s easy to find enough free or cheap activities to keep the kiddos busy every day without ever having to hear the dreaded phrase “I’m bored”. We spoke to some industry experts to pull together a fun list of unique ideas for your kiddos to try during March Break:

Get Them Outside

• Go for walks in the snow or try snowshoeing: Let the kids get burn off some energy by being outside! Going for a family walk will help your kids’ physical development and emotional well-being, as well as give you an opportunity to talk and connect with them. For something a bit different, try snowshoeing.
• Hold a snowman-making contest: Invite over a couple of the kids’ friends and let them get to work building snowmen. Decide on a theme and give extra points for props and size. It’s a great way to combine physical activity with creativity.

Keep Them Creative

• Encourage writing: The more students write, the more they develop their creativity. Writing also helps kids develop self-expression, self-confidence, and communication skills. Check out our personalized notebooks; they come with plenty of blank pages, writing prompts, and spaces for doodling and colouring.
• Have them produce & perform a play: Parenting coach Elisabeth Stitt suggests gathering siblings and friends to write, produce, and act out a play to whatever audience they can gather. “With younger kids (3-6), they might just act out a story they know.   With kids 9-13ish, they could take multiple days to write a sophisticated script and to paint/construct scenes and props,” she says.
• Use snow to create art: Bring the outdoors inside to let your kids explore their creativity. We love this idea for salt snow art!

Get Them Thinking

• Board games: Bad weather might mean playing outside isn’t an option on a particular day, but the kids can still have fun inside without gluing themselves to a screen. “Board games have come a long way from Candy Land and Monopoly. There are some big-budget, highly produced games that can rival video games in terms of aesthetics,” suggests Bryan Truong of GameCows. “One of the newest trends in the board game world are Legacy games. The games themselves evolve and change after every playthrough. That means that every box will be a completely unique experience, and actions performed in the previous rounds will affect future playthroughs.”
• Puzzles: Good old-fashioned puzzles are a fun way to keep kiddos occupied at home during bad weather. The best part is that they come in different levels of difficulty to challenge and assist with the development of kids at any age.
• STEM toys: “While STEM toys are a little newer to the toy scene, they are a great way to keep the learning going in a fun and engaging way,” Angela Poch of Fun.com tells us. “STEM sets can involve kids in a variety of activities, from chemistry and science to math and coding.”

Get Them Trying New Things

• Start a business: Is one of your kids a real go-getter? Leah Remillét, founder of The CEO Kid, has created a fun way to help older kids stay entertained and earning money of their own by starting their own business! She says, “Inside the CEO Kid box they’ll have everything they need to start thinking like a CEO including access to an online portal that will help them take their idea and turn it into an OPEN sign. They could be earning money plowing sidewalks by the end of the week!”