Winter Road

Winter Road (1)

What do you do when the kids want to play in the snow but you only have a thin, icy layer that’s not great for making snowmen? Make a road, instead!

I did this the easiest way ever, not even a shovel required. Instead, I took a few old markers and drew the outline of a road directly onto the snow.

Winter Road (2)

Now all the kids had to do was drive along the track.

Winter Road (3)

We added a few cross streets and curves to our road, and even a little stop sign for an early lesson on road safety.

Winter Road (5)

I had mostly intended the track for Veronika, but it turned out that big brother Travis loved driving the cars, too.

Winter Road (6)

Construction vehicles were particularly fun, like our bulldozer and dump truck which could scoop up snow or be filled with it.

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The icy wind drove us indoors fairly quickly, but at least we got in a little creative snow play!

Winter Road (4)

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Coloring the Snow with Droppers

Coloring Snow with Droppers (11)

We have snow, but it’s not the soft fluffy kind you’d want to roll around in. This snow iced over pretty quickly in a thin layer on the ground. So it was the kind of snow to take inside!

I scooped some of the snow onto a tray, and set it out alongside pipettes and liquid watercolors (in the compartments of an ice cube tray). Because I only had 3 colors of liquid watercolor, I added food coloring to a few compartments, too.

Coloring Snow with Droppers (1)

I showed Veronika how to dip a pipette in one of the colors, squeeze to fill it up, and then squeeze again to release the color over the snow.

Coloring Snow with Droppers (2)

She loved watching the colors appear against the white snow. “It’s yellow!” she exclaimed with delight for her favorite color.

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It was hard for her to get the mechanics of filling and releasing the pipette, but that was totally fine since this is the first time I’ve introduced her to the tool.

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She was so proud of her work nonetheless and did a lot of simply stabbing at the snow, or dipping the tip of the pipette into the colors and brushing it over the snow like a paintbrush.

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We mixed colors, too, (although our mix of red and blue looked more black than purple), which was good for a quick art lesson. After she tired of that, we put small chunks of snow directly into the ice cube tray, which now only had a shallow layer of each color. The color would saturate the snow immediately, which was fun to watch.

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Veronika worked so seriously to move the snow pieces over to the ice cube tray with tongs; another tool to hone her fine motor skills!

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When your toddler tires of the play, clean up couldn’t be easier. Simply put your snow in the sink and let it melt!

Coloring Snow with Droppers (10)