We played two games this week with mittens as the theme – perfect for this time of year when you can’t walk out the door without mittens on your hands! Both are very easy to D.I.Y with a few materials.

For the first, you’ll need felt in multiple colors. I traced a mitten template and then cut one mitten from each color of the rainbow. Finally, cut a circle from white felt to be your snowball.

Place all of the mittens on the floor and have your child close his or her eyes. Hide the snowball under one mitten, and now it’s time to guess which color is hiding the snowball!

Travis loved the feel of the felt, so it was a delight to lift each mitten and see if the snowball was hidden there. We talked about the colors as we played, and did a few rounds before Travis got bored.

The second game came to us in February’s High 5 magazine, and is an introduction to the classic game of Memory. I cut mittens from fancy sheets of patterned paper (although you could also use plain construction paper in multiple colors).

Travis was a big help using the glue stick to attach each pair of mittens to black construction paper, which I had previously cut into squares.

Arrange all of the squares, mitten side down, on the floor, and take turns selecting two cards. If you get a match, keep them! Otherwise, turn them back to black and it’s the next person’s turn. Whoever gets the most matches wins.

Travis is still a little young to entirely grasp the concept of turn-taking and game rules, but he loved finding a “match” or a “mis-match” as he reached among the cards, and played with the mittens for quite some time after while I was busy making lunch.

This is definitely a game we’ll return to as he gets older and grasps it more each time.