Homeschool Winter Bucket List Ideas

Does your family need a break this winter? You need winter bucket list ideas for learning fun and creating special memories with your kids.

Being a working mom who is also homeschooling in winter can be exhausting!

It’s enough to drive any mom crazy! One way to combat the winter blues is by creating a winter bucket list.

While winter in Canada can be beautiful, on the flip side, it is COLD. Brutally so. As a result, you can end up with kids who are either bouncing off the walls or saying how bored they are every 5 minutes.

That’s why I love gathering homeschool winter bucket list ideas I can pull out when I need a break!

Why Create A Bucket List?

As a mom who works full-time and homeschools full-time, I find time flies by without me noticing it.

I don’t know about you, but when winter comes around, we are ready for a change of pace. Preferably a slower pace to recharge before the new year kicks in. 

As fall winds down, I feel pressure to cram in those last few fun activities I didn’t get to do. Do you feel that way too?

Creating a winter bucket list of ideas I can hang on the fridge and check off is a great way to keep those goals in sight.

Winter bucket list ideas are great for adding quick fun at the end of your workday.

You want quick and easy winter activities for kids! These activities will help you to connect with your kids that you don’t have to think about and are perfect for busy working moms.

How To Use The Winter Bucket List Ideas

Below you will find a list of ideas to add to your winter homeschooling bucket list. You will also find clickable links to take you to resources to help you do that activity.

Use this list to get creative ideas or spark great conversations with your family to create your own.

The great thing about this list is that not all of them require snow. Not all of them require being outside. All of them require you have fun.

Winter Bucket List Ideas:

I loved our fall bucket list because I didn’t have to think about it. We picked what we thought would be fun, printed off our list, and when we needed a break, it was there.

Because it worked so well, I decided to gather up ideas for a winter bucket list. I hope you get inspired to add some easy fun for your family this winter too!

Disclosure: I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Grab a notebook or open a tab and check out these winter bucket list ideas for kids.

Make sure you jot down anything that you think your kids would enjoy doing this winter.

10 Winter Fun Ideas for Outside:

1. Build a snowman, favorite character, or toilet, as seen above.
2. Make Snow Ice Cream: Vanilla Snow Icecream Recipe
3. Build an Igloo or Snow Cave 
4. Nature Walk In The Winter
5. Make a bird feeder
6. Winter Scavenger Hunt
7. Make Maple Sugar Snow Candy
8. Make snow angels, animals, or families
9. Make Ice Art: use food coloring in spray bottles to color the snow outside.
10. Make s’mores! Campfires outside in the snow are a blast!

 10 Winter Fun Ideas For Inside:

Did you know you can buy artificial snow for indoor games? I didn’t until I found them on Amazon. You can also use white socks balled up or extra-large cotton balls.

50 Pack Indoor Fake Snowball Plush Artificial Snow Ball Fight Game Christmas Fun for Kid Winter Sports IndoorSwisspers Cotton Balls Jumbo Plus Size, 70 Count (Pack of 3)

 

Here are 10 winter bucket list ideas for kids when it is too cold to be outside:

1. Snowball Fight: use fake snow and set some rules depending on the age of your kids.
2. Snow “Basketball”: Grab one of those cool indoor basketball hoops or use a container or bucket. Using your indoor snowballs, have a shootout.
3. Relay race: instead of eggs, use snowballs or cotton balls. Great way to release some of that energy you wish you had.
4. Indoor Ice Art: This gets a little messy. I highly recommend cheap table clothes, art smocks, and “play clothes.” Messy but fun.
5. Indoor bowling: Buy a kit for inside or use pop bottles and a large ball.
6. Build A Snow Globe: cute craft for kids. 
7. Paper Snow Flakes: I still love making these with my kids.
8. Play Games: When the power goes out, we dig out our board games and cards. There is just something magical about paying by candlelight. We use educational games for teens.
9. Build an (indoor) snow fort.
10. Shadow puppet show: All you need is a light source and a surface for the shadow to show up on. Learn 3 basic shadow puppets here. 

12 Winter Fun Homeschool Ideas:

For the record, all of the above ideas are learning opportunities for your kids. But sometimes, we just feel more comfortable with traditional learning ideas.

Please note that these may not be fast or easy. Click the instructions link and ensure you have the supplies and time to do them.

4 STEAM/STEM Winter Ideas:

Adding STEAM/STEM activities is always a great way to pull in some learning fun without kids really seeing how much they are learning.

1. Salt vs. Ice: Experiment
2. Glowing Ice Cubes: Scroll down for the science facts
3. Why does a hockey puck slide on ice? Find out with this fun science experiment 
4. Design a snowball launcher for kids. Great for little ones too. 

Science to The Max Rainbow Snow- Create 2 Gallon of Colorful and Reusable Snow- 7 Science Experiments Included – Stem Activity Kit for Boys & Girls 8+- Snow for Winter DisplayAwesome Outdoor Science Experiments for Kids: 50+ STEAM Projects and Why They Work (Awesome STEAM Activities for Kids)Steve Spangler Science-855500 Insta-Snow Powder,3.5 oz–Fun Science Kits for Kids, Simple and Safe, Makes Realistic, Fluffy Snow in Seconds, Top Sensory Toys&STEM Activities for Classrooms and Home

 

I love using STEAM/STEM to connect with my kids each week using STEM/STEAM ideas for teens.

4 Winter Writing Ideas:

Confession: when searching for writing prompts for winter, I could only find collections of them.

Therefore, while this is under “4,” there are really 119 winter-themed writing prompts you could use if you wanted to use them all.

1. 77 Elementary Winter Writing Prompts
2. 25 Winter Writing Prompts – aimed for grades 3-5 
3. 5 Writing Prompts About Winter – these look fun for all ages 
4. 12 Winter Writing Prompts

I would check each winter prompt writing list and use what works for you. I bet your kids might come up with a few great prompts of their own.

4 Winter Unit Studies:

Unit studies are great because they pull in all the subjects under one common theme.

1. Winter Season Unit Study. Free lapbook & hands-on activities. 
2. Winter Unit Study For Kids 
3. Homeschool Lesson Ideas For Winter

While not a unit study, these winter kids activities are great for younger kids while you teach the older ones.

6 Books About Winter

I love digging out hot chocolate, cookies, and a book. We are just sliding back into reading aloud, which means I can get all kinds of different books, from picture books to chapter books.

Here are a few I found in my hunts with winter themes:

1. The Snowman by Raymond Briggs
2. The Mitten By Jan Brett
3. Snow (Caldecott Honor Book)
4. Secrets of Winter Secrets
5. Waiting for Winter
6. Over and Under the Snow

The SnowmanThe MittenCurious About Snow (Smithsonian)Secrets of Winter Secrets (A Shine-A-Light Book )Waiting for WinterOver and Under the Snow

 

How To Use Your Bucket List

To get the most out of your bucket list, you need to use it.

Sign up below to get a FREE printable bucket list package. 

You’ll find 21 pages total, blank pages for you to customize for your own family bucket list and pages with a few ideas from this list.

Having a list on hand of things we want to try that is FUN takes the pressure off of me. No scrambling trying to come up with something when we have a bad day.

Bucket List Ideas For Kids:

I love using bucket list ideas for kids!

• Spring Bucket List Ideas
• Summer Bucket List Ideas
• Nature Study Ideas For Busy Moms

Now when those “my kids are driving me crazy!!” days come, we take a break. Pull out our list. Find something we want to do and make a plan for when we can do it.

Sometimes we can do it that day. Other times we need to wait for my next day off from work. Either way, it gives us something to look forward to and shifts our mindset from the “bad day” to something good  ♥

What is your favorite winter activity to do with your kids?

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