‘Tis the season to be… stuck in the house with your kids while being snowed in by a foot or two of snow, am I right? I’m sure you can picture it now, the forecast calling for anywhere between a coating and nine feet of snow, your teens glued to Facebook waiting for the first post notifying them of a 2-hour delay, all while you try to pack your elementary school aged kids into bed before they realize that they have off of school tomorrow. As you tuck them in you get the same question approximately 36,798 times, “Is it snowing yet?!” No, not yet, but you can already feel the snow-day-dread setting in as you try to mentally prepare for the hours-long sighs from the teens and the exaggerated whines from the younger ones both saying, “I’m boooooooored.”

            So what better way to beat the boredom than to plan ahead, and plan early! That way you can nip the boredom in the bud before it even begins to blossom. Here are some of my favorite ways to keep the kiddos entertained so that I can (hopefully) get some of my own work done around the house before joining them in the winter wonderland.

            First and foremost, what better way to engage children in rigorous physical activity and core strengthening than shoveling out the driveway?! If you’re an entrepreneur like myself, send the older kiddos around the neighborhood to make a quick buck. What’s more, you could even take the kiddos around the block and help them to understand the importance of random acts of kindness (cleaning cars off for neighbors also gets you extra brownie points to hopefully make up for all the yelling that the kids do when they’re playing outside).

            There’s always the traditional snow fort and snowball battle, but if your kids are anything like my own, that will last all of 57 seconds until they get cold or their gloves get wet. As an exciting alternative, try turning the freshly laid snow into your pearly-white canvas and give your budding Bob Ross some food coloring to create happy-little-trees in your yard. For an added element of adventure, you can try mixing some food coloring into your squirt guns and create a graffiti-style mural. I can guarantee this will last (at least a little bit) longer than the traditional snow-angel paintings of yore.

            Okay, so maybe we should cut the kids some slack. Being out in the powder can genuinely get a little cold after a while (although I didn’t dress you in 33 layers and burn 670 calories for you to turn around and come right back in). At some point we have to bring them in to warm up. At this time, I am a huge fan of the standard hot chocolate warm-up. We like to load it up with marshmallows and whipped cream (we actually prefer a little hot chocolate with our fluffy, sugary confections). But don’t be fooled—our fluffy friends can serve multiple purposes. You can make marshmallow snowmen complete with chocolate chip eyes and Hershey Kisses top hats. Another fun (yet messy) marshmallow activity is a snowball fight in the house but you use marshmallows instead of snow. This may seem like a waste of marshmallows, but have you ever heard of a little thing called the 6-second rule? They perfectly fine for consumption and pelting at your kiddos to stave off their (or maybe my) boredom (besides, you’ll totally get all the cool-parent points).

            Other, more ambitious, parents have opted for bringing the snow day inside. Whether it’s a kiddie pool or the bathtub, parents have carefully crafted a snowy experience without the immediate urge to sit as close as humanly possible to an open flame. I’m partial to the bathtub idea because cleanup couldn’t get any easier.

            While you’re having fun with the younger kids, the teens will probably roll their eyes at most of these ideas (except marshmallow snowball battle—it takes a special kind teenager to disengage from a food fight). So, what could we do to get them off of their phones and into the family fun? Why not try something from their younger years but with a really cool twist? Turn the entire living room into one giant fort. Have the teens and younger siblings work together to create a fort the likes of which have never been seen before. I mean, they can build one in .8 seconds flat on that famous video game that has had my son flossing uncontrollably for two years straight, so why not challenge them to create the ultimate living room fort. The purpose of the fort is to hold the entire family so that you can watch a binge-worthy series or movie marathon (think Lemony Snicket’s or Harry Potter). Grab a bag a popcorn, some chocolate chips and peanuts for a quick movie munchy and voila! You’ve got a couple hours to do with what you wish (I suggest the Netflix binge—you earned it).

For more Snow Day boredom busters check out recipes for cookies, homemade slime, face masks for an at-home spa day, or even biscuits for your furry friends who have to put up with you all during their what would-be-nap-times. There are several things available to help beat the boredom, but the best thing to do is to take a step back and cherish the snow days while you still have them. It won’t be long until they’re off to college or starting employment, and we all know that grown-ups don’t get snow days.