So winter is in full swing and in my neck of the woods that means lots of grey skies, cold temps and lots of rain. That means lots of cabin fever and winter blues for the kids (and maybe me a little too). What are you doing to keep the winter blues at bay?

After looking for ideas of what to do, I stumbled into an article about how learning crafts, music, and other activities helps with kids’ development and that helped me to determine exactly how to keep the kids busy during their time off of school during the wintertime.

We have decided to up our learning, crafting and cooking game. Each weekend we decide on a new thing to work on as a family. We all get our own spot at the kitchen table and spend time together as we work to create our newest masterpiece. Luckily, here at Sassafrass, we have some amazing kits, toys, sets, and tools to help our family accomplish our goals of spending time together, while staying busy, having fun and learning new things!

Here are some of the Sassafrass goodies that we choose for our themed weekends:

Crafts

kids weaving loom - create fabric by weaving yarn through a loom. make a beautiful hanging tapestry, coaster, or trivet. 12 pc set includes: 1 wooden loom, 2 weaving shuttles, 1 wooden shaft gear, 2 loom hooks, 5 balls of yard and instruction card.

sewing kit - sew so many cute things! including a flower, owl, dog or cat! 69 pc includes: 6 sheets of felt, 52 felt shapes, 4 sewing needles, 2 thread colors, scissors, measuring tape, polyfill stuffing, felt sewing pouch, and instruction card.

paint your own umbrella - kids will pray for rain so they can display their work of art for the world to see! umbrella has safety closure to avoid pinching fingers and rounded plastic tips for safety.

Food

Food is a great way to bring the family together, we all know this. It’s lots of fun to work together in the kitchen creating a tasty meal or dessert. Then once we have finished creating it, we get to have fun eating it! This includes cooking with the kids! Here are some of the cooking and baking kits that are perfect for a family day:

cookie baking kit - our basic baking kits are perfect basics for the budding baker. the tools are sized for smaller hands and the recipe and instructions offer clear directions as well as a fun rhyme. kit includes: measuring spoons, measuring cups, wooden rolling pin, spatula, 6 cookie cutters and recipe & rhyme booklet

mini cake molds - our mini silicone cake molds produce cakes that are evenly baked and remove easily from the mold. (yes, the holidays are over, but the kids don’t care and these are on a great clearance deal right now!)

Gardening

Have you ever worked on a garden with your kids? It’s so much fun and you get to truly create something together! It really doesn’t get much better than that.

We have a really fun baking toolkit that includes an indoor herb pot for your little gardeners!

the little cooks™ toolkit with herb pot - the kit includes a small whisk, wood spoon, rolling pin, wooden turner, large silicone spatula, small silicone spatula, measuring cups and spoons to give them an early lesson in the importance of accurate measuring. all of these necessary tools store compactly and easily in a windowsill herb pot.

Music

Music makes the world go round. Okay, maybe not everyone shares that sentiment, but great things can happen when you work with your kids in a musical setting. Let’s be the kind of parents that encourage creativity, musical and otherwise in our children and see how far that can take them.

These are some of my favorite musical sets that we have here at Sassafrass.

stripe shaker cymbal - budding musicians can hone their musical skills early with these kid-sized musical instruments. each instrument is sure to not only help develop a sense of musical timing, but is great fun as well!

bright stripe tom-tom drum - what’s more fun than keeping beat on a tom tom? kids will love hitting this little drum with the batons or with their hands while leading their imaginary marching band.

bright stripe maracas - kids can shake along with the music using two hands! or share with a friend!

The reality is that the time we spend together is priceless and beneficial in several ways. We no longer deal with suffering from the winter blues, because we aren’t just sitting down watching TV. Plus, it’s an educational way to spend our time since we are creating and learning. Lastly, it’s fun! It really doesn’t matter which activity we choose to do on a particular weekend, they are all great!