I'm looking out the window seeing gray. What special things are there to do in February? :)

[PeterPan]

Any suggestions?  :)

[Sobeknofret]

I'm seriously considering a unit study on the Olympics to break up the monotony of February. I dread this month all year long, because it's so dreary and difficult to deal with.

[Farrar]

We aim for indoor active things...

 

Indoor pool

Bowling

Kid's night at the climbing gym

Ice skating

Roller skating

[Mrs Twain]

February is a good time to do the yard/flower bed clean up (once the snow melts).  Cut back and clean up all of the plants that need it.  Rake the old leaves.  This is a good way to get yourselves outside doing something productive.

 

February is also the time to plan a garden.  Order/buy seeds.  Some plants can be started indoors so that they will be ready to plant after the last frost. 

 

We plan a week of vacation each year in late January/early February.  This really helps to break up the monotony of winter.

 

:001_smile:

[Woodland Mist Academy]

February is a good time to do the yard/flower bed clean up (once the snow melts).  Cut back and clean up all of the plants that need it.  Rake the old leaves.  This is a good way to get yourselves outside doing something productive.

 

February is also the time to plan a garden.  Order/buy seeds.  Some plants can be started indoors so that they will be ready to plant after the last frost. 

 

 

I like to keep seed catalogs nearby while reading Beverley Nichols on dreary days. Some of his passages on winter flowers are quite memorable and amusing.

 

 

[mommymonster]

Everyone is taking turns in front of the sun lamp. That is pretty critical, in all honesty.

 

After the sun lamp, we have an outing planned every school day this month. Some of them are mundane things (swimming lessons, VT) and some are more exciting. The exciting things include the new Lego movie, a Raptor Roadtrip (organized by our local Audubon society), and a visit to a new museum we just discovered. We are also camping for a week in our pop-up camper. The camping trip could be a bit dicey, but we need to be bold.  :hurray:

 

 

[umsami]

Make coffee filter flowers.  Take coffee filters, have kids draw on them with washable markers….drop water on them with a dropper…and then use pipe cleaners for stems.

 

Plan your own Olympics.

 

Build a fort.

 

Go outside anyways. :)

[LibraryLover]

I am not a cold weather person, but I know someone who calls it 'wintering';  a time to sleep more, eat warming foods,  do handwork (knit, crochet etc) make soups, hunker down as much as you can etc. I also know people who use skiing and sledding to get them through the winter. I am more of an escapist. ;) Winter is too long for some of us.

[chelsmm]

Ice skating (indoor or out)

Play dates

Museums

Grow things indoors - we are seeing which of our vegetables will grow into something- like celery, sweet potatoes, garlic, scallions, avocado pit)

[stripe]

Everyone is taking turns in front of the sun lamp. That is pretty critical, in all honesty.

You're a genius. 

 

I am not a cold weather person, but I know someone who calls it 'wintering';  a time to sleep more, eat warming foods,  do handwork (knit, crochet etc) make soups, hunker down as much as you can etc. I also know people who use skiing and sledding to get them through the winter. I am more of an escapist.  ;) Winter is too long for some of us.

 

I put out an Edith Sitwell quote about the comfy joys of winter and my husband informed me he didn't agree with it AT ALL.

[shanvan]

Are you looking for things to do at home to occupy time and avoid going stir crazy, or places to go?

 

I like visiting a local garden center with a large greenhouse at this time of year.  Putting together a terrarium can be fun if you have access to small plants locally.  Also trips to an art museum or even a local exhibit.  Lectures at a local library or university are sometimes interesting (sometimes boring if the local naturalist goes on for 2 hours just giving names of birds and showing slides).  A lot of cities have indoor flower shows at this time of year.  You could also look for an indoor dog show.  Fox Sports 1 will be airing the first ever Master Agility Competition at Westminster --this Saturday I think.  A woman Ds knows from class is competing.  Agility can be fun to watch.  

 

We also like a walk in one of the local parks if the trails aren't that bad.  It's usually very quiet at this time of year and we all feel better after the exercise even if we do start out cold.  One year we bought a thermos of hot chocolate with us and had a winter picnic.  Believe it or not, we have enjoyed a trip to the beach b/c no one is there!  I've always wanted to host an evening of poetic/dramatic recitations like in one of the Little House books.  I was thinking of doing it this year, but I may not b/c I'm tapped out socially.  Our library will soon be hosting a 'booklovers' sale.  It's around Valentine's day.  I can usually be found there.  :D

 

Every year I think I'm going to use the winter months as a time to visit the headquarters of several town historical societies just to browse what resources they have.  We haven't done it yet, though I think it's a great idea.  We have also enjoyed an outing to a local tea room (one that serves authentic clotted cream).  I like making a few special treats that recall some past events too.  We don't often have pop-overs, but they make us think of one of our vacations.  Along those lines, I was thinking about putting together a book of our favorite recipes.  I was hoping to get the entire family in on the voting for which recipes make it in.  I thought we would have a rule about cooking them each first.  

 

Also on our list to-do --drawings and paintings inspired by a book Dd got for Christmas.

 

Not sure if any of these ideas are what you were going for, but that's what I got.  Hope something someone posted strikes your fancy.

[Lucy the Valiant]

We do a huge President's Day bash every year . . . it's flexible (we often hold it on Tuesday, for instance), and we go all out. President-themed snacks (look at Family Fun's ideas online), goofy costumes, invite friends over, do some presentations (if kids are willing - we usually "volun-told" (force) them - but they do like it), party games (often involving tossing coins into floating targets - which presidents are on the coins?), funny jokes, a good picture book or two for the youngers. We go ALL. OUT.

 

Snacks from the past: cherry tarts for George Washington (I know, I know), pretzel log cabins for Lincoln, "Ham"ilton & Cheese cracker stacks, muffins w/dollar-bills-trivia on them (which faces are on the different denominations).

 

It's super corny, but by this late in the winter, we need something to look forward to. :)

 

 

(And we use "parties" as one of our methods of assessment, so it's a comfortable / expected / natural format for our kiddos.)

[Donna A.]

We're taking a pause from our regular studies and doing a mini unit study on slavery and Africa.  (It's Black History Month.)  Some things we've done/are doing:

 

Read about Prince Henry the Navigator, who authorized the transport of Africans to Europe for slavery in the 1400's.  (No, America is not the only country who's used Africans as slaves. :glare:  )

 

Read about the trips of other explorers who went around Africa.

 

Geography and culture study of Africa.  Religious beliefs in Africa.

 

Watch the movie "Faith Like Potatoes".

 

Read or watch the movie "Amazing Grace" about William Wilberforce and his fight for the freedom of slaves in England.

 

Some of our favorite children's books or videos on this topic:  The Drinking Gourd, Follow the Drinking Gourd, Mrs. Katz and Tush (brings in a bit of the history of the Israelitles and their time in slavery in Egypt - which is in Africa, ironically - showing that the bondage of slavery issue is not unique to Africans).  If you're a Christian, you could even go to the Bible and talk about what it means to be a slave to sin vs. being a bondservant to Christ.

 

Read about Harriet Tubman, Phillis Wheatley, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King, Jr. (and others)

 

Last night we went to see a ballet & modern dance performance called "Underground".

 

Next week, we're getting together with friends to cut out material for shoes for people in Uganda who suffer from getting Jiggers (sand fleas) in their feet, resulting in severe infection in many.  They need shoes!  www.solehope.org

 

With my older students, we watched the PBS documentary called "Border Wars", the fight between Missouri and Kansas over the issues of slaves.  This was a big contributing factor to the issue of slavery in the War Between the States and the resulting Missouri Compromise of 1850.

 

There's an episode of the TV show "Christy" that portrays a black doctor coming to their community.  He's a very good doctor, but has a hard time being accepted and being allowed to treat anyone because he's black. He's continued to be featured in subsequent episodes, but you could start with the one where he makes his first appearance.  It's a blind woman who first befriends him, which leads to his community acceptance, but this is an opportunity to talk about prejudices and disabilities in general.  (This could then lead to watching the movie "The Miracle Worker" with Helen Keller, whose family employs slaves....)

 

There's all kinds of rabbit trails you take off with this subject!  But I mention it because of February being Black History Month, and the many different things you can do to bring awareness, education, and compassion.

 

[73349]

My plans this week include an indoor sports class, bringing flowers to a couple (friends we seldom get to see because she works insane hours; he's been in the hospital), ice skating, a nature walk, and making our family's favorite dessert on Valentine's Day.

[Julie Smith]

Indoor swiming pool.

Snow piling (Climbing on the giant snow piles in parking lots)

Sledding

Skating

Skiing (But my kids don't want to - but we have in the past)

Library (Our library also happens to have a very good snow pile for climbing on)

Home Depot to build something out of wood for free (It was suppose to be a trojan horse bank, instead it was a race car)

Indoor rock climbing

Bowling

Taking all the matress (I just realized I don't know the plural for matress) in the house and building a fort, or a stair slide.

Going shopping for a new board game.

Making sushi or tacos, or some other thing for dinner that has everyone sitting around the table making.

Do something with Duct-tape and various things from the recycle bin

Cross country skiing.

Shovel the snow off the roof.

Make a Quinzhee http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinzhee

 

 

[shanvan]

 

Shovel the snow off the roof.

 

Oh my!  You've got to be kidding.  I spent 2 days on this and chipping ice off the roof and gutters.  I hope I never have to do it again.

[Julie Smith]

Oh my!  You've got to be kidding.  I spent 2 days on this and chipping ice off the roof and gutters.  I hope I never have to do it again.

 

We have a roof with a very slight slope over are back patio. 

 

It leaks. 

 

So I do plan to get DH to shovel it sometime before winter is over - or most of that snow will melt and end up in my back patio. 

 

:p

 

It wouldn't be ice chipping. THe back patio isn't heated so I don't think we have a layer of ice under the snow. Just a lot of snow.

 

As for our gutters on the house. They are basically useless already so I'm not worried about saving them.

[shanvan]

We have a roof with a very slight slope over are back patio. 

 

It leaks. 

 

So I do plan to get DH to shovel it sometime before winter is over - or most of that snow will melt and end up in my back patio. 

 

:p

 

It wouldn't be ice chipping. THe back patio isn't heated so I don't think we have a layer of ice under the snow. Just a lot of snow.

 

As for our gutters on the house. They are basically useless already so I'm not worried about saving them.

Oh, I wasn't worried about saving the gutters.  I had to stop the water from coming in the house.  The ice on roof and gutters made the water back up under the roof shingles and it was filtering through into the house.  The gutters are shot.