The Spark! – January 2017

I’m a Northern winter baby myself and as a child I remember wishing that I could choose a different month of the year to celebrate my birthday. In spite of being a Northerner, I have not always welcomed the cold months. Now with many January birthdays behind me, I have tried my best to embrace this time of year as a new beginning and to think about creative ways to pass the time during these chilly, dark days. I understand that entertaining little ones at this time of year can be particularly challenging, especially in New York City. Last year, I fondly remember the one big snowstorm we had. We went off the beaten path in Central Park with our kids and friends when we saw the crowded hill at 100th Street teeming with kids waiting in lines to sled down the hill. There are endless hills in Central Park so we didn’t have to venture too far off until we found our own private little hill. We worked hard at carving out a sledding path and soon we were off. No lines and our very own hill, all to ourselves! It was our best sledding day ever. We laughed and welcomed others passing by who wanted to give our hill a try too!

Another successful snow adventure was during one of the snowy polar vortexes a few years ago. It was just too cold to venture out and there was abundance fresh snow everywhere. I told my kids that we would fill a bunch of grocery store bags with snow and we would bring them home. They were very amused by this idea and eager to act on it. Once we got the clean snow home, we dumped it into our shower stall and the kids kept their gloves on and made mini indoor snow people, filled ice cube trays with snow, and dropped liquid eye droppers of food coloring on the snow, the possibilities were endless until it melted, meanwhile I enjoyed staying warm indoors.

This week we repeated the tradition of playing with snow indoors in the OMO class. The teachers visited the roof of Ansche Chesed and we scooped a bunch of the very clean snow and put it in our water table. The kids loved coloring the snow with droppers of bright water colors and we thought they all looked like the cutest bunch of little artists/scientists that we’ve ever seen!

Cheers to getting out there with your little ones in all weather. May many hot cocoas and hot coffees be waiting for you when you return home!