Winter is a great time to be a kid in Minnesota, but you need to take precautions.  Kids should be dressed for the weather, which includes some or all of the following:  mittens or gloves, scarves, hats, warm boots, and snowpants. For older kids in particular, it is a good idea to put layers on if you’re going sledding or skating, so that if they start to get warm, they can take some of it off without losing all their protection.

Little kids can have a blast just playing with snow, maybe learning how to make snowballs or even snow forts. You can put them on a sled with you to go down the local hills.  Keep an eye on them to be sure they aren’t getting cold – sometimes they don’t know themselves!

Older kids can do all the same things, plus skating or hockey on local rinks or ponds, riding big tubes down ski hills at places like Buck Hill, Afton Alps, or Theodore Wirth Park, and skiing.

The Twin Cities au pairs went skating in November to prepare for all of this. I was amazed at how quickly they caught on! I’ll be posting photos soon.

Remember, after an afternoon playing outdoors this time of year, a lovely cup of hot cocoa can warm anyone up!