A fun January: Three (sort of) old-fashioned ideas to beat the winter blues - MetroFamily Magazine
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A fun January: Three (sort of) old-fashioned ideas to beat the winter blues

by Callie Collins

Reading Time: 2 minutes 

Oklahoma City family fun is here throughout the year, even if it feels harder to find after Christmas.

Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s: the holidays come in quick succession. They provide the perfect opportunity for family activities, traditions and school breaks to fill in with fun, the memories our children will grow with during these fast years.

January, though, feels like a “now what” season, with a gradual return to routine. Cold weather makes park time limited and my children have a tendency to sit in front of more screens than I’d like right now.

Winter Break is longer than ever now and that also creates a strange pause followed by a return that feels sudden. This is just an odd time in family life.

Here are three ideas for a fun-filled afternoon that will help you forget it’s winter outside:

Go swimming: There are some excellent heated pool options around, including Goldfish Swim School in Oklahoma City and Edmond and Clinton’s Water Zoo. Indoor pool admission typically costs less than going to the movies. Family Swim at Goldfish is open to the public, for example, no membership needed, and the cost is just $5 per person or a maximum of $15 per family. Frosty weather fades away once you’re in the water. Click here for a list of indoor pools.

Try a new restaurant: Get excited to try something new. We’ve featured some suggestions over on our Thrive & Dime blog and also in our Kid Reviews. Click here for seven surprising kid-friendly eats in OKC. Our family really favors Asian noodles during the winter.  Pho or udon noodles take away the chill.

Go for an indoor venue: Imaginative play, roller skating, indoor trampolines, museum displays and gymnastics are just some of the ideas on our Nine Places to Wiggle Out Winter list. My children are headed to visit Tot Town next week, which is perfect for littles not yet in school, and we’ll will let you know what we find there. Okie Kids Playground is set to open later this winter and I can’t wait to give it a try with my kindergartner and toddler. A board game cafe is on the list of places my fifth grader wants to visit soon. In the meantime, we’ve broken out Monopoly, Operation and Battleship in the past week; it’s great for them to rediscover some basic life skills like counting back change and being strategic with tools from simpler times.

Have you discovered a winter haven to keep the winter blues away? Tell me about it and we just might include it in a future post.

Enjoy January. It’ll be spring before we know it!

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