Winter Blues? Make a Digital Escape.

Disclosure

If you were listening carefully, you probably heard a collective “yee-haw” from parents across the country as kids returned to school following a long holiday break. During warmer weather, when tensions get high or boredom sets it, parents can send their kids outside, but in the winter that gets a bit more difficult. Sure you can dream of sipping drinks on a beautiful beach, but eventually the chill in the air will snap you back to reality.

A lot of times, it comes down to kids grabbing their phones or tablets then hiding in their room watching videos. As we demonstrated a few weeks ago when we shared our list of top hobby board game apps, there are many more ways to get use out of your device! We were obviously right on target with that since a U.S. Cellular survey recently indicated that 61% of smartphone owners use their device to play games.

I use my iPhone 6s as well as my iPad to play Splendor, Ticket to Ride and Star Realms. The girls play some of these along with a variety of other games on their smartphones. Whether you are looking for a hobby game app or something classic like Monopoly, Scrabble or Yahtzee, there are plenty of options available on both iTunes as well as Google Play.

Of course, life isn’t all about play. Even if you’re stuck in the house, you still need to eat. My girls have taken an interest in helping in the kitchen and I’m thrilled that they are utilizing downtime to be creative at a skill they can use for a lifetime. There are recipe apps that they can search to find appropriate things to cook. A few examples of apps to inspire them are Food Network On the Road and Just Recipes while a few examples of specialized apps are Epicurious and Italian Recipes. We have an under-counter “cookbook” stand to keep our device handy during recipe preparation.

If someone needs to get up and moving, there are several fitness apps available. Turn on Spotify and dance, dance, dance or hit the ground and do some pushups. Find a digital fitness coach, fitness videos or apps that help you burn the energy until you’re able to get back outside.

Winter can be tough, but thankfully there are a lot of ways to digitally escape from the cold and winter blues. What do you do when you get stir crazy from being cooped up?