Many of us are going to be home for the holidays this year, which means 2-3 weeks of free time when children are home without school all day and parents needing activities for their children to do to keep busy! But if you are like me, you want your children to participate in activities that involve play, creativity, imagination, and maybe even sneak in some learning too!
Well have no fear, I’ve got you covered! I’m so excited to partner with Osmo this holiday season to share some fun and festive hands on activities you can do with your child during the holidays that they will love! I’m taking my favorite Osmo games and pairing them with activities, crafts, and food items to enjoy with each game play!
But first, can I take a minute and remind you why I love Osmo so much? I’ve been an Osmo Social Club member for a long time and love the company and the genius games they have created for children. I love meeting other like-minded moms who love play based learning as much as I do.
One of the biggest reasons I love Osmo is because their games incorporate all 3 types of learning styles; auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. My children first started using Osmo last year and as a parent and educator, I was very impressed. Osmo incorporates learning and play in a fun, creative, tactile, colorful, experiential way and sets children up for social and academic success. Osmo cultivates unique and effective learning and allows children to immerse themselves in an imaginative world of play and experimentation while learning essential life and educational skills.
I am a huge advocate for Osmo, and in my opinion, Osmo goes beyond the book. I often tell the students I teach that theoretical learning from a textbook doesn’t always translate into real life situations. Skills like thinking quickly on your feet, critical thinking and problem-solving skills,
and thinking creatively outside the box using your imagination isn’t always encouraged in a traditional school setting, thus learning from a tool like Osmo is worth its weight in gold for a young developing student mind!
It’s also no surprise that children love technology and screen time. They also love playing and being playful. Osmo has a way of marrying the two together where children can play while having screen time while at the same time immersed in a learning environment that supports brain growth, cognitive development, vital educational skills, while spurring imagination and
creativity in a tactile, fun, experiential way.
Super Studio Disney Frozen 2
Ages 5-11
We are big Disney fans in our home and love everything about Elsa, Anna, and all of the Frozen characters! In fact, my daughter and I attended the Osmo Frozen 2 launch party last year and had so much fun! Soon after, we attended the Frozen 2 World Premiere in Hollywood! And now we can celebrate Frozen 2 from home all winter long by playing Osmo’s Super Studio Disney Frozen 2 game, using our art and animation skills with our favorite characters, and then doing the following activities!
Make Frozen Hot Chocolate
- Melt chocolate in a the microwave on half power, in 20 second increments, stirring until smooth.
- Once melted, stir in some hot chocolate mix and sugar.
- Stir in 1/2 cup milk and allow to cool to room temperature.
- In a blender, add some more milk, a few cups of ice, and the melted chocolate mixture. Blend until smooth. Serve immediately, topped with fresh whipped cream.
Make Frozen Snow
This activity is super easy and all you need is a large bowl or sensory bin, some baking soda, and some shaving cream! Put 1lb of baking soda into a bowl and then slowly add enough shaving cream to mix in until you have a snow-like texture!! It’s a fun, hands-on sensory experience that will keep your children busy for a long time!!
Pinecone Snow Craft
For this activity, all you need are pine cones, glue, and baking soda! Dip the pine cone in glue and roll it around to cover the tips of the pine cones. Then spin the pine cone in baking soda to cover the glue! That’s it!!
Play Frozen Toy Ice
For this fun, play based activity, all you need is an ice cube tray, water, small toys or craft materials like Pom Pom balls, buttons, etc, a freezer, and a toy hammer (or something similar). Place all of your favorite toys in the ice cube tray, one toy in each space. Then cover in water and put in the freezer until frozen! Take it out of the freezer and outside or in a bathtub if it’s too cold. Then take each ice cube out one by one and smash with a toy hammer until all the ice melts/cracks and the toy cones out!!
Watch Frozen 2
Then when you are done, you can pop some popcorn and watch Frozen 2 on DVD or Disney Plus!
Pizza Co.
Ages 5-12
We just started playing Osmo’s Pizza Co game and it’s so much fun!! My children love being mini entrepreneurs and running their own pizza shop, making pizzas to order, and then practicing math and giving change to the customers when the bill comes!! It a great way to learn how to follow directions, sequencing, counting, and math! So one you play Osmo’s Pizza Co. game, here are some fun, hands-on activities to do with your children!!
Make a Pizza
Make a pizza with dough, sauce, cheese, and toppings! You can even make a matching mock pizza with your Osmo game pieces to eat side by side with your favorite dolls or stuffed animals for a pizza party!!
Paper Plate Pizza Craft
All you need is a paper plate, markers or paint, scissors, glue, and some construction paper. Color or paint the paper plate red for the sauce. Then cut out toppings from construction paper and glue on to the plate! Get creative and have fun!
Popsicle Stick Pizza Craft
All you need for this activity is 3 popsicle sticks, glue, a piece of red construction paper for the sauce, and some yellow construction paper for the cheese. First, glue the popsicle sticks together in a triangle formation to look like a piece of pizza! Glue a red triangle behind the popsicle sticks for the sauce and then cut out small rectangle shaped “cheese” from the yellow construction paper.
Pizza Coloring and Activity Pages
There are so many pizza coloring pages on Pinterest! There are also some printable downloads where you can make your own pizza with topping cut outs on a piece of paper!
Creative Starter Kit (Monster)
Ages 4-9
We also just started playing Osmo’s Creative Starter Kit/Monster and I love how artistic and creative my kids can get when playing the games like Monster, Newton, and Masterpiece. In addition to making her drawings comes to life, she also really loves the magic shows! So once your child is in the artistic mood and plays the game, here are some hands on activities you can do!
Creative Painting
Paint a picture on an easel, table, or floor! Painting is all about self expression, creativity, imagination, and fun, so it doesn’t matter where you paint, it’s that your child has the space to draw, color, or paint freely! Paint with your hands or paint with food, toys, or even a toothbrush (just make sure it’s a new one or one you won’t put in your mouth again!)
Splatter Painting
I love splatter painting with my kids and they love it too! All you need is a piece of large paper, some washable paints, and a paint brush! Dip the paint brush in the paint and then flick the paint onto the paper without touching it to make a very fun and abstract art piece! It’s fun to get a little messy (hence the washable paint) and a great activity for all ages, but especially toddlers who may not have a lot of art skills yet!
Make Paint Palette Cookies
All you need for this fun baking activity is some sugar cookies (make from scratch or buy pre-made from the store) and some M&M’s! Once your cookies are flat in a circular shape, make a small hole in one corner of the cookie and then put different color M&M’s in a circle outlining the rest of the cookie to look like a paint palette!
Paint Holiday Rocks
Honestly there are so many play-based way to paint. I’ve painted using things like toothbrushes, toys, and food to paint with! And there are so many things you can paint like pinecones, leaves, and rocks! This holiday season, make your rock painting festive and paint one with a Santa hat, a Christmas tree, or a snowman! All you need is some rocks, paints, and a paintbrush! When you are done, gift them to friends and neighbors or leave them around your neighborhood for others to find and bring a little joy to their day!
Detective Agency
Ages 5+
My children just started playing Osmo’s Detective Agency game and they are both obsessed! They love the tangible maps and magnifying glass the game comes with that coincide with the game on the screen as well as learning all about different countries and solving mysteries! so once you have played the game, here are some ideas of activities that go along with the mystery fun!
Go on a Nature Scavenger Hunt
Take a bigger magnifying glass and a bag for your treasures and go on a nature scavenger hunt in your neighborhood! Some Vitamin D, movement, and fresh air will help break up your day and renew your energy and it will be a lot of fun! Look for bugs with your magnifying glass, look at leaves up close, and find various things like rocks, blades of grass, tree bark, etc!
Hidden Sensory Bin
Create a sensory bin with various objects hidden inside and have your child search for them! Make your bin out of dried rice, dried popcorn, dried pasta, or water beads! Hide small toys, magnetic letters, or really anything you want to solve the mystery!
Write a Secret Agent Message
Take a piece of paper and create a message using color changing invisible ink! All you need for this activity is paper, baking soda, turmeric, Q-Tips or a fine tipped paint brush, rubbing alcohol, paper towels, and water! Get the full directions on Pinterest from Research Parent!
Play “I Spy”
This one is an oldie but goodie and no explanation is needed! Have fun!
Make a Passport Craft
Take some paper and cut in half and then fold again in half until it is approximately passport sized. You can look for ideas on Pinterest, but your child can glue a picture of them or color a picture of themselves and create their own passport! They can color different pages with different countries they want to visit and you can even have them look at the Osmo Detective Agency maps and coincide the countries they visit to the ones in the game! Then you can see what kind of food you have around the house for a meal or a snack and eat something from one of the countries that is from the game or on your child’s passport! For example, you can eat a croissant from Paris!
Play Mystery Jelly Beans
Buy a bag of jelly beans and play the mystery game flavor! See how many flavors you and your child can guess correctly! Just make sure to not eat the whole bag!
Genius
The Genius Starter Kits are a big favorite in our home. My preschool-aged son especially loves the Little Genius Starter Kit and my daughter loves the Genius Starter Kit! My son loves using game pieces to make different shapes and letters, and loves playing and learning at the same time! So after playing and learning the Alpahbet and making shapes, here are some fun food and hands-on activities you can do to further your child’s passion for playing and learning!
There is the Little Genius Starter Kit + Early Math Adventure for children 3-5 years old and comes with 6 different games! If you don’t get the Early Math Adventure, you still get 4 games with the Little Genius Starter Kit! That’s a lot for a preschooler to keep them engaged and busy for quite a while! Trust me, my son is 4 and he loves playing the ABC’s, Squiggle Magic, Costume Party, Shape Builder, and Counting Town!
There is also the Genius Starter Kit + Family Game Night for children 6-10 years old and comes with 7 games if you include the Family Game Night and 5 games with just the Genius Starter Kit. My daughter loves playing the Tangram, Words, Numbers, Math Buzz, and Lettertopia games!
Make “Little Genius” Alphabet Soup
This recipe was taken from Food with Feeling on Pinterest!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced (more or less as desired)
- 1 small yellow onion, diced (about 1 cup)
- 2 teaspoons of Italian seasoning
- 3/4 teaspoon of fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon of fresh thyme, chopped (can sub for dried)
- 8 cups of vegetable broth
- 1 pound of frozen mixed vegetables
- optional: 2 sticks of celery, diced*
- 1 bay leaf
- 15 ounce can of diced tomatoes in their juices
- 8 ounce can of tomato sauce
- 1 cup of dry alphabet pasta**
Instructions
- In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Once hot, add in the garlic, onion, italian seasoning, sea salt, and thyme. Cook until the onion begins to soften, about 5 minutes.
- Turn the heat to high and add in the broth, frozen vegetables, celery, bay leaf, diced tomatoes in their juices, and tomato sauce. Bring to a boil.
- Once boiling, lower heat to a gentle simmer and add in the pasta. Cook until the pasta is tender (check the box of the pasta you’re using for reference), about 20 minutes. Check pasta for doneness (cook to your liking) and when the pasta is done, remove the bay leaf.
- Sere immediately and ENJOY! I like to serve mine with fresh herbs and little bit of cheese (non diary works great as well or you can obviously leave the cheese off all-together).
Have a Costume Party Fashion Show
It’s a fact that the majority of children love to play dress up, so like the Osmo game, mix and match different outfit ideas and have a fashion show!! You can just sit back on the couch snd relax and watch your children walk the runway! It’s a fun way for them to get creative and explore different fashion pairings!
Play Shapes Bingo
You can most likely find some downloadable printables on Pinterest or you can create you own game pieces! Either way, have fun playing shapes bingo to learn different shapes and colors!
Play Alphabet Sidewalk Chalk Hopscotch
This is a fun activity to get kids moving snd active! Use this activity if they have the wiggles or just need some fresh air and a change of scenery! All you need is a sidewalk and some chalk! Draw a hopscotch game on the ground but instead of numbers put letters from the alphabet in the spaces! It’s an extra bonus if you can use the correct number or spaces to create a word!!! Such a great activity to ignite cognitive function!
Counting Pom Pom Activity
I’ve been doing this activity since my kids were babies and my kids still love playing it! All you need are 10 bowls (I use paper bowls) and a bag of craft Pom poms. I get mine at the dollar store but maybe you already have them at home! Write a different number at the bottom of each bowl using a different color for each number (or at least as many colors as you have Pom poms). Then have your child fill the bowl with the correct number of Pom poms that match the number in the bowl! Bonus if they match the correct color and number for each bowl!
Coding
Ages 5-10
A few months ago I wrote a pretty comprehensive blog post about the many benefits of coding and why I love Osmo’s Coding Starter Kit! You can read more about it here, and in the meantime, here are some fun ways to “code” in real life!
Play a Real Life Coding Game
For this game, the parent gives coding instructions and the child moves according to the number of steps and direction the parent asks the child to move. For example, the parent can say “move two steps forward and then turn to the right” and the child will move that way to simulate coding! Then the child can give coding instructions to their parent and the parents will move in the direction their child asks them to! This is a great way to “code” and also learn patterns, sequencing, listening and following directions, and taking turns!
Have a Coding Jam Dance Party
This one is pretty self explanatory – just put on some of your favorite music and dance!
Play Musical Instruments
Learning about music, making patterns, and music go hand in hand. So find some instruments around the house, even if it’s a pot and a spatula, and make some music! Try to take turns making patterns to make a song! This is such a fun, sensory activity, too!
Construction Paper Coding
Grab as many colors of construction paper as you can find and then start making coding patterns all around your home. Put a few pieces of paper down and then ask your child “what color comes next in the pattern?” and go from there!
I hope you liked my ideas and found them useful. I would love to hear your ideas, so please drop other activities you are doing with your child this holiday season and or let’s chat about your favorite Osmo games in the comments below!
Don’t have some of these Osmo games? Good news! Osmo can be purchased on www.playosmo.com, Amazon, Target and your local retailers! Happy Holidays!
This post is sponsored by Osmo, but all photos, experiences, and opinions are my own!
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