What comes to mind when you think of winter? Sure you might say "festive" or "beautiful", but what about "cold, expensive, and busy"? Seems like the perfect time to share some of our low-cost ideas to keep your family entertained through the season.

1. Bake Custom Cookies

Yea, baking cookies is a bit of an easy suggestion, we know. But when you've got custom cookie cutters? That'll elevate your  cookie game to an entirely new level. 

Here's the really exciting part: You can come to one of our makerspaces and 3D print cookie cutters that you've designed, or find a cookie cutter file on Thingiverse and use our 3D printers to print them for yourself. 

2. Decorate with Custom Decals

Who doesn't love personalizing their space? Use our awesome Silhouette Cameo vinyl cutter in one of our makerspaces to print some cool vinyl stickers. Designing a sticker is super easy - it can be a favourite quote or something as simple as a name. Let your child's creativity run wild as they choose how to personalize their space! 

3. Read Together

Would it be a blog post from the library if we didn't talk about books? Being stuck indoors in cold weather is the perfect excuse to curl up together and actively read with a child. Besides encouraging literacy at home, taking time and sitting down to  pick a book and explore a story together helps build a great habit, and may perhaps spark a new favourite cold weather activity.  

To help you out, we've asked our staff to share their favourite children's books with you. It was tough, but here are their all time favourite picks: 

• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (for storytimes and when my kids were younger)
• Madeline / Pippi Longstocking (when I was younger) - Carolyn 
• I think it is a tie between Brian Jacques - Castaways of the Flying Dutchman and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling. - Gifty
• This is hard, there are so many to choose from. I'll go with "The Paperbag Princess" by Robert Munsch - Bonnie-Kay
• The Watermelon Seed by Greg Pizzoli (and soooo many more...this was a hard one for me!) - Jennifer G. 
• My favourite current children's book is Bark George by Jules Feiffer or almost anything by Karma Wilson, especially the Bear series, and The Cow Loves Cookies. My own childhood favourite was definitely Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (I've read it many times and cried each time) and Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw - Donna

• "I want my hat back" by Jon Klassen or...really any Dr. Seuss one. -Samantha

Feeling inspired? Be sure to share your winter activity adventures and tag us @BramptonLibary!