Are you ready to start a new year filled with seasonal play and learning? This post is filled with ideas for January activities for kids. This post is part of my series of posts on Seasonal activities for kids. January can be a tough month for some as the weather can make getting out of the house hard. Hopefully the ideas below will help you find things to do indoors and outdoors this month.
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These are my favourite Winter activities for kids. I’ve covered everything from seasonal books, crafts, what to do in the garden and other ideas for getting kids outdoors.
January kid’s activities
January in the garden
Unless you have a greenhouse, then it might be a little early to start gardening yet but you could start planning what you want to grow with your kids this year.
Find my top tips for starting gardening with kids in this post. January is a great time to start planning. We have a raised bed, find out more about creating a vegetable garden in a raised bed in this post,
I’m planning to plant some raspberry canes though as January is a perfect time. You can also start chitting early potatoes. Find out what you can sow & plant in January
January is a great time to start Encouraging wildlife to your garden. The easiest place to start is with bird feeders or if you want a bit more of a challenge a bug hotel. Find out how to make a pine cone bird feeder here.
January outdoor kid’s activity inspiration
It’s certainly starting to get chillier here. Dropping temperatures can make the prospect of going outside with young children less appealing. However, the benefits of getting kids outdoors are still the same in winter so it’s worth the extra effort. I find the key is good waterproofs and warm clothing.
We still need to get children outside as often as we can, wrapped up warm and enjoying themselves. You might find it easier to stay closer to home and go out for shorter periods. Find my top tips for family winter walks here.
It might be as simple as going on a short family walk (and I have lots of tips for keeping kids happy on a walk). If you want to track how far you walk with your kids or even set yourself a challenge of 50, 100 or 500 miles/km then you need my free family walks tracker printables.
January is a great time to start geocaching with kids. Kids love these digital treasure hunts.
Scavenger hunts are fantastic for kids. Sign up to my email list below to get your free winter scavenger hunt printable.
Don’t forget picnics aren’t just for summer. Find my Winter picnic ideas here.
If you are lucky enough to get snow this month then you’ll love this post with ideas for two different ways for how to paint snow.
If you’re thinking of creating a Winter family bucket list, you’ll find loads more ideas for outdoor activities for kids in winter here.
Why not set up an outdoor number hunt for preschoolers in your garden. Perfect for combining outdoor play and learning.
January on the bookshelves
I love reading seasonal books with my kids. We have some beautiful picture winter books and I’m going to be adding to this list soon as we have a few more to recommend. Find the best Winter books for toddlers here.
Find Children’s books about birds here.
If poetry is more your thing, I am the seed that grew the tree is a beautiful book of poems to read through the seasons (one for every day of the year).
The follow-up book Tiger, tiger burning bright is equally gorgeous.
If you are starting to plan your garden, then you might be interested in children’s books about gardening.
The shorter days in January make it the perfect time for learning about the night sky. Find my out and about night explorer book review here.
Now is a great time to start learning about the weather – Books about weather for toddlers.
January ideas for creating and playing
There are lots of opportunities for January themes for toddlers such as craft and sensory play. Perhaps you want to do activities based on birds, polar animals, snow or ice. If you’re lucky enough to get snow, perhaps you could bring some inside and play with arctic animal toys in it.
If you are looking for a mess-free activity, I can recommend this Winter sensory play for toddlers.
Find lots more ideas for winter sensory activities for toddlers here.
Find loads of Indoor winter activities for toddlers here.
Find lots of Winter Nature Crafts for kids here.
If you’d like to combine a creative activity with getting outside then you need to try my Diy paper lantern craft.
Find lots of Winter painting ideas for kids here.
One of our favourites is this winter landscape art.
If you’re doing a bird theme, these are Bird art projects for preschoolers that are perfect.
Or Bird feeders for children to make is a great activity for right now.
Find loads more Winter activities for kids here.
More seasonal activities for kids
If you’re already starting to think ahead then you will be pleased to hear that I already have posts for all the other months.
What’s on for families in January in North West England
If you live in Cumbria, Cheshire, Lancashire, Liverpool or Manchester, I have a guide to all the family events happening across our region this month. Find it here – Family events North West January
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What a great collection of January activities for kids. It can be all too easy to hide away indoors all month but the outdoors has so much to offer families even in the middle of winter.
January being very cold needs to double up on the fun to encourage the children to go outside. These ideas are awesome!
If I’m brave enough to venture outside then I will definitely be using your ideas. It’s just so cold.
Some fab ideas here. My little girl is always happier outside no matter how bad the weather is so we’ll definitely be trying some. The seed that grew the tree sounds lovely so we’ll be looking out for that too
The Big Garden Bird Watch is in January, so a good reason to get outside
Some great ideas here. We love to go on nature trails, we make our own too! The kids loved painting snow last year too x
Those are some great ideas. Thanks for sharing.