It's been pretty bitterly cold in the Mankato area lately and in much of the country.  There are still lots of ways to keep kids moving and active during this type of weather though. 

Here's a few ways to keep up with the PE portion of homeschooling no matter what the weather is.

• Go ice skating. In Mankato, some area homeschoolers skate during open skating times on Tuesdays at All Seasons Arena. In Windom, there is homeschool skating most Thursday afternoons at Windom Arena.
• Sign up for bowling.  Right now homeschool classes are running at Wow Zone in Mankato on Tuesday afternoons.
• Invest in Hyper Dash.  This fun and fast paced game is around $20 and gets the whole family running and laughing.  Not only that, but you can set it to do easy math problems or colors and numbers to help little ones learn those.  It's usually available locally at stores like Walmart and Target, or can be purchased for slightly more through Amazon.com.
• Play hunt the timer or hide the phone (have someone hide the cordless phone and then hit the page button to start it beeping to help the kids find it).
• Set up an obstacle course through the house.
• Go sledding.
• Let each child pick a CD each day for the family to dance to.  Make a rule that nobody can stop moving except for bathroom breaks, and the wilder the dancing the better.
• Go skiing at Mount Kato.  They also have monthly homeschool days.
• Challenge the kids to see how many times they can run up and down the stairs, how many arm curls they can do with milk jugs (fill them with varying levels of water to make them heavier) or how long they can hula hoop or jump rope.
• Get a membership at a family athletic center like the Mankato YMCA.
• Invest in a mini trampoline for the kids to jump on.
• Take the kids outside for a walk, a snowball fight or to play in the snow on all but the most bitterly cold days.  Don't forget that shoveling snow is good exercise too!
• Invest in toys like hoppity balls for the kids to bounce on in the basement or playroom.
• Order DVD's from the library or Netflix that teach different types of dance, yoga, exercise or other movement.  We have a private collection of old videos that cover everything from African dance to Irish step dancing to hula dance to yoga for kids.  The variety keeps it interesting and it's a bit of social studies too!
• Make a hopscotch grid with painter's tape on the floor.
• Go mall walking, especially during slow times.
• Go to homeschool gym times like St. Peter's open gym on Thursdays.
• Go swimming.  Locally, there's homeschool swimming at the Lake Crystal Area Rec Center the first Thursday of each month.  You can also pay for open swimming there, at the Y or even some hotels for a small fee.

You can check out January events for Southern Minnesota for more details about some activities mentioned.

This is just a partial list of all the ways to stay active with the kids even when it's 20 below.  If you have favorite winter activities that aren't on the list, please add them in the comments!