Cold keeps kids indoors

By Phil Cobb | January 19, 2024 |

SUBMITTED BY COFFELT FAMILY
Grant Coffelt sits in a fort he and his family constructed under a dining room table during one of the many snow days over the past week

MARYVILLE, Mo. — Everyone in northwest Missouri knows the type of weather that’s fallen on the area over the past week, causing kids throughout Nodaway and Worth counties to miss several days of school or have AMI days.

The schools in the area have only had a day-and-a-half of in-person classes since Monday, Jan. 8, due to extreme low temperatures and hazardous roads.

So, what have parents and students been doing to keep themselves entertained? Here’s what several families did to keep them busy and active over the past week.

Cheyenne Troutwine said her daughter, Dawsyn, who attends Worth County R-III, worked on her tumbling skills since she couldn’t go to dance class.

“Dawsyn got a gym mat so she has been working hard and just about got her back kickover mastered,” Troutwine told The Forum on Facebook. “She’s excited to go to dance today to show her teacher!”

Several families said they spent time making different craft projects. Troutwine’s kids made bath bombs, slime, sun catchers and more.

Whitney Plackemeier and her kids, Brock and Piper, made their gingerbread houses leftover from the holidays, did lots of baking and had several dance parties to burn off some of that extra energy.

“We have been low key at our house,” said Rachel Brown, who lives in Grant City. “Lots of card playing and board games … We had an epic PayDay (board game) battle that resulted in our 6-year-old, Kyrie, winning like always. He says ‘the game is too easy mom’ and so we are all ready to play again … to see if anyone can knock him out of the winners circle.”

There were two activities that seemed to be the most common among families — using the snow to its advantage by making snow ice cream, snow cones or igloos, and building forts inside the house.

Kally Jo Haer has children in second and third grade who attend North Andrew R-VI. Her kids enjoyed bundling up for short trips outside to do “quick animal chores and then they dig ‘drift igloos,” and Troutwine said her kids build their igloos with some new snow tools.

To pair with the fun of fort building, Jackie Cochenour and daughter Penny decided to learn some new skills over the snow days.

“We began to learn about the Greek language and speaking/counting in Greek,” Cochenour said. “We also read and introduced her to a few movies we grew up watching.”

Though her kids aren’t old enough for elementary school yet, Destiny Mercer said her kids focused on new skills as well.

“We created a ‘clean the ocean’ bin and learned about recycling — cleaning paper and plastic out of the ‘ocean’ — lots of skills accomplished with sorting, learning about creatures, and working on fine motor skills,” Mercer said.

With temperatures slowly on the rise and the wind seemingly much calmer now, parents and students are looking forward to getting out of the house and back to the classroom.