There is no doubt that winter in Alaska is beautiful. It is also challenging.
It's the cold, yes. But I think it's more the darkness that does me (and so many others) in. You can dress for cold, but you can't bring back the light at the end of the work/school day. Add to the dark and cold a season of a lot of illness, and, well, let's just say a family can get a bad case of cabin fever, especially in January, when you know the darkness is finally letting up just a little bit and you can't help but dream of spring.
I would be lying if I said we have this challenge figured out. We don't. Heck, we're moving to the lower 48 (for a number of reasons, of course, but one of them is definitely the dark winters up here). We have, however, learned new coping - and thriving! - strategies each winter. Our kids teach us, we learn from other families, we experiment.
Here are our top three strategies for getting through, I mean, making the most of these dark winter days. Note - Feel free to skip past these suggestions if they're not for you but you're curious about what we DO love about winters up here.
1. Go outside every day.
Even at dusk. Even when it's snowing or really cold or you only have twenty minutes. Go to a trail or park if you can, play in your yard if you can't, and play in the driveway if the snow is too deep in the yard. Bundle up and go outside. It really, really, really helps. Every time. I put this as number one for a reason, you know? So even if you stop reading now, you'll have our family's number one tip. Some things that help us get outside are:
Full body, truly waterproof snowsuits. They are quicker to put on. We don't necessarily have a favorite brand, just whatever works and fits. We generally go a size up for snow gear.
Sleds to pull the kids through deep snow and/or slush, and to give them a break from the trudging.
Good gloves for the kids, which means waterproof and able to pull up and over the coat sleeves. Our favorite brand for our 3 1/2 year old is Stonz. Our almost 2 year old is in Columbias because she wants thumbs but the Stonz for her age/hand size don't have them.
Flexible timeline. It's okay to spend as much time getting in and out of snow gear as you do playing outside. If they're happy and it's above 20? Stay outside longer.
Realistic timeline. Colder than 15 out there? We're basically following the one minute/degree rule and watching the kids faces like hawks.
So getting outside in the winter is #1. But let's be realistic. Sometimes it is too cold or too windy or too dark or you've all had colds all week or whatever. For this, our family has learned to play inside as well, bringing us to #2 and #3 on the "How to survive/thrive in Alaska winters with kids" list.
2. Find a few indoor spaces that are consistently fun and open often. Below are a few recommendations, with specifics if you're in Anchorage (or are going to visit).
Museums: The Anchorage Museum downtown is awesome. We have a membership because we go enough to make it worthwhile. The AK Museum of Science and Nature is also great, but they are only open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
Indoor playgrounds/fields: The Harry J MacDonald Memorial Center (the MAC) in Eagle River has an indoor playfield and open play hours - $5/kid
Libraries: We love our library in Eagle River. The Loussac Library downtown is bigger and has even more for the kids to do/gawk at (and there's a great park - Cuddy Family Park - next door). We also like Title Wave Books, and their used books make the trip more affordable if your kids ask you to buy them something (and Middle Way Cafe is next door with great smoothies for kids!).
Family-friendly indoor pools: The Alaska Club is a good (albeit expensive) option up here, and they also have a really cool indoor playground. It has made a huge difference on the weekends for us.
3. Find a few toys/games/activities that you and your kids truly enjoy doing together in your house. I'm not, how do you say, a great "play time mom". I am great at a lot of mom things, but make believe? Not so much. I like reading, I like real games, and I like building (sort of). It took me a while to learn this about myself, and the winter days spent before knowing this truth were really tough because my son wanted to play cars or dinosaurs or something and it just wasn't fun for me at all. I felt myself reaching for the tablet or asking if he wanted to take (another) bath. But we have slowly found activities that we both enjoy (that are not tv, but we do watch tv, also). Some of our favorites are:
TOYS: magnetic tiles
GAMES: hide and seek, Candy Land, Spot It! (junior edition), Sequence (kid edition)
ACTIVITIES: cooking, reading (Magic Treehouse books for the win!), letter practice
This list would be different for Autumn and me or for Derek and the kids. It will be different for you. I am excited for any mom who loves dressing up like a troll and building sheet castles and playing make believe. You are awesome. I just know that that's not me, and I'm super grateful that I've slowly found other ways to love inside time with my kids.
I don't want to give the impression that I/we don't like the winter. We do! We love hiking and snowshoeing and just generally seeing the winter through the eyes of our children who wonder at its white, ethereal beauty. We put up outdoor "Christmas" lights in October and leave them up through March because our house looks prettier when we leave and come home in the dark. We celebrate the Winter Solstice and teach our kids how to catch snowflakes on their tongues and cheer them down the sledding hill.
But as I said before, the end of January is tough for many of us. It has been cold and dark for months now. The snow is high and kind of crunchy and the trails and sidewalks are slick. It is beautiful, but we are ready for it to be over, at least in this house.
Luckily, February fast approaches, and that means we are close to feeling the warmth of the sun again. That is a magical day - the first day you can feel the sun. It might be my favorite day of the whole season. I think all northern latitude folks know what I'm talking about. On that day we know that we've made it through another winter. And even though we are aware that we still have at least six more weeks of cold, we also know that the darkness is behind us, the days are getting longer and (usually) warmer, and we're headed for spring.
It's funny because as I write this I am so excited for spring, and for moving to the lower 48 where we will have a lot more daylight and warmth in future winters, but I'm also a little bit sad about leaving behind the powerful winters of Alaska. The sheer extremes of winter here somehow connect me to the natural world in a more profound way than I have experienced in any other place I've lived, including other cold places. I think that because we have so much more darkness (and so much more light in summer) we are more aware of the earth's rotation, of our connection to the sun and our place in this universe. I will never regret my winters up here, even as I am glad to be leaving them behind.
How do you move through cold and darkness with your family?
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