As the weather gets colder parents need to look for activities that can be done inside. This is a time to be creative and to encourage your child to learn new things.

One activity that encourages your child is playing with playdough — a material that uses many of your child’s senses and motor skills. It can help her learn more about temperature, texture, smell and sight.

At the same time, she molds the material, it is great for her motor skill and muscle development. She even learns vocabulary as you use words like squash, stamp, squeeze, squish, scrunch, smash and slam.

Here are some ways you can encourage her to spend time playing with this common material you may even have in your activity closet:

• Add oils to the playdough that have interesting smells like peppermint or cinnamon.

• Press smaller amounts of playdough into different shapes using cookie cutters, car or truck trails, shells, and anything else you can think of.

• Make marbled playdough. Begin by making plain playdough and then give it to her with paint powder to mix in. Watch her surprise.

• Color half of the dough but leave the other half plain. Then twist and roll them together.

• Hide a color inside another color ball.

• Make a batch and divide it into three parts. Color each a primary color, then let her see what happens to the colors as she combines them.

• Make pretend cookies, treats and pizza. Emphasize these are “pretend” treats.

• Pretend to bake in a cold oven for a few minutes but remember to set the timer.

These are just a few things you can do with playdough to see the impact from different colors. Another time encourage her to make farm animals or a house from playdough.

Be sure to save the ones you see that show her growing skills. These are all things you can talk about and show dad or grandma when they are home. She needs to feel your encouragement in her play just as in her learning.

Block party

Another activity for cold weather is playing with blocks. A child learns a tremendous amount playing with blocks. She counts blocks then asks a friend for more. She understands that a number means “how many.” She sorts blocks by shape and size and learns about groups.

She learns about counting, estimating, equality, adding, and planning. All this learning comes by playing with blocks. They don’t have to be fancy blocks. Just anything that can teach words like long, tall, narrow, square, add, lines, and bigger all teach a child new words and new concepts.

Cold weather can be an asset. Take advantage of the learning that happens. Help make each day filled with new things to do and new lessons to learn. It will help your child spend her time wisely and enjoy what she is doing.

Learning can really be fun and productive for your little one.

Cynthia Martin is the founder of the First Teacher program and former executive director of Parenting Matters Foundation, which published newsletters for parents, caregivers and grandparents.