Rather than just referring to getting my own little son ready to play in the snow outside, I could have titled this post: Lessons Learned From Working in Childcare in the Winter.  I worked my way through undergad schooling by working in a daycare center and was honored to be promoted to the role of assistant preschool teacher.  I loved getting to work with kids in this way, and I feel like it has greatly influenced my parenting style to this day.

Whatever the actual role, my working with preschool and early elementary aged kids meant that about twice a day in the winter we would undergo the momentous task of taking around 20 kids to the playground, and first dressing them in 2 boots, 2 mittens, a hat, a coat and snowpants each.  Suffice it to say, I have put a lot of mittens on a lot of hands before my own son ever came around.  In my years at St. Michael Lutheran, my fellow teachers and I were able to come up with a pretty good system for efficiently getting everyone ready for playing in the snow, which I have now adapted for my own home.  I know that a few of these ideas may be self- explanatory, but for those who may be venturing out with their kids in the snow for the first time, the process of getting ready can seem intimidating.  It has been used for comedic purposes in countless shows and movies, typically with the child needing to pee the instant that they are fully dressed.

• First, and probably the most obvious is to send everyone to the bathroom. While this was going on we would have one person...
• Set all of the kids' clothes out around the room so that mittens and hats do not end up on the wrong hands.  (An aside-- if you send your child to daycare PLEASE label everything clearly.  It is nearly impossible for your child's teachers to tell one pair of black gloves from 10 others.) This is when I would typically put on my own snow-pants and boots, but nothing else since if I was fully dressed it was harder to move and I would end up sweaty before even entering the playground.
• Put on children's socks, snow-pants, boots and hats.  Then I have would have most kids put on their mittens so that they would be inserting mittened hands into coat sleeves.  This was a lot easier to do to get the mittens under the sleeve cuffs than putting them on later. 
• Put on your coat and head outside.

Let's face it, there are sometimes when the weather is too yucky out to head outside with your kids.  But how cold is that?  This can be especially an issue if your children are to the age where they can be outside in the back yard or neighborhood without you being outdoors as well.

I have heard parents attest that anything under 50 degrees is too cold for them to head out with their toddlers and little kids, and this makes me so sad for the world of cold weather adventures that these families are missing out on exploring.  Here in the Minneapolis area we would NEVER get outside from December and into April if this were the case.

When I used to work in childcare we had other, more specific requirements.  When I began working with kids, the temperature, combined with the wind chill was required to be 20 degrees or above in order for us to head outside.  However, this policy was changed because it was found that the number of days that meant we were confined to the indoors would be too great and the lack of outdoor play too great a loss.  It was then decided that for children of preschool age there was no temperature where they could not play outside for a short while, as long as they were properly dressed.

A teacher friend of mine lives in Alaska and the children there spend their winter recesses playing outside even in weather of -20 degrees.  I know that when our temps reach that level here, I simply do not want to head out much because of the sheer pain in my face, but other than that, we typically bundle up and head out for a few minutes.

There are a few considerations when heading out in frigid temperatures of course.  Children are smaller and need to be dressed in at least one more layer than we are dressed in; this rule is especially true if your outdoor activity is something where you are active, but kids are riding along more passively, such as taking a walk where they are sitting in a stroller and you are pushing.  It is much easier for them to become overly chilled in this sort of activity.  However, it is also a wonderful way to see the winter sights when their little legs would normally get bogged down under snowpants and the depth of the snow.

One further issue is that of the sun.  It may seem like a strange idea, but even in the coldest weather your children may need some form of sun protection.  While babies under 6 months old should not wear sunscreen, older babies and kids can wear sunscreen to protect against sunlight reflected from the snow and a hat or sunglasses that protect their eyes from the bright light.

I know that this has not totally answered the question that this blog post opened with, and the answer is simply as varied as the weather.  It is up to you as parent or guardian to gauge the components of the weather-- the temperature, the wetness, the wind and the light and to decide if it is appropriate to explore outside.  And the great thing about getting chilly is that it means that when you return inside that it is time for cocoa and snuggles under a blanket.  What could be better?