Just because it’s cold outside, doesn’t mean the fun stops. Below are some great ideas to keep you entertained throughout the winter months.

Growing cress at home is an easy, fun and rewarding activity for everyone! Watching something grow from a seed that you've planted is fascinating as well as educational.

• Some empty yogurt pots or small cartons
• White stickers, or thick white paint and a paint brush
• Some newspaper
• Coloured felt tip pens
• Paper towels
• Cotton wool balls
• Mustard and cress seeds
• A warm and dry place

1. Make sure your yogurt pot is clean and dry.
2. Spread the newspaper out on a table to avoid making a mess. Use thick white paint to cover the outside of the pot, or apply white stickers, so no colours of the pot show through. If you are using a yoghurt pot, you may be able to simply peel off the label, to leave you with a white pot.
3. Once you have painted your pot, put it somewhere warm and dry so that the paint can dry.
4. Once your pot is dry, you can draw the face of your cress man onto it using your felt tip pens! Make sure you give him a nice big smile!

Now you have the face of your cress man, but he has no hair – this is where the cress comes in!

1. Dampen some paper towels and push them to the bottom of the pot.
2. Next dampen some cotton wool balls and place in the pot until they comes up close to the top. You don't want them to be any higher than 1cm beneath the top of the pot.
3. Sprinkle some mustard seeds and cress seeds onto the damp cotton wool and lightly press them down with your fingers.
4. Place the pot in a warm light place, such as a window sill in the kitchen and wait for the cress man's hair to grow! You don't want the wool to dry out, so check it every morning, and if it looks dry, just add a little bit of water.

You should see some growth after a week, as your cress man’s hair starts to grow!

Add a splash of colour to lunch with a colourful table decoration. These are easy to assemble and can be as big or small as your table will allow!

To create your decoration, you will need to collect some small branches and twigs that will be the right size for your table. Once you have them, place them in a dry place for a couple of days to dry out. If they do not dry out properly, the paint will not stick to them.

• Your dried out branches
• A selection of paint and paintbrushes (one big and one small)
• A vase
• Some ribbons or other little decorations
• A small branch with catkins on it (fresh on the day)
• Newspaper
• A jam jar filled with water

1. Once your branches have thoroughly dried out, spread some newspaper on the table to avoid making a mess. Set out your paints and paintbrushes, and make sure you have a jam jar filled with water to wash your brushes in.
2. Next you need to paint a base colour onto your branches. You can either paint all the branches the same colour, or you can paint them different colours, it's up to you! Use your big paintbrush for this. Then leave them on the newspaper to dry, which may take an hour or so.
3. Once the branches have dried you can either leave them plain or you can paint more interesting patterns onto them with different colours. Use your small paintbrush for this part, and use your imagination! Start adding stripes, zig zags and other patterns to your branches. Leave them to dry somewhere where they won't be moved, so that your designs are not smudged.
4. Find a vase that will hold all the branches, or a couple of vases if you prefer, and arrange the branches and twigs in it. Remember, you don't need water as this is a dry display!
5. Next, tie some coloured ribbons onto the branches and hang any other small decorations that you may have to brighten up the display further.
6. You can add a branch with catkins on to the display as well, or have another fresh arrangement of flowers from the garden on the table. Everyone at lunch will appreciate the decoration and the effort you went to making it!

Hours of fun are to be had creating these juggling balls.

• 1 packet of rice
• 1 funnel
• 1 packet of balloons
• 1 empty soft drink or small water bottle
• Felt tip pens

1. Pour about half a cup of rice into the empty bottle, using the funnel.
2. Inflate one of the balloons until it is approx 2 or 3 inches wide, and then carefully stretch the open end over the neck of the bottle.
3. Turn the bottle upside down so that all of the rice falls into the inflated balloon.
4. Take the balloon from the neck of the bottle and let it deflate.
5. Cut the excess neck of the balloon off.
6. Take another balloon, cut the neck from this one also, and stretch it over the first balloon, so that the rice is sealed inside.
7. For an added touch, you can use felt tips to decorate your juggling balls.

Bring some colour to the frosty white winter days with these fun and easy to make ice sculptures!

• 4 empty yoghurt pots
• Water
• Food colouring in four bright colours (i.e. red, green, blue and purple)
• 4 plastic cups
• Kitchen roll or an old towel

1. Fill the four plastic cups with water.
2. Add a few drops of food colouring to each cup. Use a different colour for each cup.
3. Pour a small amount of coloured water from one of the plastic cups, into your yoghurt pots, and fill the yoghurt pots about a quarter full.
4. Place the yoghurt pots in the freezer until the water has frozen.
5. Once frozen solid, remove the yoghurt pots from the freezer.
6. Now pour in a different colour from one of the three remaining plastic cups (so the yoghurt pots should be half full), and freeze once more.
7. Repeat this process twice over, with the remaining two colours, so all four colours are frozen.
8. Turn out your yoghurt pots onto the kitchen roll or old towel. Tap the base lightly to remove your ice sculptures from the yoghurt pots. Your colourful ice sculptures are now complete.
9. Place outside in your garden and see how long your sculptures stay frozen, or why not use as a centre piece for a table decoration? Don’t forget – these ice sculptures aren’t edible!