A cold wind is howling outside, and sleet is predicted for tomorrow. The children are home from school and whining that they’re bored. It’s that time of year again – midwinter break! Time to book a flight to Florida.

But wait a minute… who said we can afford that? And who said it’s even a good idea?

If you find yourself the “only” family on the block not departing for fairer climes, don’t be disappointed and don’t despair. Here are some ideas for stay-at-home activities to entertain everyone and bring you closer together as a family.

Never heard of a side hustle? Well, it just means making money on the side while working a 9-to-5 job or learning full time. Whether it’s babysitting, freelance writing, driving for Uber, selling on eBay, or dog walking, people have found many creative ways to bring in extra income. Maybe some of these will inspire you to start a side hustle of your own.

I Scream, You Scream

Chaim Kohn,* who lives in Lakewood and learns full time, runs a very unusual side hustle. Chaim always had an entrepreneurial knack and tried various ways of making money while learning full time. At one point, he had a website that brought in some income, but traffic to the website eventually died. Then he tried to sell on Amazon. But what really took off was his ice cream truck. The idea came to him one day as he was driving and heard a non-kosher ice cream truck ring nearby. He thought, “What if we had a kosher ice cream truck!?” This thought became reality a year later after he was able to get a vendor’s license and find a truck and a driver.

Chaim’s advice to others with entrepreneurial ambitions is “It’s hard to start a business, but people shouldn’t get discouraged. Discuss it with other people and try to figure out how to test out the market without spending a ton of money.”

Believe it or not, September – and a new school year – is just a few weeks away. As children and teachers get ready to enter their classrooms and meet each other for the first time, a sensitive question often comes up: How much the teacher should know about each student’s previous year’s school performance and current home environment in preparation for the new school year.

In their striving to create an environment of success for each child, teachers often want to hear if there is a family issue, like a simcha, a divorce, or an illness in the family, or, perhaps, a social, emotional, or behavioral issue the child is struggling with, such as a diagnosis of ADHD. Was the child affected by bullying, whether as the bully or the bullied? In all these matters, it can be helpful for teachers to know about them. Of course, the focus of information should always be to ensure that the teacher is well-prepared to create the best possible environment for each child.

Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak. Whether you are a self-proclaimed fashionista or are someone who wears whatever is in sight, each of us has a unique style that leads us to make our wardrobe choices. And it represents something about us.

Where does our style come from? How much of it comes from individuality and how much from social influences? Even more intriguing, how do the clothing stores decide what selection of styles they should offer to the public? How do they decide the color, material, and cut that should be going around?