Is that cooped-up feeling creeping into your household this winter? Here are a few free ideas to keep boredom at bay.

When it's cold outside, plop your kids in front of hours of cartoons at your own peril. They'll have stores of energy that need to be released. Bedtime, for one, is sure to be a wrestling match.

"On decent days, snow or no snow, we try to get outside for a while to burn off the crazies," says Brenda Bryan of Andover, Mass., mother of four children ages 2, 3, 7 and 9.

The best inside exercise is "the jumping game," she says. Here's how it works.

"We move a lot of furniture. We pile up pillows on the floor and jump from the highest point possible. The higher the better for my older two; the younger two jump off the couch. This keeps them busy and active for at least 30 minutes to an hour."

A similar popular activity: Take cushions off sofas to make a fort, with a few blankets thrown over the top.

After raising six children, Kate Jerdan of Summerville, S.C., is a pro at keeping kids busy and happy without spending money.

"I think the best thing is to make memories," she says. "Make the everyday tasks into fun."

Here's how Jerdan used routine chores to "make time seem to disappear."

Cooking: "Beginning about age 2, the kids would stand on stools or sit on either side of the mixer and we would make cookies, cakes or breads."

As her kids grew up, they helped her fix meals. As teenagers, they could start meals on their own when mom called from the store with a menu.

Laundry: "We made fun out of everything -- sorting, putting the dirty clothing into the washer, moving it to the dryer."

Grocery shopping: "At any age, grocery shopping is an opportunity for learning," she says. For little kids, it's colors, size and shape of containers, sounds an item makes if shaken, or whether the object is soft or hard, Jerdan says. Each school-age child had a calculator to figure cost per ounce to determine the best buy.

Jerdan also kept puzzles out, had a family game night, had kits to build cars and gliders, and took weekly trips to the library.

"It was a death knell to say, "I'm bored," because the children knew that meant that Mom would have an endless list of possibilities. If they got too fidgety indoors, she would tell them to run up and down the stairs several times."

Bundled up, mom and her brood braved even the coldest days and went for walks. And for sanity's sake, the family had quiet time for an hour after lunch.

Like Jerdan, Pat Shaw of Davidson, N.C., says she never considered it too cold for a walk with her two sons.

"I bundled up my boys and we would take off for a destination, even if just to the post office," she recalls. "The lure of hot chocolate and cookies was never far from our thoughts.

Shaw has access to Davidson College near her home, and she and her boys often would toss balls at the gym or run around inside the student union. "It was a good place to play hide and seek if we were clear about boundaries," she says.

At home, they played a game with small beach balls in their child-friendly family room.

Ronnie Silverstone, who specializes in workshops for teachers and parent education classes, says children love dramatic play and music. Ideas to keep kids moving:

• Make streamers with ribbons on a dowel or wooden spoon, and let your kids or students dance to music. Or tie a ribbon to a ponytail scrunchie and put it on the child's wrist.
• Make an obstacle course with boxes, chairs and blankets.
• Play musical chairs. But if there are preschoolers, change the rules. Don't kick anyone out of the game when the music stops.

Can you help?

Q: My 3-year-old son will not cooperate in the morning about eating breakfast, getting dressed and going to preschool. He tries hard to rule the roost, and right now he's winning."

-- A mother in Charlotte, N.C.

If you have tips or a question, please call our toll-free hotline any time at (800) 827-1092 or e-mail us at p2ptips@att.net. Betsy Flagler, a journalist based in Davidson, N.C., teaches preschool and is the mother of a teenage son.