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There will, we are assured, be power outages. Combine those with school closings, and parents will be challenged to occupy their children's time while maintaining their own sanity.
Here are suggestions from a variety of parents who have been through it before. Sorry, kids; while most activities are fun, others are educational, and there will be dusting.
Hide and Seek: Decide which areas will be out of bounds, to what number the seeker should count to give others a chance to hide, and whether discovered players may help the seeker find the rest. Playing in pairs is helpful with toddlers. Hiding or seeking with an older person helps them learn the game, and keeps them out of trouble. Playing in the dark? Give players a flashlight or glowstick and play silently. When someone is found, shine your light on them to capture.
Dictionary: One player chooses a word from the dictionary, the meaning of which is not known. Each player writes down their definition, which are read aloud by the player who chose the word. Bragging rights go to the player who guessed the highest number of correct definitions and to the player whose fake definitions fooled the most people.
Coloring 2.0: One person draws several strokes on paper. Other people each add a few more strokes and the cycle continues until the drawing is recognizable. Also: Have toddlers draw first, with older family members completing the drawing ... have each participant trace their hand on a piece of paper, continuing to draw to turn the outline into a picture of some kind of animal ... make a collage by using a large piece of scrap paper as a base, then completely glue over it with cut-out pictures from old magazines.
Read: Read aloud to the rest of the family, and use it as an incentive. When a child has a chore to do, a parent reads aloud - but only if they stay on task.
By candlelight: What could be more pleasant than a kid-produced talent show? OK, lots of things. But we're stuck in a power outage, remember? During daylight hours, children create, inventing skits, create backdrops and practice music. The performance is presented by adult-supervised candles or a propane lantern. If the kids didn't have all day to practice for a performance, have an impromptu game of Charades instead.
Fortified: Mess up your living room and turn it into a giant jungle gym. Throw pillows, cushions, blankets, whatever you can gather, and let the kids go at it.
For art's sake: Give kids paper and colors and tell them to draw what they like best about the power outage. You might be surprised to find how much they enjoy the change of pace.
Great indoors? Bring out the sleeping bags and have kids tell stories by the "campfire." If you've got a fireplace, you needn't pretend. Have chocolate, graham crackers and marshmallows? Serve raw s'mores.
Ice Creamocalypse: If your freezer is without power, remove all ice cream, place in large bowl and add all the toppings. Distribute spoons. You can always clean up later.
Kids, you might want to leave the room at this point:
Organize. Use time away from Facebook to organize a closet, or a drawer. Encourage your kids to start their own project, or let them help you with yours, if they can.
Deep clean. Give your kids toothbrushes, and have them help with the bathtub while you scrub the toilet. That's right - toothbrushes. While this is hardly fun for anyone, they'll be off on their own before too long, and you'll get some deserved quiet time.
Making a list... Do a stock-check around the house. Let's see, batteries, flashlight, a deck of cards, a board game or two, candles, pencil, paper, more food.
Partaaaaaay! Well, sort of. Depending on the severity of the weather, invite friends over. Children of similar ages can play together while adults tackle weather-related clean-up or - in the case of protracted power outages - clean-up and cooking chores. Work can turn into a pleasant get-together when neighbors help neighbors.
At least one parent plans to take advantage of most of these suggestions: "Going to bake some treats while we have power, then clean, organize and watch movies when we don't, thanks to our generator," said Brooke Richards.