What I Do Now:
Superior Screen Time
I know, I know. We parents don't want our kids to sit through the entire holidays with their face in front of the computer. But as long you know they are going to putting in some screen time, I think it may as well be well-spent screen time. These are two free computer programs I'm considering getting for my children over their school winter vacation:
http://www.paint.net/ "Paint.net is a free computer and image and photo editing software for computers that run windows..."
http://www.stellarium.org/ "Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope..."
Parents and teachers - feel free to comment on your favorite (hopefully free) computer programs.