Preschoolers love to exercise their independence, so many of the activities that might keep them amused during the summer months should be designed so they can work with minimal parental interruption.
Give yourself a break by allowing your preschooler to work on projects independently. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t supervise your child, it just means that you should allow him to work at his own pace and solve problems on his own.
Here are a few ideas to keep summer fun for your preschooler:
GARDENING
Introduce your child to gardening by visiting a local botanical garden or farm (u-pick strawberry and blueberry farms are great educational destinations for preschoolers). Then, stop by a gardening store and pick up a few seeds to plant at home. Teach your preschooler about different gardening tools, and then allow him to dig around in the dirt. Once the seeds are planted, your preschooler can water them daily, and you and he can watch them grow as the season progresses.
SUMMER MEMORY BOOK
Get out some construction paper or big pieces of white paper and have your preschooler draw pictures that depict his favorite summer memories (bike riding, swimming, playing soccer, going to the beach, etc.). Set out colorful markers, pencils, and glitter glue, and give your preschooler quiet time to create pictures of his favorite summer memories that you can later place in an album or have bound to create a book.
RAINY DAY FUN
Don’t let the rain put a damper on your preschooler’s fun. Rather, turn a summer storm into a learning experience for your child. Shortly after the rain starts falling have your preschooler predict how much is going to come down. (You can make it easier by setting a cut-off date, such as, lunchtime, dinnertime, etc.) Next, place a measuring cup outside and have your preschooler track rainfall amounts — once at noon, once at 3 p.m., and once at 5 p.m. Award prizes to the child who comes the closest.
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