Warmer weather is finally upon us! We thought we'd do a bit of a roundup of some of our favorite activities to engage in with your little one during the warmer months. Here we go!
1. Water play: what better way to cool off than to get wet?! Water play can be in the form of a pool, water table, or even a storage container. Add tools such as plastic cups for pouring, figurines, or spoons. Talk to your little one about wet/dry while you wipe various body parts with a towel ex: “wipe your nose.”
2. Sensory play: we love using sensory beads to further expand upon the summer/aquatic theme. Little ones love the texture of the beads as well as enjoying the “hunt” of retrieving various aquatic figurines buried in the beads.
Kinetic sand is also a fun way to bring summer into your space, whether you decided to play inside or outside. We particularly like it because it feels less gritty and clumps easily for a faster cleanup.
3. Scavenger hunt: get outdoors with your little ones by going on a nature scavenger hunt! This is a fun way to get moving as well as learn vocabulary in a non-pressured fashion. There are so many free scavenger hunt printables online, or you can always make your own. Click on the link below to go to where we found this printable from glammmom.com
4. Make fruit kebabs: enjoy the tastes of summer by helping your kiddos make yummy fruit kebabs! Talk about the names of each of the fruits while you and your child wash and prep the fruit for kebab making. Toddlers and preschoolers LOVE to help, use this to your advantage and put them to work! They can remove the stems from strawberries, pluck grapes off the vine, or help to peel an orange (they usually need someone to help start them off). Next, talk about "poking" or "putting on" all the different fruits you have in-front of you. When they are done they can eat their creation, who doesn't love that?!
5. Summer books: there is a plethora of books related to the beach, aquatic animals, camping, traveling, etc. Don't feel intimidated if your book contains a lot of text, skip it! If your child has a short attention span and cannot sit for the entire length of a book, DESCRIBE the images in the book instead of reading it. We specifically like to comment on the actions of the characters in the book.
Let us know how you'll be heating things up this summer with your little on this summer! Tag us in your play on Instagram!