Picture Courtesy - Flickr: Freeparking

This summer, begin a journaling habit, by creating a joint diary project with your child. Simply begin by jotting down special memories, even the most mundane ones, like events of the day. Jot these down together with your child.

While you could do most of the writing, she can contribute drawings. If you went out for a walk today or for an ice cream, she could draw the things she saw on the way, or paint the the flavor of ice cream that she had.

You can both write special messages to each other. It makes a great gift to give when nest-leaving time comes around.

If you have more than one child, have separate Mommy-Baby diaries for each of them.

It’s a nice way to capture the thousands of fleeting memories that our lives and our kids’ lives are so full of, before they disappear.

Photo Courtesy: Flickr - Todd Baker<<Technowannabe

Here are some ideas for summer fun for you and the kids.

1. Fill a dish wash detergent bottle with water, and squirt about outside.
2. Skip. Use about 7 feet of rope, not too long or short.
3. Play Traffic Lights - when you hold up something red, she runs…, something green, she stops…, and something yellow, she hops around.
4. Hang a bed sheet over a clothes line, and you have a tent.
5. Set up an obstacle course.
6. Go on a nature walk - tape a piece of tape to her wrist, and every time she finds something interesting, flowers, leaves, pebbles, she sticks them on her “nature bracelet.”
7. Puncture a hole in a watering can, and fix to the back of her tricycle. Fill up with colored water at your “gas station” and let her ride around till her tricycle runs out of “gas.”
8. Have fun with water. Fill balloons three quarters with water, and fling them about the yard.
9. Let her make her own playhouse outside - give her a large cardboard box (like a refrigerator box), a few markers and paints, and let her design her new house. She can make windows, doors, curtains, paint your house number, even a little garden outside. (Lay out an extra cardboard sheet to make the garden.)

Kids love to manipulate their bodies into exaggerated positions and shapes.  Silly gestures, making faces, and body movements - all these can be fun. To organize this tendency better, make a list of actions.  Your child has to perform these as you read them out. Here are some ideas, but there are no limits, really :

• Hop like a frog
• Jump like a kangaroo
• Fly like a bird
• Slither like a snake
• Pant like a dog
• Walk like  a cat
• Walk like an Egyptian
• Dance like a Japanese girl
• Crawl like a  baby

Do this outside, and include music in this activity.  Lots of fun for the kiddies with no extra effort to you.  Keep the camera handy!

Picture Courtesy: Flickr - Djloche

Try solving this mystery with your preschooler.

Take a large sheet of plain paper, and draw a line of paw prints from bottom to top. Use three dabs of paint to create the paws.  Perpendicular to this line of paw prints, draw a line of birds’ claw prints, with a black pen.  The line of bird prints should end when it comes close to the middle of the line of paw prints.

Sit your preschooler down, and ask her what she think happened here.  So, there was an animal walking from here to here.  A robin was hopping along when he came upon the animal.  What happened next? What kind of animal was it - a cat, dog, wild animal…?  Why are there no more robin footprints?  What happened to the robin? Discuss all possible explanations.

• Was the robin eaten by the animal?
• Did the robin hop on the animal’s back and go for a ride?
• Did the robin fly away?
• Did the robin’s Mommy fly down and rescue the little robin?

Let me know if they come up with other solutions to this mystery!

Picture Courtesy: Flickr - Coltera

Here’s a game you can play in the car at a traffic light, if your preschooler is familiar with her alphabet.

Kids love singing Old McDonald, and most of the appeal has to do with the Ee-i-ee-i-o refrain. Start the game by substituting this yodeling with the first letter of the alphabet… Ae-i-ae-i-o. Next time you sing, substitute “B”…Be-i- be-i-bo…and then, ce-i-ce-i-co…and so on, as you move through the alphabet.

Silly, but fun! Plus, it gives her a chance to brush up on her ABCs.

Teach your child that things are not always as they seem.

Take a glass, and fill it to the brim with dry beans. Ask her if you can put anything else into the glass. If she says no, take some salt (or sugar or sand) and pour it into the glass. Shake the glass a little, and pour more salt, so the cracks are filled with salt. Again, ask her if you can put anything else inside . If she says no, take some water, and pour it into the glass.

This gives her a different way of looking at things. Plus, it seems like a magic trick that she can try on others in the family!

Teach your preschooler how to compare things. Begin by using himself as an object. Explain what “taller” means, and ask him to compare himself to different objects around the house - is he taller than the table, the refrigerator, his teddy bear, the dog, you…?

Once he’s grasped the concept, use other words for him to compare - shorter, faster, younger etc.

Have fun!

Photo Courtesy: Flickr-Jay_Elle

Pulling thread through a needle is a challenging activity for a preschooler, and the benefits are many:

It strengthens those fine finger muscles that will later lead to strength as she attempts to hold and manipulate a pencil.

It also increases eye hand co ordination, because both have to be used carefully to sew.

1. Give your child a piece of oak tag, and and a LARGE and BLUNT needle. Or use a plastic needle instead which won’t pierce. Use yarn instead of thread - it’s easier for her to control. Attach a piece of tape at the end of the yarn, or make a big knot. Draw a picture on it, and make holes along the outline. Use anything sharp to make the holes -a sharp tipped pen, a punching machine, screwdriver, anything. Let her thread each hole in sequence till she manages to complete the picture. Remember, the holes have to be big enough to allow a thick needle with double yarn to pass through.
2. For ready made sewing cards that cost nothing, bring out your old greeting cards and punch holes along the outline of the design.
3. You can also use a piece of felt, and a short darning needle with double thread.
4. Mesh and a plastic needle works well too.
5. You can also use drawings she has made, and paste them onto thick paper or card stock. Punch holes along the sides, and show her how to thread the yarn through.
6. Little girls will love making a purse. Just cut rectangular pieces of felt, and punch holes along three sides of both pieces. The holes should be punched a little close together. Show her how to align the pieces of felt, and thread the yarn through. This should be done only if she already has some practice with a needle and a thread.
7. Color different pasta shapes, and let her thread these through her plastic needle to make a necklace.
8. Use spools of thread in different colors to make a necklace or bracelet.
9. For a really glitzy necklace, color empty wood spools black on all sides, and after they have dried, use bright colored markers to paint dots, tiny stars, or flowers on them. Now, thread these black spools. Also, thread spools that still have some thread on them. The threads should be brightly colored. It works really well if you can color co-ordinate the color of the dots on the black spool with the color of the thread on the other spools. Use string in place of yarn or thread, and tie a knot after all the spools have been done to finish.

Enjoy!

I tried this with my son on our vacation, and it was good for at least half an hour of fun on his own, while we splashed about in the water.

Take a few sheets of paper with outlined drawings on them - a fish, shell, starfish, anything at all.  It doesn’t even have to be beach related, although it helps.  Also, take a glue stick along.

At the beach, fill in the outline with glue,  and turn the paper drawing-side down on dry sand.  Press it gently for a few seconds, remove the paper and shake off excess sand from the sides.  You have  a nice beach artwork that’s also a great reminder of your time by the sea!

To make sure your paper doesn’t fall apart, paste it onto a piece of poster board before you head to the beach,  or use thick card stock paper.

Back home, turn a side table into a reminder of your beach trip with these framed beach art pieces, your family pictures at the beach, and shells collected from your trip.

Enjoy!

Photo Courtesy: Flickr - Rockonmu

More things to do outside if the water isn’t too warm. Set up a bowling alley with your preschooler.

If you don’t have a plastic pin set, use bottles instead.  Fill clear plastic screw top bottles half full with water, and add drops of food color to each.  Decorate.  Coat the bottle with one part glue mixed with four parts water, and let her draw or paint on the bottle with markers.  Don’t fill the bottles completely because then, they’ll be hard to knock over.

Draw a line, and arrange the bottles in a row. Don’t keep a long distance from your child to the pins.

Grab a ball, take aim, and have fun. Don’t forget to lose every now and again!

Have fun!