Taking temperature readings of the weather outside may be a little too much for preschoolers who can’t really “see” temperature. But your child can see the clouds, feel the rain on his face, and the chill in his fingers when when snow falls. He can see when it’s foggy, and he knows when it’s windy outside.

To establish the concepts of weather, make a weather chart for your child. Make separate rows for each day of the month, and let her decorate with weather symbols - rain, clouds, sun etc. Then, let her use colored stickers to denote the weather outside - blue for a rainy day, black for cloudy weather, yellow for a sunny day, white for snow, and so on. She can even use combinations of stickers to denote a day that started out sunny, but ended up dark and gloomy - a half yellow sticker and a half black sticker. Let he do this every morning.

For an older child, you can take temperature readings, and record these too.

Make sure you hang the weather chart at her eye level - kids like to see what they are taking part in!

Have fun!

Add novelty to everyday experiences in your child’s life by switching things aound a little, ever so often.  Novelty has been found to increase alertness in kids - a predictable monotonous routine can actually dull the senses.  Try a few of these ideas:

• Try rotating her toys. Put aside the ones she plays with often, and bring out less used toys.
• Rearrange the furniture in your home, and let her help you do it.
• Change the position of her favorite chair, the one she uses to watch television, for instance, - she’ll enjoy the new angle!
• Let her sleep on the opposite end of the bed for  a few days.
• Eat on the floor in the living room or the yard, instead of the dining table, for  a day.

Have fun!

Sorry for the delayed posting, internets. It’s been close to a week of feeling under weather.

On with the tips, and here are some ideas of physical activities you can get your kids to do outside. They work just as well if she’s alone as with her friends. In fact, you could even combine a few of these, and turn it into a relay race for the kids. No fancy props necessary, only a few simple items you’ll find in the house.

Running (set a timer)

Doing bunny hops

Walking on a short wall, or a plank, or rope

Walking on paper plates

Crawling on his tummy

Crawling though a large open carton

Hopping on one leg

Walking on all fours

Balancing a book on his head

Throwing a ball into a bucket

Sliding like a snake

Encourage her to make as many silly movements as she can. It’s a great activity for physical co ordination, especially when you ask them to combine more than one activity.

Enjoy!

I hope you guys have an activity calendar for your preschooler all set up. If you don’t, summer’s a good time to start one.

If you have one, add “have a weekend picnic in the yard” to the calendar.  It’s one of those simple things that you know your kids will love, but is easy to forget to do.

All you need are some sandwiches, cake, fruit, and juice, all packed in a picnic basket. Pack disposable cups and plates, a large sheet to lay on the ground, and napkins. This is fun if there are more kids joining in the picnic, but you can just as easily make do if it’s just you and the kiddo!

Let her choose the right spot for the picnic. Let her take charge of serving you sandwiches and cake on a plate , and let her pour out a drink for you.  Fantastic way to spend time with your child.

Have fun!

All kids love having a little enclosed space that they can call their own. It could be a tent,  or a playhouse,  or anything similar that no one can enter, but her.  If you have a tent, summer is a good time to set it up in the yard. If not, simply

1. Throw a sheet over your clothesline, and hold it down with bricks on either side.
2. Pull the sofa in front, and throw cushions on the floor between the sofa and wall.
3. Cover a card table with an old sheet, and cut out holes for windows.  Use marker pens to make brick designs for “walls.”
4. Throw a blanket between two chairs.
5. Use pillows and cushions to build a fort for her inside the house.
6. If you have a bunk bed, throw a sheet in front of the lower bed.
7. Throw a large sheet over the dining table.
8. Make a playhouse by using a large old carton or cardboard box.  Check out Idea No. 9 here.

Use cushions and pillows to accessorize the little playhouse.  Remember, a secret getaway needs a secret password or a secret handshake for all those who enter.

For a little novelty with your preschooler’s car play, grab an old shower curtain or table cloth or any other plastic sheet, and spread it it out in the yard.  Get on the floor with your child and use colored marker pens to create a “city. ” Make roads with pens, buildings with empty cartons, and use empty toilet paper tubes as tunnels.

For more messy fun, use coffee grounds or colored rice to make roads.  Remember to draw, or make railway tracks and an airport too.  She’ll love sharing her ideas for the “city”, and you get some time off while she plays with her make believe city!

Here’s an idea to capture the great walk you had today with your preschooler, or the trip to the park or the beach…

When you return home, round up some collage materials, and make a collage of your day.

• Little pieces of cotton wool can double as clouds.
• Use dried leaves or small broken off twigs to make the ground.
• If your day involved a campfire, use matchsticks bunched up together like a bonfire, with red paper and cotton wool painted gray for smoke.
• Use pictures of boys, girls, and dogs cut out from magazines and books, for kids playing at the park.
• Make frisbees from cut out paper.
• Use markers to add detailing.

It’s a great way to boost her memory of her day, and also increase her vocabulary as you ask her about all the things she saw. As she creates the collage, she’ll remember more stuff, that you can add as you go along. Improvise with materials.

Enjoy!

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!

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!