Summer Ideas - Part 4

By Katharine Grubb

Counting pennies this summer?  Or are you looking for things to do in between day camp and the week at the beach?  Here’s a lengthy list of activites for you and your preschooler. All require little preparation and little expense and are just right for ages 3 and up.  

1. Which friends on Facebook live out of state or out of the country? Ask them to send you a photo, then find where all of them live on a map or globe. 
2. Create a summer playlist from your music collection. Pick up to 15 songs that your child isn’t familiar with and then play the “soundtrack” all summer. 
3. July 29th is Rain Day. Take a walk in the rain. If it isn’t raining, learn the Singing In The Rain song. 
4. Build a tower with uncooked spaghetti and marshmallows. 
5. Put on a puppet show for family and friends. 
6. Blindfold your child, then have them smell household items like soap, oranges, garlic or vinegar. What can he guess right? 
7. Go to Storybird.com and write a story using provided illustrations. Publish it for your friends. 
8. June is Country Cooking Month, so make fried chicken or biscuits and gravy for supper. 
9. June 1 is National Go Barefoot Day. Have a barefoot race around the house. Paint with your feet on the driveway. Splash in mud puddles. (Then come in the house, wash up and get a pedicure!) 
10. August 6-12 is Exercise With Your Child Week. Put on that Wiggles DVD or hook up the Just Dance Game and work up a sweat with your little one. (If it’s a nice day, go run around a track together!) 
11. June 4 is Do-Dah Day, A Salute To Silliness. Make funny hats and funny faces and video tape yourselves. Then post it on Facebook for all to see. 
12. June 10 is National Ice Tea Day. Make a big pitcher, sweetened just right and drink it on the porch or the deck and listen to the world go by. 
13. Don’t forget the summer solstice!  If there’s ever a day to stay up late, this is it!  Make homemade ice cream, put on that bug repellent and invite friends over to stay up until the sun goes down. 
14. June 23rd is Great American Backyard Campout Day. Put up a tent in the backyard and try not to get scared when all the lights go out. 
15. July is National Blueberries Month!  Try blueberry pancakes or blueberry muffins or make a pie! 
16. July 24th is Cousins Day.  Make a family tree showing all of your and your spouse’s cousins. Then, contact your children’s cousins for a outing or send them an email with funny photos. 
17. Are you a child of the ‘80s? August 10 is National Duran Duran day! Start a new Pandora station or dig out your cassette tapes and dance. 
18. August 20 is National Cupcake Day. This, of course, dictates what you’ll eat for dessert tonight. (Maybe supper too!) 
19. August 30 is National Toasted Marshmallow Day. If you have a fireplace, make your own s’mores. If not, roast them over the back yard grill. (You can also use your broiler, but it’s not as much fun.) 
20. Surprise someone you love with a picnic lunch. Your local librarian? Your spouse? Grandparents? 
21. Create a paper airport for your fleet of paper airplanes. Practice flying them and record which fly the furthest. 
22. Check a Knock Knock joke book out of the library and memorize a few. 
23. Rainy Day? Movies and popcorn. Don’t make the movie the most recent release on Netflix, choose an old Disney Classic or something from your childhood you loved. 
24. Create an obstacle course in the yard. Video your child’s progress through it.
25. Water fight!  Add in balloons, spray bottles, water guns or cups. Then, when you’re done, wash the car.

Need more ideas? Do a search on Pinterest for preschool activites. And don’t forget to take lots of photos -- you can have an amazing summer with your child and spend very little money.

Part 4 of 4 - Check the last 3 Thursdays for previous idea posts!