This summer, we encourage you to explore the outdoors with your children at home and around the community too! Children love to participate in real life activities. Child-sized brooms and watering cans allow children to engage in purposeful activities at home. We like to keep a pail of water filled up for children to fill their watering cans whenever they want, and water the gardens. Another pail with a sponge gives children the option to wash the fence or a table or chair. A pail with a scrub brush invites children to scrub the deck. A squeegee and sponge give children the opportunity to wash the windows. Children take pleasure in these activities of everyday life! Inside, you can keep some bud-vases for your child to make flower arrangements with the flowers growing in your garden.
Children of all ages absorb the sensorial impressions of the great outdoors. Feel the different textures of grasses, soil, sand, and leaves, the warmth of the sun, and the coolness of the water. Smell the various scents of plants and flowers growing around you. Notice the snails, insects, and birds all around. Name the colors you see, count the petals, leaves, stones, or anything around. Older children might begin identifying plants and animals, drawing different leaf shapes or painting different flowers. The world is a treasure box, explore it!
