Reading stories with your young children can be fun for your children and be an opportunity for quality time together. It can also help your children improve listening and communication skills as you discuss the stories with them. It can also teach values and an appreciation for reading.
Read with your children at least twenty minutes a day. Use books with repetition, rhyme and rhythm, and many pictures. Have your children choose a story to read. Talk about the pictures. Use questions that start with who, what, where, when, why, and how. Point to the words as you read. After reading the stories, have your children tell you what happened. Ask “What happened first, what happened next, what happened last?”
Summer is a great time to introduce young children to zoo animals. If you can, take your children to a zoo. Young children especially enjoy a petting zoo where they can pet and feed the animals. Common domesticated animals at a petting zoo are sheep, bunnies, guinea pigs, goats, ponies, pigs, and donkeys. Some petting zoos might have camels and llamas. If there isn’t a zoo nearby, you can show your children pictures of zoo animals.
Ask, “What animal is this?” Explain that these animals are from different parts of the world. Put your finger on a globe or a map to show where the animal comes from. For example, “This is an elephant. Elephants come from the African continent.” Talk about what zoo animals eat and how the zoo keeper takes care of them. Talk about the patterns, colors, and body parts of the zoo animals. For example, “Zebras have stripes. Lions have manes, leopards and giraffes have spots, seals have fins, and monkeys have tails.” Have fun making zoo animal sounds. Ask, “What does a lion say?” or “What does a monkey say?” Sing zoo animal songs, play zoo animal games, read zoo animal books, watch zoo animal movies and make zoo animal crafts.
Spring is a great time to introduce young children to baby animals at the farm. If you can, take your children to a farm. If there isn’t a farm nearby, you can show your children pictures of farm animals. Teach your children the names of baby farm animals: Chicks, ducklings, goslings (baby goose), calves, lambs, kids (baby goats), filly (baby female horse) and colt (baby male horse), piglet (baby pig), puppies and kittens. Have fun making farm animal sounds. Ask, “What does a cow say?” or “What does a horse say?” Sing farm animal songs such as “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and “Old McDonald Had a Farm”. Ask your children where farm animals live (a barn, or a chicken coop, or a pigsty.) Do farm animal art projects, play farm animal games such as “Duck Duck Goose” and farm animal matching games. Read stories about farm animals such as “The Three Little Pigs” and “The Three Billy Goats Gruff”. Watch movies about farm animals such as “Chicken Run” and “Charlotte’s Web”. Make recipes that include products that come from farm animals. For example, you can make an omelet (eggs) or a shake (milk). Your children will enjoy learning about farm animals.
Have fun doing ball activities with your preschooler. Your child will develop gross motor skills while rolling, tossing, throwing, and hitting the ball. Make sure that your child is having fun while developing important gross motor skills to prepare him or her for playing team sports when he or she is older.
Your child can host a party using his or her favorite stuffed animal toys. Your child can help decorate with balloons and streamers, create party invitations, party favors, table name cards, and decorate cupcakes for the “guests”. Use placemats or a tablecloth. Your child can choose his or her favorite music for the party. Seat the “guests” at the table. Serve little sandwiches and vegetables, followed by cupcakes. Ask your child questions about the stuffed animal toys. Make up stories about the toys and create a conversation between two toys.
Another variation is to invite preschool friends or classmates to your child’s party. Have each child bring his or her favorite stuffed animal toy. Make a cake in the shape of an animal. Read animal books, play animal games, make animal crafts, sing animal songs, and watch animal movies.
Time capsules can be created any time of the year. It is a great way to preserve family mementos and important family events.
Decorate a box, canister, can, or plastic container. Put favorite photos, letters, pictures, toys and other family memorabilia in your time capsule. Choose a date to open your time capsule. Many families have the tradition to open their time capsules at the end of a year or at the beginning of a new year. You all can choose a shorter wait time for small children. Store your time capsules in a safe, dry place. It is not recommended to bury it in the ground, because the container and items might be ruined by moisture. Before you store it, have a dedication ceremony. All of the family should be there. Talk about how important the items are to your family and make sure your children are excited about opening the capsule.
On the selected date, open your time capsule with all of the family. Remove all of the items from the time capsule. Each member of the family should talk about his or her item. Share stories about each item. Explain why they were important to you at the time that they were put in the time capsule.
After the ceremony, make a new time capsule and start adding items to your new time capsule.
Family night is a great way to spend quality family time together. Choose one night each week to have a family movie night. Give your children a choice of movies they can pick from. Make treats together before the movie. Have a specific place in the house to watch your movie and decorate it. Have your children bring their stuffed toys, pillows and blankets. Tell your children to bring something or wear something that matches the theme of the movie. Be sure to have an “intermission” half way through the movie so everyone can take a break.
Here are some activities you can do with your children after the movie:
Ask “WH” questions about the movie. (Questions that start with who, what, where, when, and why.
Read books based on the movie.
Play games based on the movie.
Act out scenes from the movie.
Draw pictures about the movie.
Sing songs based on the movie.
Have young children tell about their favorite part of the movie or their favorite character.
Have older children retell a scene from the movie, adding details.
Create a family calendar with photos of your family, favorite recipes, quotes, and stories. Include important dates: appointments, activities, tasks, anniversaries, and birthdays. Plan weekly or month family activities. There are many services that offer customized online calendars. You can also create a calendar with your computer software or print out a calendar template and hand-write your entries.
Free online calendar. Manage everybody’s calendar in one place, shopping lists, to-do lists, and e-mail and text reminders. Syncs to Outlook. Import Google Calendar events.
You can teach your children about plants and responsibility as they learn to plant, feed, weed, and water their own vegetable garden. You can plant a garden in small containers, a terrarium, or outdoors. Your child will enjoy making delicious stews, salads, and casseroles with the vegetables from his or her garden.
A list of container vegetables; types of containers; seeding and transplanting; planting information; fertilization; watering; light; harvesting; and diseases and insects.
Include your family’s favorite recipes, family photos, comments, and memories. You can type, write, or photocopy recipe pages. If your children are old enough, they can write their own recipes. If they are young, they can tell you what their favorite recipes are and you can write them. Below are more ideas for your family cookbook and free templates you can download.
Make a simple greeting card with construction paper and crayons. Fold a piece of construction paper in half. Your child can decorate the front of the card with crayons, paint, ribbon, glitter, sequins, cotton balls, yarn, small pieces of colored paper or colorful fabric, and foam shapes. In the inside, your child can dictate a short note. To personalize the card, your child can add his or her photo to the outside or the inside of the card.
Make a special memory book for your child. Memory books help you and your child remember special moments in your child’s life. To make a memory book, use a three ring binder and acid free plastic sheets to protect your child’s photos, art projects, and certificates. Keep a separate spiral notebook and write about your favorite memories and milestones of your child: your child’s first step, first word, first toy, funny or interesting things that your child said or did, and special events in your child’s life. Your child can also tell you about what he or she did that day and you can write it for him or her in the spiral notebook. You can then write those in the memory book. Your can also record your child telling about his or her day and take videos of your child. Put them on to a DVD disc that you can play back later. If you have a computer and digital scrapbooking software, you can create digital scrapbooks and photo albums of your child.
Make puppets with your child and put on a puppet play! There are many different types of puppets you can make: sock puppets, paper bag puppets, finger and hand puppets, shadow puppets, spoon puppets, and box puppets. Make animal or character puppets and invent your own story. Put on a play based on your child's favorite fairy tale. Create photo puppets of your family and pets and put on a play based on something your family did together. Don't forget to create your puppet theater. There are many different types of puppet theaters you can make: pillow case theaters, clothesline theaters, small box theaters, and shadow puppet theaters.
Ideas for Family Time: Family Photo Bingo. Create bingo cards with photos of family members. Tell your child a family member's name or show the family member's photo (larger size). Have your child put a marker on the correct family member's photo. Marker ideas: bottle caps, pieces of colored paper, cheerios. When your child gets three photos in a row (diagonal, vertical, or horizontal), your child wins!
Ideas for Family Time: Goals. Now is a great time to sit down with your children and plan goals for the year. Your preschool-aged child can make simple goals for himself or herself. For example: I will put my toys away, I will brush my teeth, I will dress myself. etc.. Make a chart for your child and when your child completes each goal, give him or her a sticker to put on the chart. Give a reward after a certain number of stickers. For example, after your child receives ten stickers, you and your child will go the movies or play a game together.
Enjoy a family game night with your family! This is a great time to teach your children skills such as
1. Set a day and time for your family game night.
2. Choose a variety of games.
3. Explain the rules.
4. Listen to your favorite music and have snacks while you play.
If your young child or children lose interest quickly or are too tired to continue playing, you might play a game a day for a week instead of playing several games at one time.
Here are some fun ideas for outdoor and indoor activities that you can do with your young children. Some of the activities involve snow and some do not.
Outdoor snow activities: Build snow castles; Build a snowman; Build a snow fort and have a snow ball fight; Sledding or tubing; Snow painting with squirt water bottles filled with colored water; Winter scavenger hunt: make a list of things your child can find outdoors. Outdoor activities (snow or no snow): Hide-and seek; Frisbee; ball toss.
Indoor activities: Family game night; Pizza movie night (indoors); Family story time; Arts and crafts; Cooking or making a treat.
Treasure hunt (indoors or outdoors): Put together an activity box: coloring books, crayons, stories, movies, and games. Give your child hints (clues) that they have to find. At the end of the treasure hunt, they can play with the things in the activity box.
Have a snowman themed party with your children and their friends. Send snowmen invitations. Decorate the house with snowmen pictures. Make snowmen treats and crafts. Play "Pin the Carrot on the Snowman". Sing songs, watch movies, and read stories and poems about snowmen. If there is enough snow outside, make a snowman.
Make a family newsletter. Include family photos, important events for the year, and favorite memories from each family member. Your child can dictate his or her favorite memory, or draw a picture that you can include. Mail your family newsletter to family and friends.
Cut out feather shapes from different colored construction paper. Each person in the family writes one thing he or she is thankful for on a feather. Hide the feathers around the house and have a "feather hunt". When someone finds a feather, read what is written on the feather (you might have to read for your younger children).
Try some fun Fall activities instead! Take your child on a nature walk and collect different colored autumn leaves; make a scarecrow; bake pumpkin cookies; have a family game night; rake leaves; go through a corn maze.
Puffy Paint: Mix together equal parts flour, salt, and water. Add white glue and food coloring.
Homemade Clay
Ingredients
1C flour,
1 C water,
1/2 C salt,
1 tsp. vegetable oil,
1 tsp. cream of tartar
food coloring
Instructions
Mix all the ingredients in a small saucepan over low heat. Gently stir until mixture forms a ball. Cool. Remove from pan and knead until pliable. Store in an airtight container or the dough will get hard.
Helpful Links
Family Education.com Uncooked playdough, colored playdough, oatmeal playdough, peanut butter playdough, and Kool-aid playdough.
You need construction paper, a hanger, a pair of scissors, a hole punch, thread or yarn, cookie cutters or stencils, stickers, markers, thumb tack. (glitter is optional).
Lay the construction paper on a flat surface.
Put the stencil or cookie cutter on the paper.
Trace around the cookie cutter or inside the stencil.
Decorate the shape with stickers, markers and or glitter.
Cut the shape out.
Punch a hole near the top and center of the shape.
Tie an knot on one end of the thread or yarn.
Loop the other end of the thread or yarn through the hole.
Tie the free end of the thread or yarn to the bottom of the hanger.
Tie yarn to the hook part of the hanger.
With the thumb tack, secure the yarn (connected to the hanger) to the ceiling of your child's bedroom.
While your children are in their pajamas, ready for bed, take them on a Pajama Run. Tell them, "Let's go on a Pajama Run!". Put them in the car, still in their pajamas, and drive to a local fast food restaurant. Go through the drive-through lane and order ice cream cones. On the way home, talk about what fun everyone had on the Pajama Run.
Almost Sleepover. Have an "almost sleepover" with your preschooler. Invite a few of your preschool child's friends over. Have them come dressed in their pajamas and bring sleeping bags and pillows. Then play some games, watch movies, make an arts and crafts activity. When you are finished with the activities, have your child's friends go home. They don't sleep overnight, that's why it's called and "almost sleepover".
Have a picnic with your children inside your house. Choose a room in your house: the living room, a bedroom etc. Choose food that you can eat with your fingers and put them in a picnic basket. Put a blanket on the floor and turn on your favorite fun music. Use paper plates, paper cups, and plastic spoons, knives and forks. Sit on the blanket and enjoy your picnic. After your picnic, play a board game together.
Sky Watching. On a beautiful warm day or night, lie on a blanket with your child. Look at the clouds. What pictures do they make? Can your child see any animals, shapes, toys etc. At night, first look at a star guidebook. Then lie down on a blanket and look at the sky. Try to find planets, constellations, or major stars.
Make puppets with your child and put on a puppet play! There are many different types of puppets you can make: sock puppets, paper bag puppets, finger and hand puppets, shadow puppets, spoon puppets, and box puppets. Make animal or character puppets and invent your own story. Put on a play based on your child's favorite fairy tale. Create photo puppets of your family and pets and put on a play based on something your family did together. Don't forget to create your puppet theater. There are many different types of puppet theaters you can make: pillow case theaters, clothesline theaters, small box theaters, and shadow puppet theaters. 
Ideas for Family Time: Goals. Now is a great time to sit down with your children and plan goals for the year. Your preschool-aged child can make simple goals for himself or herself. For example: I will put my toys away, I will brush my teeth, I will dress myself. etc.. Make a chart for your child and when your child completes each goal, give him or her a sticker to put on the chart. Give a reward after a certain number of stickers. For example, after your child receives ten stickers, you and your child will go the movies or play a game together.
Here are some fun ideas for outdoor and indoor activities that you can do with your young children. Some of the activities involve snow and some do not.
Have a snowman themed party with your children and their friends. Send snowmen invitations. Decorate the house with snowmen pictures. Make snowmen treats and crafts. Play "Pin the Carrot on the Snowman". Sing songs, watch movies, and read stories and poems about snowmen. If there is enough snow outside, make a snowman. 
Make a family newsletter. Include family photos, important events for the year, and favorite memories from each family member. Your child can dictate his or her favorite memory, or draw a picture that you can include. Mail your family newsletter to family and friends.
Cut out feather shapes from different colored construction paper. Each person in the family writes one thing he or she is thankful for on a feather. Hide the feathers around the house and have a "feather hunt". When someone finds a feather, read what is written on the feather (you might have to read for your younger children).
Try some fun Fall activities instead! Take your child on a nature walk and collect different colored autumn leaves; make a scarecrow; bake pumpkin cookies; have a family game night; rake leaves; go through a corn maze.
Have a picnic with your children inside your house. Choose a room in your house: the living room, a bedroom etc. Choose food that you can eat with your fingers and put them in a picnic basket. Put a blanket on the floor and turn on your favorite fun music. Use paper plates, paper cups, and plastic spoons, knives and forks. Sit on the blanket and enjoy your picnic. After your picnic, play a board game together.