25 Summer Activities for Preschoolers

If you follow us regularly you know that I LOVE doing fun things with the Lil Divas - we share lots of them here after all. Today, I am super excited to have Crystal from Crystal & Co. sharing 25 Summer Activities for Preschoolers. Here's Crystal with lots of fun ideas....

Are you on the hunt for summer activities for preschoolers and kids? Search no more because we have you covered. Boredom busters do not have to be expensive and over done. Sometimes we forget about the simple things when we are searching for activities for our kids. Things like skipping rocks, playing kickball and feeding the ducks should never be forgotten. They are inexpensive ways to build lasting memories together. Below is a list of 25 activities for kids that are sure to be crowd pleasers for you and your little one(s).

Summer Activities for Preschoolers and Kids

1. Create a letter of the week craft as you teach them their ABC's.
2. Go for a Sunday drive any day of the week. Here is a list of 10 activities for 2 year olds to keep them busy in the car.
3. Play with Matchbox cars in the dirt.
4. Take a trip to the local library. Here is a list of the best children's books for learning to count.
5. Re-purpose broken crayons into your favorite shape.
6. Visit your local toy shop and just play. You don't have to buy anything. Some of them also offer free story time.
7. Make a bird feeder out of recycled items you already have on hand.
8. Play dominoes. You do not have to play by the rules - think outside the box and build something with them.
9. Go garage sale shopping together. You can find board games, movies, etc for cheap, cheap!
10. Have a picnic at the park, in your living room, or in your front yard.
11. Make a pet rock.
12. Go fishing.
13. Use juice and fruit to make your own healthy popsicles at home.
14. Plant something together.
15. Become pen pals with someone or write a letter together. Preschoolers love to draw pictures for others.
16. Make a trip to the Post Office together to mail your letters. My kids think the Post Office is so fun.
17. Make a lemonade stand. Here are 10 lemonade stand ideas.
18. Play a card game.
19. Go wildflower picking.
20. Play store together.
21. Play dress-up with old costumes.
22. Go for a walk at the mall or the park depending on how hot it is where you live.
23. Play hide and go seek in the house.
24. Watch a movie together. Let them pick it out (with guidelines obviously) at Redbox or on Netflix. Stay in your pj's and watch the movie.
25. Build a fort out of blankets and kitchen chairs.

How are you keeping your little ones busy this summer?

Here are some more Activities for Kids -

• 80+ Summer Activities for Kids
• Summer Learning Activities
• A to Z Boredom Busters
• Travel or Staycation with Kids
• 36 Savvy Travel Tips for Families

Crystal is a Dallas Mom Blogger, who runs the mommy resource and solution site Crystal & Co.! She loves to share activities for kids, teach busy families how to meal plan and share real easy recipes. She is a fast-paced mom of all boys, five to be exact (including twins), who is in the trenches of homeschooling. 

Add It Up! A Gross Motor Addition Game

The Lil Divas spend a big part of their day sitting at desks in school. The last thing they want to do is spend even more time sitting at home to work some more. That's a big part of the reason why I try to keep things fun and active at home. This week, I am teaming up with two of my favorite bloggers, Train Up a Child and Mess for Less, to bring you some fun Learning Through Movement Activities for Kids.

Kids love active play and they need it too. Developing gross motor skills is an essential part of development. Activities like jumping, running, catching, climbing and riding a bike provide children with skills that enhance school success because they also lead to increased fine motor development and retention. In our home, gross motor activities equal fun and we know that having fun increases learning. Right?

The Oldest Diva has been working hard this year on mastering her math facts in first grade. Much like sight words and phonics skills for reading, they are at the core of many math concepts. While I want her to feel confident in her math skills, practicing anything over and over again can get tedious and boring. So to make it more fun and active, we play games. One of the games the Lil Divas enjoy is 

Add it Up!

A Gross Motor Addition Game

To prep, you will need a beach ball and a permanent marker.  Write numbers from 0 to 10 all over the ball, be sure to repeat them so you can practice adding doubles. 

To play, simply throw the ball and have your child (or children) catch it. Once they catch the ball, they simply add the numbers under their hands before throwing it to another child. 

Continue throwing the ball back and forth and keep practicing those math facts while moving and jumping to catch. It keeps kids active and learning as they play.

The Oldest Diva likes to try to play as fast as she can to challenge herself. We focus on both speed and accuracy. I like that the Littlest Diva can play with her. She is learning math facts while helping her sister and she doesn't even realize it.

This is a great game to play to practice more than just addition facts. You can practice multiplication, sight words, letter and number recognition, vocabulary and even have some family style fun.

For more Math Learning Through Movement be sure to check out what Train Up a Child and Mess for Less shared today. If you would like more fun math ideas check out our Math Fun Pinterest Board and of course our other math activities.

Making math active and fun has become a new mission of mine. The Lil Divas are excellent readers but math is much more difficult for them. Part of it is definitely a lack of interest but I am determined to provide the Lil Divas with a solid foundation on which to build. (By the way, that totally means you'll be seeing lots more math activities around here!)

For the rest of this three (3) part series, we will be bringing you Reading Activities on Wednesday and Science Activities on Friday so be sure to come back to see all of our Learning Through Movement Activities.

Have fun Adding It Up!

Bern

Catch the Ball! - Sharing Family Memories Through Play

The Lil Divas love mommy-daughter dates. They also love to reminisce and share memories. This gave me the idea for a game that combined getting active with some of their favorite things - mommy time and sharing memories of special moments spent together as a family.

I grabbed a beach ball (yes, I keep these on hand for learning and fun) and my sharpie and got ready. I thought up a few questions and wrote them all across the beach ball. Then, I invited the Lil Divas to play. Playing with a ball is always fun. It inevitably leads to missed catches, giggles, bumps on the head, falling on the floor and lots and lots of laughing.

To play the game, use whatever questions are relevant for your family and/or your children's ages.  Here are the questions I used:

1. What is your favorite treat to eat?

2. Say 1 nice thing about everyone playing.

3. Where is your favorite place to go as a family?

4. What is your favorite family trip? Why?

5. What is your favorite game to play?

6. If we could go anywhere in the world, where would you want to go?

Then play catch, taking turns so that everyone gets a turn catching the ball. Wherever your hands land on the ball, that's the question you need to answer. If you have already answered the question your hands are on then answer the question nearest to them. Play until everyone has answered all the questions.

The Lil Divas enjoyed playing the game and reading (sneaking in some literacy!) and answering the questions. They really liked hearing my answers too and it was fun to play and share together. As a mom my favorite was the one where everyone had to say something nice about the people playing.  It was very sweet and actually led to the cute moment pictured above of the Lil Divas hugging. The Littlest Diva was touched by what her big sister said about her and ran over to hug her. It made my mommy heart full to bursting.

I can see this being a great game to play every now and then as the answers will undoubtedly change as the Lil Divas experience new things. I look forward to revisiting this game in the future with the Lil Divas.

This idea is being shared as part of the Mommy Playdate 100 Days of Play hosted by Sun Scholars and Life at the Zoo. 100 blogs/bloggers from around the world have taken on the challenge of connecting with our kids through play and are sharing our ideas with you from April 1st thru July 9th. We hope you find some ideas that inspire you to play and connect with your kids.

  

100 Days of Play is brought to you by these wonderful bloggers:

SunScholars . Frogs, Snails & Puppy Dog Tails . Playful Learners . Train Up a Child . Fantastic Fun & Learning . Scribble, Doodle & Draw . Learn. Create. Love. . Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas . Nothing if Not Intentional . My Little 3 & Me . Buggy & Buddy . Sun Hats & Wellie Boots . Twodaloo . True Aim . The Educators' Spin On It . Blog Me Mom .Life At The Zoo . Putti's World . Kitchen Counter Chronicles . Triple T Mum . Busy Kids Happy Mom . Crystal's Tiny Treasures . Rainy Day Mum . Momma's Fun World . My Little Bookcase . Craftulate . One Perfect Day . MumCentral . Artchoo! . Little Artists . Simple. Home. Blessings. . JDaniel4's Mom . NurtureStore . Me & Marie Learning .Child Central Station . Mamas Like Me . Making Boys Men . Powerful Mothering . Craft to Art . 3 Dinosaurs . Domestic Goddesque . Lessons Learnt Journal . Royal Baloo .Smiling Like Sunshine . Adventures at Home with Mum . B-Inspired Mama . PragmaticMom . Eazy Peazy Mealz . Gluesticks . TheBoy&Me . Learning is Messy . My Nearest & Dearest . Growing Book by Book . How to Run a Home Daycare . Here Come the Girls . Think Magnet . Dandelions Picked . 123 Homeschool 4 Me . Our Ordinary Life .Parenting with Professor Poppins . 2 Little Hooligans . Fun-a-Day! . The Non-Martha Mamma . Angelique Felix . My Very Educated Mother . Creative Playhouse . Go Explore Nature . Zing Zing Tree . Sense of Wonder . Childhood 101 . Crayon Freckles . KZ & Me . Serenity You . This Mumma's Life . Leapfrog & Ladybugs . Blue Bear Wood .Growing Together . KC EDventures . Mommy Lessons 101 . Nature & Play . Like Mama Like Daughter . Mums Make Lists . From Wine to Whine . Messy Kids . Babble Dabble Do . Sugar Aunts . Teaching @ Home . Preschool Powol Packets . Clothed in Love . Curiosity Creates . The Magnolia Barn . Strong Start . Stay-at-Home Mom Survival Guide. Learn with Play at Home . Mummy... Mummy... MUM! . Science Sparks . Toddler Approved . Thrive 360 Living . Rockabye Butterfly . Mud Hut Mama . Coffee Cups & Crayons . Playing with Words 365 . My Lil Love Bugs . Creative Connections for Kids . LalyMom

Have fun playing together!

Bern