How to Teach Your Toddler About Summer

It's the time of year for picnics and swimming, camping and staying up late chasing fireflies. Enjoy the outdoors and teach your toddler about summer at the same time.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Wading Pools
• Men's And Women's Swimwear
• Sandals
• Sunglasses
• Barbecue Grills
• Garden Hoses
• Picnic Basket
• Picnic Blankets
• Picnic Tables
• Pool Toys
• Sand
• Watermelons
• Sunscreen
• Watercolor Paints
• Floats And Swimming Aids
• Sandboxes

1. Play outside every day, if possible. Talk to you toddler about the temperature, and about wearing shorts and bathing suits. Go to the park or a local swimming pool if you don't live near a beach. Play in your yard. Have a barbecue. Create some outdoors family traditions with your toddler and do them every summer.
2. Play in the water. Blow bubbles while in a wading pool in your yard. Count the bubbles as the float away or see how many you can get to land in the water. Throw water balloons at each other and try catching them before the pop. Paint with water on a sidewalk using all different size brushes for good design making. Make sand castles with water and sand. Either go to a beach or buy sand for a sandbox.
3. Have a picnic. Find a nice grassy spot with lots of room to run. Bring cool treats to eat like melons, jelly sandwiches and cold fruit drinks. Play games together. Throw beach balls up into the air. Roll down hills. Go for a nature hike and look for birds.
4. Eat watermelon. On a particularly hot day, sit on the porch and enjoy slices of watermelon together. Wash and save the seeds. Talk to your child about how the seeds can be planted and grow into watermelons. Plant the seeds in a garden and take time to care for them every day. Draw pictures of how the seeds grow and write stories together about what you will do with the watermelons.
5. Talk about vacations and holidays. If you are taking a vacation, show your toddler pamphlets about the places you are going or pictures of the people you will see. Talk about the things you will do on your vacation. If you can't take a long trip, plan a day outing to the zoo or local aquarium or a weekend to a friend or relative.
6. Decorate your house for the Fourth of July. Talk about the American flag and what it stands for. Draw or make flags to hang on walls and doors. Make firecrackers by drawing different colored lines on construction paper or gluing strips of colored construction paper on white paper. Make Fourth of July cookies and cakes with red, white and blue frosting.

Tips & Warnings

• Spread activities and events over several days and weeks. Toddlers learn best in small amounts and through repetition.
• Toddlers learn through play. Don't expect your child to sit and listen to a lesson. Interaction is a toddler's best lesson.
• Have a Fourth of July party for the children in your neighborhood.
• Plan play dates with other children and your child at a park.
• Make sure you wear sunscreen while outside. Read instructions on how often to re-apply and if it is waterproof.
• Buy new sunscreen every summer. It expires after a length of time.