May is almost gone. Wow! Finally summer!!
I know, it doesn’t feel much exciting as last year 😑, and I guess it’s because for most of us, we have already stopped going to work and our children have stopped going to school two months ago. Phew, you Covid-19……!
But we don’t want to waste our oh-so-precious summer, right? Although we can’t go to Wonderland or Great Wolf Lodge (Hi, my Toronto moms!😄), we want our kids to have fun in this summer.
So I have made a summer schedule for toddlers and preschoolers.
Toddler/Preschooler Summer Schedule
What did I focus on making these 5 big themes for Monday to Friday?
I wanted
- to cover all the developmental areas (physical, social, emotional etc.)
- things that can be fun
- things that all family members can do together as family activities
- things that will allow a child to be a leader (alright, except Tasty Tuesday 😝)
- things that provoke thought, curiosity and exploration
Here is a detailed explanation.
Make-Believe MONDAY
You can read a book or watch a movie together and then do a role-play. Take out costumes if you have some and allow your child – and yourself – to use any accessories or objects to make the play feel more real and fun. Making props will be a good activity, too.
The key points here are understanding the story, retelling the story and giving your child a chance to be imaginative and expressive.
Tasty TUESDAY
Think of a simple snack recipe that your family like. Children can help making a pancake, sandwich, wrap, muffin, apple donut or energy ball. Check your pantry, ask what everyone is craving for and decide!
Key points here are giving your child simple tasks – one task at a time, encouraging to try again and again, allowing your child to do it by herself/himself and fostering autonomy. When your child sees everyone enjoying the food at the end, her/his self-esteem will grow so much!
You can also introduce basic math concepts like number sense, counting, measuring, adding and subtracting.
Wiggle Wiggle WEDNESDAY
It’s time to move our body.
Is your child having a regular outdoor time everyday? If you have a backyard, letting her/him play in the backyard every afternoon is a good idea. Because you would want your child to release as much energy as possible in the afternoon and gradually wind down during the evening for the sleep time.
If you don’t have a backyard, here is my suggestion. Have a dance party in the house! Although you can incorporate physical movement here and there throughout a day – tidying up toys, mid-day stretching etc., it’s a great idea to choose a specific day, once a week, for a gross motor day and make sure your bodies are getting enough exercise.
Dance party is easy and fun. Make a family playlist together and shake off stress.
Thirsty for Art THURSDAY
Art gives children a time to be creative and expressive.
I recommend doing a lot of process art. What is process art? It’s an art that focuses on the actual “doing” process rather than the final product. Exploring, feeling, expressing, changing are some of the things that children can experience during the process of making art. You don’t have to have a final product in your mind. Just put out some art materials and encourage your child’s imagination.
A tip for this activity is adding a few different materials or objects at each time. Try putting some normally-unrelated objects together or putting related objects in an unfamiliar way to provoke thinking and creativity.
Follow Your Curiosity FRIDAY
What is your child interested in these days? What does s/he ask about a lot?
Make Friday an inquiry day to ask questions, look for answers, explore, test and understand. It doesn’t need to be a big project. Inquiry for young children can be accomplished by simply giving them lots of time to observe and think and providing some available resources so that they can try to find answers for their questions by themselves. Again, the process is more important than the final findings. Through this process, children gains confidence and ability to solve a problem.
I’m not saying that parents need to make a summer schedule and follow that every week. 😅 It’s summer! We want to have fun! 🍦🏖Just whenever you have a time and want to set up something for your children at home, you can look at those 5 themes quickly and get an idea. 🙂
If you like a fancy planner – for you to enjoy 🤩, sign up for my Summer Schedule Package!
It has the schedule reference (5 themes) with some ideas for each theme and a schedule template that you can fill out as you want.
Alright! We had a bit disorganized and confusing two months! But for this summer break, I hope we and our children can have an organized and fun time with my summer schedule!
Enjoy!
Missangela🎀