Outdoor Games and Activities for Toddlers

It’s a beautiful day and your toddler or preschooler is begging to go outside. What to do when you get out? Here’s some simple ideas:

Walk to Park
The walk alone is enough to keep them busy. When you there, of course they’ll even have more to do. It’s a great time for you to relax a bit and enjoy the day, keeping an eye on them while they bounce from one activity to the other.

Play Fresbie
If you have a small backyard, you might need to go to the park to do this. However, if your yard is big enough this is a simple activity you can do at home.

Baseball/T-ball
Another possible at home activity if your yard is big enough. All you really need is some cheap baseball equiptment (plastic ball, plastic bat) for younger children.

Walk around neighboorhood
There’s many interesting things to do while walking around the neighboorhood. You can count the animals and birds you see, count certain colored cars or house, or any number of fun games.

Pool Time
If it’s a nice enough day, you can either fill up the kiddie pool in the backyard, or head to the local public pool. Either way it’s sure to please the kids!

Be sure to see our other ideas for things to do with your children!

About the Author: Kara Kelso is the mother of 2 and owner of several online businesses. For more ideas like this, visit: http://www.idea-queen.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kara_Kelso

Try Choosing Activities Your Child Will Enjoy This Summer

When you are thinking about summer activities best suited to your children, there are several factors to consider.

For those who need it the summer can be used for remedial classes, so that students can begin the start of the next semester more confident in the areas where they were weak performers.

However if this is not an issue, then thinking of the child’s’ personality, likes and dislikes can give clues as to the type of summer activities that would be most meaningful and enjoyable.

The activities available include dramatic and pretend play, camping, swimming, drawing and coloring, reading, sports and the preparation of nutritional meals.

Whichever activities are selected should make this summer experience an unforgettable one for the child; it should also develop their skills and talents in the particular areas of choice.

In addition to such fun activities like reading, singing, coloring, drawing and craft, outdoor trips will expose your child to the beauty of the environment and help to reinforced the need to protect it.

Important aspects to remember this summer include budgeting for the cost of these activities, try to include healthy meals, snacks and beverages while having fun and maintain a high level of supervision to maintain the child’s safety.

So this summer encourage your children to get up from watching television, make new friends, learn new skills, and read more books for fun and educational purposes. The mental stimulation and physical activity will serve them in good stead for years to come.

Fay Garner-Barrow is the founder of http://www.dora-the-explorer-adventures.com As a strong believer of learning through play, she designed this website to educate parents with preschoolers and young children. This website also offer Dora The Explorer party supplies, toys, books, the personalized DVD and more. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Fay_Garner-Barrow

Fun Summer Activities To Do Together or With Their Friends for the Self Confident Parent

“I’m bored!” “I have nothing to do!” “What should I do now?”

Are these some of the things you are hearing or have heard from your child or children this summer? Are you running out of things to do? Here are some fun activities that you can do with your kids. You can even have your kids invite friends and do these activities together.

But first, here is something to think about. A girlfriend of mine had a very good suggestion that will prevent your child from complaining about being bored. She sends them to the refrigerator and taped to the door is a list of chores that she has written down for them to do, when they complain that they are bored. Needless to say, her children never complain about being bored.

As a self confident parent, if you are looking for some things that are actually fun to do, here are a couple of great activities or ideas:

1) Do a craft project together. This is one of my favorites when my kids were younger. You can buy a craft kit or make up your own project, if you are crafty. One of the projects my kids liked to do was to cut out paper snowflakes. Another one was to figure out different ways to fold airplanes and find out which way flew the best. We would also paint wooden cut outs (that I had purchased from a craft store), for instance, gingerbread men during the holidays. There are all sorts of kits that you can buy from a craft store, like Michael’s Arts and Crafts or JoAnn’s Fabric store. Another very simple idea, that I used to do when we had a play group and it was my turn to host, was to take a walk. We would pick up leaves, flowers, etc. We then bring them back and paste them on a page to make a picture. We have also bought the kit to make permanent plates, cups, and bowls. After you order the kit, have your child draw a picture (or if they are very young, you can write their name, date, and trace their hand) with their markers on a special piece of paper. You then send it back to the company who will mail it back with their artwork on a plate or bowl. (For pictures on a cup, the picture is inserted after it is drawn and is not sent in.) In fact, to this day, we still use those plates for our meals.

2) Bake cookies or a cake. My kids loved to help me stir the dough and then when the cookies were done baking, they got to frost and decorate them with sprinkles. A fun thing to do is to make up a story about your decorated cookie before you could eat it. Another great idea, which I usually use at my children’s birthdays, is to buy store bought cookie dough, in the refrigerated section. I usually take a chocolate chip cookie dough and a sugar cookie dough, and press them down on to two pizza baking sheet. I spread the cookie dough to the edges of the baking sheet until it looks like a pizza. Then bake it. After it is cooled, I have my child spread the frosting of their choice and then decorate it with different colored sprinkles and colored icing (from the store and in the ready make tubes). He has a blast. We then add candles to it. Another great idea, is to buy fancy molds. I have, for in-stance, the football stadium Nordicware mold. After the cake it baked, they like to sprinkle different colored sprinkles in the inside of the stadium to look like fans in the stadium.

3) Create memory books. You can buy inexpensive or expensive photo albums. You can give each child their own or share a book and make a family album. Next have your child cut out their favorite pictures from magazines or give them copies of their favorite photos. Use acid-free glue, double stick tape, or special double sided photo stickers to stick the pictures on to their books. Then decorate the pages with acid-free stickers, markers, stamped images, or cut outs. Another great idea is to make dream journals or wishing boards. You cut out things that they want, from weekly ads or magazines, and paste them onto a poster board. You can have them cut out pictures of people that they want to be, for instance, a singer, a dancer, a football or basketball player, a golfer, a doctor, etc. or cut out pictures of their dream house, etc. They can cut out places that they would like to visit. The possibilities are endless. Or you can make a book with a spiral bound notebook and decorate the cover or buy a notebook binder and decorate the cover. Then have your child write down their favorite jokes poems, or memories. You can even copy the jokes or poems and then cut and paste them into their books. You can make autograph books. You take a book and dec-orate it. You then have their friends or relatives write little notes to them or you can start writing little notes to them on a weekly or daily basis. You can write down your wishes, dreams, or special memories of them down.

Anyway, these are just a couple of fun activities that you and your child or children can do with you or their friends that will help foster their self confidence and yours as a self con-fident parent. Have fun!! Have a great summer!

Lena Tucker is the founder of http://www.successinlifeandmoney.com An avid blogger, Lena is helping to change the lives of others through her articles and blogs about living a successful life, having true self confidence, successful parenting, and all things money related. Transform your life now through her amazing insights at http://www.successinlifeandmoney.com for self improvement tips. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lena_Tucker