The sun is shining, the world is warm and children and have enormous fun learning outside whilst the opportunity is here. As adults, when we look back at happy days of childhood they are very often ones spent having fun in the sun and your children can build those memories too. It need not involve long trips, holidays or lots of expense as so much learning is completely free. Here are some suggestions for you:
Create a rainbow from the wild
You could go for a walk in the park, and nearby wood or just forage in your garden to collect flowers and plants in a wide variety of colours which the children can then use to create their rainbows. This can be done by sticking them onto paper or card or, if you have access to sand, they can be ‘planted’ in a sandbox to make a pretty display. Depending on the age of the child, learning can include how the plants get their colours and why plants use colours.
Colourful creations
Most of us remember how much fun we had painting and drawing with chalks on the pavements outside. Your children can brighten up the garden by drawing on the fences as well as any other solid surface without you having to worry, because the next time it rains the chalk will be washed off. If you do not have any chalk, fill a squeezy bottle with water and draw with the water jet. This can teach children about evaporation and how the sun warms the earth, whilst they have fun.
Bark rubbing
Trees have different bark patterns and children can learn about these patterns through bark rubbing. All you need is paper and wax crayons or pencil crayons. Hold the paper firmly against the tree and briskly rub the crayons over the paper to see the bark pattern come through. Using different colours can create lovely designs and the children can compare their bark patterns and learn about the different trees.
Magical mystery tours
When my children were young, they used to love going on walks to find magical creatures. Peeping through a hedge, a white pony might readily be a unicorn and a sheep a woolly pig. Children’s imagination can be fired by going on a hunt like this, whether you hunt bears, dragons, or magic. We used to add fun to the walk with alliterative descriptions of everything which we passed, and it was a source of much hilarity for them to make up silly sentences such as ‘Leigh the bee stung his own knee’. Not only can this help children to develop their imagination, but it also helps with vocabulary development and social skills.
Water world
There is nothing like playing with water to cool children down on a hot day and it can be incredibly educational. Children can create complex mazes for the water to move through from the top to the bottom, with waterfalls and things like tipping bucket, using bits of pipe, plastic and household items. Little ones can make sponge bombs for throwing at chalk targets on a wall. This might sound just like fun, but it can help their maths when they score from the target and they will inherently be practising physics by improving their aim.
Amazing obstacles
Anything can create part of an obstacle course with enough imagination; hula hoops, ropes, plant pots, garden canes, large old boxes and piles of leaves. Help the children to dig out anything that might add to the fun of racing around obstacle courses on a lovely day. The children will not only be enjoying some physical exercise but also learning about material strength, technology and the use of measuring and angles in day-to-day things.
Children to the rescue
Children can learn about different states of matter and how those states of matter can change whilst enjoying a cooling game outside. You need a large container of water and some small plastic toys, then just freeze the water with the plastic toys inside for your children to rescue. They can have bottles or sprays of warm water and a small bucket of salt to find different ways to help their toys to escape.
Sleeping under the stars
Children love sleeping out in the garden in either a small tent or a shelter made from sheets and blankets. It gives them a sense of freedom and self-sufficiency whilst they are safe and close to hand. They can learn about the stars or have torches to look for night-time creatures once it becomes dark.
Playing outside captures children’s imaginations and allows them to develop independence as well as good memories of childhood. Plenty of sun cream, sun hats and an adult close at hand means that they are safe and can feel that wonderful sense of freedom that only being outside can give us.
I am sure that you will have lots of other fun ideas for how your children can learn during the wonderful summer days. We would love to hear about your ideas. Please send your ideas to: [email protected]
