Create summer camps at home

Summer. This one word has so many different meanings to everyone. For children, summer means holidays, fun, no schedule, waking up at whatever time they please among other things.

However, for parents, summer means kids at home, daily planning of their activities while trying to complete their own errands and what not! Urvi Sheth, Educator and Founder, Beyond Books share a few suggestions that make life easier for parents while making it fun for the kids!

The Art challenge

Make a set of cards. These cards will include different topics to illustrate. Every day, the child will pick up one card and use the art supplies to illustrate the topic. This is a great way to develop thinking, creativity and fine motor skills.

The child can use his/ her own imagination and creativity to draw their interpretation of the topic and the use of various materials such as crayons/coloured pencils/ paintbrushes (holding), cotton balls (dabbing), scissors (cutting) help in strengthening one’s fine motor skills.

When the child makes a larger arm and wrist movements, it also results in gross motor movement. You can make a picture book of a summer holiday by binding all the illustrations.

Topic ideas

• My favourite part of the day
• My favourite/ memorable holiday
• My favourite food
• My favourite animal
• If I were a superhero
• My dream house
• My favourite festival
• When I design my own car in the future, it will look like
• The next Marvel/ DC superhero
• My favourite season
• My family tree
• When I grow up, I want to be

The art fiesta

Cover one wall with plastic and then stick art sheets all over it. Alternatively, you can also stick a white chart on it. Various materials such as paints, paintbrushes, water, balloons can be used. Use the materials to splash a rainbow of colours all over the wall. Children are free to use brushes or even their hands to do this activity.

If you feel adventurous on that day, don’t forget to include water guns in this activity too! Children can use water guns to spray the colours of their choice on the wall. The splashing and hand painting movement will strengthen their arm muscles and lead to gross motor development.

A day in the lives of others

Often, in our busy daily lives, we forget about those less fortunate than us. Unfortunately, they do not have the luxuries the way we do. First, choose an institution that helps the less privileged. Speak to a few other parents as well and get more children involved.

They can perform dances, sing songs or even put up a play. Let children take the lead in making decisions for that day, such as the food and drinks to be distributed on that day. Make sure you give the children enough time to prepare and plan for the day, minimum being a week. This activity targets children’s social and 21st Century life skills. While developing various other skills, life skills are often overshadowed by other skills.

However, human beings are social animals who need to survive in this world with other living things around them. Therefore, it is important to ensure that values such as empathy, kindness, care for each other, respect, are not forgotten in the tech-savvy, fast-paced world. This activity will have a long-term impact on the children wherein they will grow up with holistic development.

These activities may seem simple but they are effective and can be tweaked to make it age appropriate. It is always the simplest of things which serve the biggest purposes.