June Productive Parenting Activities

I get these emails with activities to do with the kids.  Now that we have some extra time because it's summer, I've been trying to do some of them.

1. Finger Transfer

Materials You Will Need:
two bowls, dried beans
What To Do:
This activity will develop and strengthen your child's pincer grasp, which prepares your child for handwriting. Fill one bowl with dried beans. Demonstrate how to transfer the beans to the empty bowl using your thumb and first two fingers. Continue until all the beans have been transferred. Invite your child to try, encouraging him/her to use only the thumb and first two fingers.

2. Playdough (our version was making fortune cookies)

Materials You Will Need:
play doh, rolling pin, figures

What To Do:
Play doh provides a wonderful opportunity for your child to develop hand muscles, which are important for fine motor. Working with play doh prepares your child's hands for writing. Give your child a rolling pin with the play doh and help with rolling the dough. Place plastic or wood figures in the dough.



3. Color Combo

Materials You Will Need:

paints, brush, paper

What To Do:

On a piece of construction paper folded in half, have your child paint with blue and yellow paints, (without the colors touching), on the left side of the page. Repeat with the colors touching on the right side of the paper. Say, "When you mix blue and yellow you get green." Do this with other color combinations your child has used at the easel.

4. Pouring Tea

Materials You Will Need:

child''s tea set, sponge

What To Do:

Let's have a tea party today! Fill up the teapot with water. Show your child how to pour the water into the small cups, then pour the water from the cups back into the teapot. Clean up any spills with the sponge. Invite your child to do the same. Be prepared to enjoy a tea party with your child after he/she practices pouring.

5.  Using a Map (we used puzzles of the USA and China)

Materials You Will Need:

map of the U.S.

What To Do:

As children travel more and more, their curiosity as to where they are and where they are going grows. Show your child a map of the U.S. and point out your state and city. If you have friends or relatives who live out of state, find their states. You can locate the states that you have visited as a family, oceans, places your child would like to visit, (most children are eager to learn where Disney world is located in relation to their state).