16 Easy Summer Projects for 3 year olds

Summer is officially over in this part of the planet, there was our Art Studio, summer camp, visiting grandparents, playground, parks, chasing cats, eloping to the neighbours house (any neighbour will do), chatting up with random people, spending hours at book stores. But it also meant being indoors for long periods of time. 

The secret behind the mantra "let them be bored" is "give them more activities" Yes! you read that correctly. "Normalisation" is actually a Montessori philosophy, i.e. when children emerge from focusing attention on using a material, they are calmer and happier. As time went on, Maria Montessori saw this positive change in their personalities become more permanent. She called this process "Normalisation". I have witnessed this first hand with my kid! Giving him something to do tick marks being engaged, being happy, AND quality time playing with mommy. 

Ten minutes of quality 'activity' time results in at least an hour full of solo play! 

The key is to give them something to do *before* the *boredom* sets in. Its like feeding kids *before* they get crazy hungry! During summer vacations, I would give him a project to do right after the morning routine. Then continue the same that afternoon.

Here are a few simple projects that took almost no prep time and a looong time to conduct! Usually a project last for a few days, and he hopped in and out of each one every few hours. Say when he collected a big bag full of dried leaf strings from the park, he painted them over 3-4 days!  a little bit every few hours! 

Easy Suncatchers with Origami Papers & Punch | click here

Lemon Wedge Flowers | click here

Painting Leaf Strings and Stones | click here

Paint with Ping Pong Balls | click here

Paint a little Cardboard House | click here

Paint a Giant Cardboard Box | click here

Book Based Potato Stamping | click here

For Painting with Spinning Tops | click here

For Spray Painting Pebble Silhouettes | click here

For Paint with Bubbles | click here

For Eno Explosion | click here

For Fizzy Word Building | click here

Paint on Salt & Ice | click here

Baking Soda & Vinegar Concoctions | click here

Mural Art on Glass Doors | click here

Stick Monsters | click here

Some more!

Spray Painting for Pebble Silhouettes | click here

Paint with Yarn | click here

Vaseline Resist Art | click here

Blow by Straw Art | click here

Until later! Stay in touch!

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