Friday, June 19, 2015

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! 



16 Easy Peasy Summer Projects for 3 year olds





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! 

16 Easy Peasy Summer Projects for 3 year olds



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
16 Easy Peasy Summer Projects for 3 year olds



Paint a little Cardboard House | click here

Paint a Giant Cardboard Box | click here

Book Based Potato Stamping | click here

16 Easy Peasy Summer Projects for 3 year olds
For Painting with Spinning Tops | click here

For Spray Painting Pebble Silhouettes | click here

For Paint with Bubbles | click here
16 Easy Peasy Summer Projects for 3 year olds

For Eno Explosion | click here

For Fizzy Word Building | click here

Paint on Salt & Ice | click here

Baking Soda & Vinegar Concoctions | click here
16 Easy Summer Projects for 3 year olds

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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42 comments:

  1. I am a bachelor and I love this article for pre-schoolers. You have many interesting projects on the shelf there. Nice blog.

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  2. What a great bunch of summer ideas for little children. My kids are both in college, but we often keep other kids or work with them at our church. Your ideas will be very helpful!

    I found your site on the Mondays Parenting Pin Up. I've pinned a few of your pics to my Pinterest site!

    Blessings,
    Melanie

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  3. These are great ideas for summer, my 3 year old will love these! Pinned :)

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  4. We invite you to a monthly
    Kids Link Party. Детскую галерею! We are looking forward to your participation.

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  5. These activities look like a lot of fun! I can't wait to do some of them with my sons (ages 3 and 4). We already do the painting on ice but the Fizzing Word Building sounds like a blast!

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    Replies
    1. These activities are great for ages 3- 5 ! Thanks Tennille :)

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  6. These all look like so much fun - my 2 and 4 year old would probably love any of them. I'm sure I have the materials for at least a few of them on hand already, too!

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    Replies
    1. balls, leaves, lemon wedges, baking soda, these things are easy to find! Thanks for stopping by :)

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  7. What a fun blog now that summer vacation is in full swing. Always looking for projects for the kids. Thank you for sharing with the Clever Chicks Blog Hop! I hope you’ll join us again next week!

    Cheers,
    Kathy Shea Mormino
    The Chicken Chick
    http://www.The-Chicken-Chick.com

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  8. That's a nice roundup of ideas!

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  9. Amazing ideas! I found your lovely blog on Thursday Favorite Things.
    Thanks
    Angie

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  10. Fun ideas! I've never tried most of them with my 3 and almost 2 year-olds so I know they'd have a blast! Pinning and sharing. Thanks so much for the inspiration.

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  11. Love the post, if you have a few.. love if you stop by Fabulous Friday again to share your posts, I party every two weeks, so it be great if you have a few minutes! Thanks Maria
    http://www.simplenaturedecorblog.com/fabulous-friday-party32/

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  12. These all look super fun! Can;t wait to give some of them a try! :)

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  13. Thank you very much for joining in and making our Bowdabra Crafty Saturday Showcase, we will look forward to seeing your post next Saturday.

    Warm Regards,
    The Bowdabra Team

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  14. What fun!?!? My youngest is 4 but I think we would both have an amazing time with all of these crafts!! Thanks so much for sharing them with us at The Mommy Monday Blog Hop!

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  15. Love these ideas! I'm adding them to my Pinterest Summer Fun board. I can't wait to show them to my daughter! Thanks so much for sharing at #HomeMattersParty. Hope you'll join us again.

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  16. So many fun ideas for the little ones! Thanks for sharing with SYC.
    hugs,
    Jann

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  17. you are a feature this week for the summer projects for Fabulous Friday
    Thanks
    Maria

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  18. Here is the invite to Fabulous Friday! http://www.simplenaturedecorblog.com/fabulous-friday-partysummer-ideas/

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  19. Such cute ideas! I'll have to try some out with my great-grandchildren. Visiting from The Modest Mom.

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  20. Love the Lemon Wedge Flower Painting! Can't wait to try that :)

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  21. Thank you for some great projects to do with the kids this summer. I will be featuring your post on this weeks Bloggers Spotlight Link and Pin Party. Please come back to join us and link/pin soon!

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