Spring! When I think of Spring, I think of rain, rain, and more rain. This of course leads me to thoughts of mud. I then imagine children covered in mud, but still enjoying the beautiful Spring colours that appear outside in the form of flowers and birds. The rain that comes with Spring is of course, what God sends to allow us to enjoy the beauty of His creation, but what do we do when we are stuck inside on those rainy days and how can we allow our children to truly explore all that God has blessed us with outside.

In Kindergarten, we try to foster curiosity and creativity. This is done through exploring God’s world, playing with sand, water, rice, beans and other sensory items, using our imaginations to design art out of various mediums, creating our own plans and allowing for time to try new things on their own. When children are able to touch and manipulate items, collect things they find interesting, study these and use them in new ways, they learn more than we can imagine.   

This week, I have put together some ideas of how you can enjoy Spring with your child. Ways that you can explore outdoors and ways that you can keep children happy when indoors. Many of these we use in Kindergarten and all will allow you to create lasting memories with your child.

• Go for many Spring walks – and watch and listen for signs of Spring
• While walking – enjoy a scavenger hunt – use simple pictures or actual items that you have collected prior to going for a walk, and have your child find more of these along the way
• Collect twigs, leaves and other nature items and use these in craft making (bird nest)
• Collect the same kind of items as above but then make a large graph showing what you collected the most of, less of and the same as.
• Play in the mud (maybe even make a mud kitchen)
• Blow bubbles
• Jump in puddles
• Plant flower seeds or vegetables seeds and watch these grow
• Use chalk or chalk paint to draw outside
• Teach your child some of the “old” games like hopscotch or jumping over the skipping rope snake
• Make found object butterflies or caterpillars using objects found in the house or outside
• Read, read, and read some more
• Read about plants, life cycles etc.
• Roll Play-Doh into snakes and balls and practice scissor skills by cutting these
• Play Spring matching games easily made by printing pictures off your computer
• Once you have read about a life cycle of an animal – create the life cycle (i.e., use a paper plate and different pasta to demonstrate a butterflies life cycle)
• Enjoy moving like different animals (a bear just waking up, a squirrel scurrying about, a bird returning home, a worm wiggling out of the dirt etc.)
• Create Spring items with your children. For example, make clouds using paper plates and cotton balls and then use eye droppers and water to count how many raindrops the cloud will hold, make a paper kite or windsock and take it outside to let it blow in the wind…

There are so many ways that you can enjoy the Spring. Be creative, have fun and enjoy this wonderful time of year.