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5 Ways to Make Chores Fun for Preschool Age Children

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Involving children in household chores at the preschool age has many potential benefits. Gaining a sense of responsibility, independence, self-reliance, and empathy are just a few of the developmental breakthroughs that can occur as a result of your children participating in their household chores. Not only will it help you out by having one less thing on your to-do list, but it will help your preschool age children learn skills that will last a lifetime, including time management, task prioritization, and basic organization techniques.

Luckily, chores don’t have to be a drag! You can turn them into fun games and activities that your preschooler will love! Here are a few ideas that will get preschool age children started on their chores:

  1. Play the Freeze Dance Pick Up Game. Children at the preschool age are old enough to put away their own toys, but most kids don’t have as much fun putting them away as they did taking them out. The solution is turning this tidying up chore into a fun and interactive game of freeze dance. Blast your child’s favorite upbeat song as they dance and put as many toys away as possible while the music plays. When the music stops, well – you know the drill.
  2. Film a cleaning commercial. Whip out your smartphone or video camera next time there’s a spill and tell your kids that they are going to be the star of a new cleaning commercial! Hand them a wet towel and the cleaning product in a spray bottle (of course you’ll want to make sure that it’s a gentle one without any strong chemicals or fumes) and start filming away as they wipe up that mess!
  3. Kick off a laundry race. Make sure you have a few laundry baskets ready because your children will be eager to play this cleaning game. Blow your whistle and shout whites, colors, or darks! Your children will be racing to their rooms as fast as they can to grab their dirty laundry and come back with the color that you requested.
  4. Play cleaning Jenga. Here’s where you can really get creative by writing an age-appropriate chore on the side of each log in the Jenga stack. Your child will be directed by the cleaning activity written on the side of the log that caused the stack to fall.
  5. Hold a tidying contest. This one is all about speed. Who can tidy up their mess the fastest? You can make a scoreboard. Record all the times and give them the opportunity to beat their previous times, or the times of their friends and siblings. This is a great way to incorporate a little friendly competition and get the job done fast!

How Chores Help the Learning Process at the Preschool Age

At Carpe Diem Private Preschool, we use an interdisciplinary approach to learning in which children learn through doing and reflecting. Our experiential learning process helps children build character and leadership, as well as gross motor skills. We believe that involving your preschool age child in chores at home is a great way to continue this experiential learning process outside of the classroom environment.

 

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The Top 10 Benefits of Summer Camp

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Summer camp is so much more than just a way to keep children occupied and entertained throughout the summer months. You may be surprised to find out that summer camp actually has many positive effects on children, some of which can last a lifetime. In fact, many child development experts agree that the summer camp experience is valuable in guiding children to become more mature socially, intellectually, emotionally, morally, and physically.

Although the benefits of summer camp are seemingly endless, we have provided our top 10 picks on how we believe children benefit from this experience:

  1. Boosting self-esteem and confidence – Because summer camp isn’t about grades or test scores, it removes the somewhat consuming sense of competition that the school year brings with it. A less competitive atmosphere, coupled with a wide-range of opportunities to succeed and explore, gives summer camp the potential to really boost a child’s sense of confidence and self –esteem.
  2. Finding unique interests – Many camps specialize in certain subjects or sports, such as video game design, archery, golf, STEM, and many more. If something interests your child, summer camp is the perfect place for her to discover and explore new interests.
  3. Staying physically active – Summer camp programs incorporate many different sports and outdoor activities for children to participate in daily. From running and jumping to dancing and swimming, summer camp allows children to spend their day being physically active.
  4. Developing life-long skills – Through their social experiences at camp, whether it be through daily activities, sports, or field trips, children are constantly evolving. Some important life-long social skills such as leadership, communication, and participation are developed during summer camp.
  5. Gaining independence – Something as simple as letting your child choose what kind of camp he wants to attend can help build independence. During camp, there are often many opportunities for children to foster that sense of independence. For instance, your child may revel in the fact that he gets to participate in activities of his choosing during an unstructured play time.
  6. Experiencing new things – Camp is full of opportunities for taking a child out of her comfort zone. At camp, kids get to try new activities, explore new topics, and dive deep into areas that they might not have otherwise known about.
  7. Reconnecting with nature – Instead of being stuck inside glued to the TV or tablet all day, summer camp allows a child to be outside and develop a deeper appreciation of nature.
  8. Sharing a sense of community – Through their interactions with other children and teachers at summer camp, children develop a sense of community and hone in on some important life skills. Caring, fairness, citizenship, and trustworthiness are some of the many community-oriented service skills that can be developed during camp experiences.
  9. Building good character traits – Attending a summer camp helps a child gain self-respect and helps them build other life-long character traits such as responsibility, resourcefulness, and resilience.
  10. Making true friends – Summer camp is the ideal place for kids to make new friends and strengthen existing friendships. At camp, kids are free from the stressors and pressures of school. This often allows children to relax and open up more. Through singing, laughing, playing, and talking, camp experiences can help develop new friendships and bring friends closer together.

Summer Camps at Carpe Diem Private Preschool

At Carpe Diem Private Preschool, we offer an exciting 11-week summer camp program in arts, humanities, sciences, and more! Each week features a different theme, which allows children to discover many new interests throughout the summer.  We also offer a special STEM program that allows children to explore topics such as marine biology, engineering, archaeology, sports science, coding and gaming.

 

Baby helping mother decorate homemade christmas cookies with glaze

How to Build Gratitude and Avoid Spoiling During the Holiday Season

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It can be easy to get all caught up with material objects during the holiday season when the wish lists keep getting longer by the day. We all want our kids to feel special and that’s probably why we spend countless hours buying and wrapping presents during the holidays. But sometimes we can get wrapped up in the wrong way. We tend to forget that too many material gifts can lead to spoiling and many parents of preschool children begin to worry about this when they start getting those ungrateful “gimmes.”

Luckily, there are plenty of ways to give your child valuable gifts that don’t need lead to spoiling. Here are some ways you can give your child precious gifts without spoiling or overindulging them.

Share Traditions.

Remember, holidays aren’t just about the newest toys on the shelf. You can remind your family of this too by passing on traditions from your childhood or even creating your own “no gift related” traditions. For instance, you could have the whole family participate in holiday-themed arts and crafts together, drive through your community to see all the houses decorated and lit up, or you could even bake and decorate a delicious holiday treat!

Build Gratitude.

A child who learns to appreciate things will act grateful, rather than spoiled, whenever they are given a gift. Children usually become more aware of gratitude when they observe their parents being thankful. By regularly expressing your appreciation for the people and things you have in your life, you can set a good example for your child to follow.

Give Back.

One of the most meaningful gifts you can give your child this year is one of service. Take the time to explain to your child the importance of generosity. Teach them that some families aren’t as fortunate as yours, so it would be nice if your family got together to give them a little extra help during the holiday season.

You can show your children how to serve others by going to the store with them and having them choose the toys or clothes that they think the other kids would like to have for the holidays. Ask them to help you wrap the gifts and then deliver them to a family in need or a trusted local charity. This is also the perfect time for you to show them how to look through their closets and toy chests for things that they may not use anymore, which you can also donate to families in need.

Set Limits.

A simple way to avoid spoiling our children this year with an overabundance of gifts is to set a realistic budget. By putting a cap on how much you are willing to spend on each child, you’ll be less likely to go overboard this year.

Another good way to set a limit is by making a specific list of things you are going to buy your child. If they are old enough, you could even have your children write their own lists and ask them to put their most wanted items at the top. You can then cross off any items that you know won’t fit into your pre-set budget.

At Carpe Diem Private Preschool, we believe in developing character and good values. Sharing time and values or creating traditions are great ways to replace material gifts in a meaningful way that can still make each child feel special. We can take this opportunity during the holidays to teach our children lessons in gratitude, setting limits, and giving back to the community.

beautiful cheerful little girl playing hopscotch on playground

Having Fun the Old-Fashioned Way

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Remember how much fun you used to have when you were a kid? You probably played games that entertained you and your friends for hours! Think about all the fun your kids could be having if you reintroduced these classic games to them. Here are some ways you can have some good old-fashioned fun with your kids:

Indoor Games

  • Hide and Seek. Your kids will have a blast playing this game. A series of uncontrollable giggle fits will often lead you to their secret hiding spot, if it isn’t already obvious enough!
  • Hot Potato. Grab a bean bag, a stuffed animal, or even a real potato (if you want to spice things up with older kids) and get to tossing! This game is often more fun if you have a few extra kids over for a play date. You can have them all sit in a circle, turn on the music have them pass around the object of choice. Every time the music stops, the child caught holding the “hot potato” leaves the circle. The last kid sitting wins the game!
  • String cups. Before there were cell phones, there were string phones! Help your child discover the wonders of this method of communication. Click on this link to learn how to make your own and how to explain the simple science behind how it all works.
  • Paper airplanes. Fold up a piece of paper and get to flying! Here are some ways to get creative with the planes.
  • Puzzles. These are a timeless way to sharpen your child’s cognitive and problem-solving abilities. The best part is that puzzles come in many themes and sizes, so as your child gets older you can switch the easy ones out for some more age-appropriate ones.

Outdoor Games

  • Hopscotch. This is a great game to set up for your children if they find themselves bored on a crisp, clear afternoon. Here are some ways to add a twist to the traditional game!
  • Four-square. Get the family or some friends together because you’ll need four players for this game. A chalk and a bouncy ball are also required to play. Check out the rules here!
  • Freeze tag. Decide which child will be “it” and have him close his eyes and count to 10. While he is counting, have the other kids run and hide. When the “it” child is done counting, he can close his eyes and run around looking for the other kids and trying to tag them. Once another player gets tagged, that player must automatically stand frozen in place until another player comes and “unfreezes” them by touching their arm, shoulder, or back. The last one to get tagged becomes the next “it” child.
  • Backyard Bocce. This is more than just a classic game, it’s a sport that dates back to as early as 5000 B.C. Bocce can be played with as little as two or as many as eight players. All you need is a set of bocce balls and an open space or court. Watch this video to find out how to play.
  • Bubbles. Time to get soapy! Have your kids blow bubbles of different sizes. Make a game out of it by timing how long the bubbles last for. The one who blows the longest lasting bubble wins!

At Carpe Diem, we encourage social interactions with other children and adults through physical experiences. We believe that children learn best through experimentation and play, which motivates their interest and curiosity. Classic games like the ones listed above are timeless and can help inspire imagination while teaching children the importance of good old-fashioned values such as fairness, integrity, and honesty.