As a teacher for so many joyful years, about this time of summer my thoughts would turn toward getting my classroom ready for my little incoming class for the next year. 

As a mom, my son would gently remind me, “Hey mom, we are still in the summer months, let’s stick with summer fun!”

Doyou remember when school started back after Labor Day? We had that extra month of summer to drain every ounce of summer fun into each day before we cracked the books, settled down to homework, and the school routine.  

I love summer, even though with young children we have to really watch when we can be outside so we  don’t get a sunburn. We have to pace ourselves by staying inside with the cool air and shade, or be sure to drink plenty of water.

 Summer offers so much that we can grasp on to, so that we can put in our memory boxes to reflect and encourage us on a cold winter day. But for right now I want to offer some suggestions that I am doing and have done with younger children that will stretch out the fun in the sun before we get back to school.  These suggestions are for younger children but your older children might enjoy engaging in the activities as well.

Water Play around the house:

•Early bath:  What you need is a water hose or sprinkler, shaving cream. With your little ones in their bathing suits squirt shaving cream all over their bodies.  Young children squeal with fun and delight as you slowly foam up the cream and give it a squirt! You can buy different colors of shaving cream to make it an art adventure as well as a water activity. 

•Slippery slide:You will need a tarp or thick vinyl tablecloth and lay on a hill. Buy several bottles of cheap baby shampoo, depending on the size of your family. I usually find this at dollar stores. As you turn on the hose and squirt water down the hill, pour the baby shampoo, which makes for a fun, slippery slide.One thing you do have to watch is separating the older children from the younger ones so they don’t fall on each other.

•Water ball games: So many fun activities can be played with cheap water balls. Soaking the water balls and playing the game of over-under in a relay style, tossing the water balls to each other as the sprinkler goes back and forth, or just taking the hose and pushing the ball with a stream of water is fun within itself.

•Cup fun:  Young children are fascinated with filling up cups with water.You can give them several cups to fill up then have them count the number of cups they have filled up. Math lesson while you are having fun!

•Sprinkler games: So many games can be played around the sprinkler such as Ring around the Roses”, “Farmer in the Dell”, “London Bridge”, these are safe games for young children that don’t require running and with the cool water it will make a traditional child’s games a lot more fun.

•Chilling out: When it is hot outside there’s nothing like coming inside, lying on a cool sheet, reading your child a book, listening to soft music and chilling out. One thing is to use your imagination and focus into the cold by singing winter songs or reading winter stories. A few weeks ago when it was so hot outside and my classes of little ones were complaining about the heat, as we entered inside, we started singing Frosty the Snowman, Jingle Bells and “Winter Wonderland” — and they really forgot how hot they were. Try this.

•Summer foods are delicious, especially when cold. But be creative. Instead of buying popsicles, make your own with different shape ice trays, or use muffin pans at home. To encourage your child to eat fruits and vegetables, make ‘food people’ out of them. I love to make pear ladies and pear men. On a plate simply make the pear half the head, put raisins as the eyes, add a lettuce skirt or pants, and shredded cheese as hair. Dress up a water melon half by using the seeds for eyes, nose and mouth. For roller coasters made of ham and cheese, roll a slice of ham with cheese laid on top; after rolling in a cylinder, cut off inch rolls.  For drinks, why not take the time and make real lemonade out of lemons that you and your young child can cut, squeeze out the juice and count the seeds? It takes a little more time, but time spent with your young child spells love.

•Camping out inside: You need sheets, string or rope (optional), bedposts or doors to tie sheets up to.  The children I use to keep in my home during the summer months would spend hours under homemade tents they had simply made out of bed sheets. They loved reading stories, acting out games, pretending they were a circus under the big top, pretending to be in a jungle by making different animal sounds, you name it, they pretended it under our bedsheets. The children love to be a part of putting the bedsheet tent up and it is theirs so they will play and play and play.  

•Stop and listen to the birds. Hear birds, hear crickets, and every once and a while hear a frog. Children love to hear the different animal sounds and guess their origins. Follow up these sound activities by finding pictures of the animals or checking books out of the library to learn more about these animals.

•Make the best of rainy days by putting out cups to catch the water, listening to the rain, talking about the lightning and thunder and splashing through the puddles after the rain, and looking for a rainbow.

We live in a beautiful spot of the world where we have parks, a bay  and a lot of free activities for children and families. Look in your newspapers as well as the Web to click in to family fun.

Beth Pinyerd lives in Daphne and serves as young children’s director at Faith Family Fellowship in Spanish Fort.