Are you looking for some fun family activities for April and May? This is the between season – not yet summer, but with enough chilly days that we remember winter.
A nice mix of indoor and outdoor activities will add some happiness to your days
April Activities for Kids
- Buy some plastic eggs and glue gun some string or yarn onto them. Hang them outside on bushes or trees for a colorful Easter welcome.
- Put on your raincoats and boots and head for some puddles.
- Can you find some worms or other signs of spring?
- Use a cupcake paper and a pipe cleaner to make an umbrella. Talk about why God sends rain to the earth and begin planning your garden.
- Roll plastic eggs with a spoon. Have a race.
- Save real cracked egg shells. Soak them in water and food coloring and then let them dry on paper towels. Paint with glue on construction paper and sprinkle egg shells on the glue.
- Give your child marshmallows and toothpicks and see if she can make some animals. Give large and miniature marshmallows if possible.
- Keep a supply of balloons around the house. Blow up two of them and see if you two can keep both of them up in the air.
- Tape pieces of blue construction paper on the floor and pretend they are puddles. Jump from puddle to puddle.
- Find a pond with ducks or geese. Bring some bread to feed them.
- Get some simple clown make-up or face paint. Show your child how to use it and put her in front of a mirror.
- As you sort clothes for the change of season, get two old suitcases. Have your child pack one suitcase for cold weather and one for hot weather.
- Make an indoor tent with a blanket or sheet thrown over a table. Read or cuddle inside, or give your child a flashlight to play with in the tent.
- Give your child a lunch size paper bag to make a puppet. Provide markers, glue, yarn, buttons, etc.
- Make a guitar by stringing rubber bands around a Styrofoam meat tray.
- Make daffodils from egg cartons. Use a pinking shears to cut out the egg cups. Draw some yellow flower shapes on yellow construction paper. Paint the cups yellow and attach them to the yellow construction paper with pipe cleaners. If you make a dozen, they will fill a vase or canning glass nicely for a spring decoration. Variation: Use cupcake papers for flowers and attach to pipe cleaners for stems.
- Show your child her right hand and her left hand. A small band aid on her right hand will help her remember until it becomes imbedded in her mind.
- Collect rainwater in a bucket or pan and let your child use the water for your indoor plants.
- Save paper towel rolls, milk cartons and cardboard boxes. When you have a collection, make a ‘town’ and let your child paint, decorate and organize.
- Draw a series of shapes and have your child point to which one doesn’t belong. For example, draw circle, circle, square, and circle. Which is not like the others?
- Give your child a plastic bag and go for a walk at a nearby park and pick up the litter. (We regularly do this along a creek near our house.)
- How about a drive-in movie? Find one with a playground and get there early to wear the kids out before the show starts. Bring your own snacks or food and you can have an evening out for the whole family for only a few dollars.
- Use an old baby bathtub or wash tub to give your dolls a bath. Let your child have a washcloth and soap. Provide towels and baby powder for a special after bath treat.
- Give your child some carrots, a brush and a pan of water. Let her clean the carrots for dinner.
- Make some face paint by mixing some face cream with a drop a food coloring. Let your child put it on in front of a mirror. This washes off easily too.
- Give child a piece of yarn or dental floss. Pour some thin paint onto a plate and give some paper. Dip the strings into the paper and experiment with string painting.
- Take a tube of refrigerator dinner biscuits and roll the dough into a snake. Form the first letter of your child’s name. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar and bake and eat.
- Make your own popsicles. Fill small paper cups with juice, insert a Popsicle stick and freeze.
- Stick toothpicks into grapes and freeze for a chilly lollipop grape treat.
- Start keeping a book journal. Write down the titles of all the books you have read to your child. Plan a trip out for an ice cream cone after you have reached 25 books.
- Make a crown out of a cardboard strip and aluminum foil. This can be decorated with stickers or feathers. Give your child a big towel or blanket for a cape and let her be a queen.
- Plant an avocado tree. Let an avocado seed dry out overnight. Peel off the outer shell. Stick three toothpicks around the seed and hang it on a glass or jar, making sure the bottom is covered with water. In 5 to 7 weeks the seed will crack. When the stem grows to 3 or 4 inches, plant it in soil in a pot for a houseplant.
- Thread two large buttons with rubber bands. Attach them to child’s fingers. Give her a pan or pot to tap on. Practice following simple rhythms.
- Stack paper or plastic cups into a pyramid in the yard. Throw balls to knock it down.
- Make a magic wand. Use a paper towel tube and decorate with markers, paint, fabric or tissue. Attach streamers. Attach an aluminum foil star to the top.
- Make another zipper bag book by stapling the closed ends of 4 or 5 zipper bags. Collect items from a nature walk and put them in the bags for a nature book.
- Have a teddy bear tea party in the yard.
- Practice rolling in the grass. Find a hill and roll down it.
- Get a baby food jar. Fill half way with water. Add shiny beads and glitter. Glue jar shut. Paste colorful crumpled tissue paper on top for a beautiful glitter jar.
- Go to a thrift shop to look for costume jewelry, high heels, etc. for your dress up box.
- Make paper plate sun visors. Cut shape, punch holes and string with a piece of elastic. Let your child decorate and go for a walk in the sunshine.
- Make a family photo album for your child to keep. Go through your pictures and take out some duplicates of relatives. Mount them on cardboard, label them and cover with clear sticky paper. Punch a hole in the corner and thread a metal ring through. Now your child has her own photo album and she can be comforted by looking at family pictures anytime she wants, such as in a new situation where she might be scared.
- Go for a barefoot walk. Have your child describe how things feel with bare feet.
- Take a cardboard box and cut out a lap table for your child. Give her a special zipper bag with crayons and paper or a book to be used at her special “desk.”
- Put socks on your hands and pretend you are seals. Play catch with a big beach ball.
- Make a seed picture from beans, seeds, and macaroni. Glue can be painted on paper with a brush, or the seeds can be glued one at a time.
- Give your child some large nuts and bolts to take apart and put back together.
May Activities for Kids
- Make more egg carton flowers, like last month’s daffodils. Cut out the sections of an egg carton with pinking shears and attach each one to a pipe cleaner. Let your child paint or color with markers.
- Ask your child to put numbered volumes of an encyclopedia in order to reinforce counting skills and to help you around the house.
- Talk about the concept of a dozen. Take an empty egg carton and count out a dozen beans, stones or jelly beans.
- Make a “dress” out of a brown paper bag from the grocery store. Cut out arm and head holes and let your child decorate.
- Learn a tongue twister. Some classics are “She sells sea shells by the sea shore,” or “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.”
- Does your child like bugs? Fill a large glass container with dirt. Find an anthill and shovel it into the container. Put some cotton on the top of the dirt and pour a little water on it every few days, along with crumbs of bread, cookies and sugar. Cover the jar with dark paper and watch the ants dig tunnels over a period of several days.
- Early spring is a great time for the first nature walk of the year. Take a bag and a magnifying glass and take your time. Collect some leaves and other items to make a spring collage with later at home. Use your magnifying glass to look closely at a leaf or flower or bug.
- Make vegetable soup. Let your child help cut the vegetables.
- Let your child help you wash the car (or anything else) in the driveway. We drag out all the bikes and plastic toys and have a big washing party a couple of times a season.
- Use dots to form your child’s name. Let her connect the dots to reveal her name.
- Talk about farms and the importance of farming. Visit a farm if possible, or get a book out of the library about farms.
- May baskets can be made out of a variety of materials. Strawberry cartons, margarine tubs, paper bags or plates can be decorated, outfitted with a pipe cleaner handle, filled with small treats and left as a surprise for friends or neighbors.
- Make a Maypole in your front yard. A broom stick will work just fine. Invite some neighbor kids and tape an equal number of streamers around the top of the stick. Let the children circle the stick and sing “Ring around the Rosy” or some other song. Have your camera handy for this colorful event.
- Make a mailbox from a shoebox. Cut a slot in one end and fill with junk mail or special notes to your child.
- Keep a “rainy day only” drawer with some special paper and art supplies.
- Play Simon Says. This is great for reinforcing body parts.
- Play and sing “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes.”
- Make a sun and a moon out of construction paper. Talk with your child about the difference between night and day. Hang the sun and moon from the ceiling with string and tape to decorate your child’s room.
- Put some beans in a saucer and cover with water. Have your child check them each day to watch them sprout.
May brings Mother’s Day. We can both remember many years where we merely had the longing to be mothers, but had no babes in our arms. We thank God that he blessed us with children and allowed us to take this phenomenal ride of life called Motherhood. Like a roller coaster, we can scream and laugh and cry and scream and it all gets bundled up into the package of life as a mom. No matter how hard, how joyous, how scary it has been, it has been a privilege. We thank God for letting us enjoy it.
What are the simple, gentle things you remember about spring as a child? Let’s share them here so we can all enjoy them.
