Hello Beehive families! I hope you’re all hanging in there and avoiding being too stir crazy during these uncertain times of quarantine. For the days where you really can’t stay inside any longer, going on walks with your children is a wonderful way to get some exercise and have some fun getting out of the house with a little change of scenery.
We all are probably going out for walks every so often, but I thought that I’d add a few ideas that could help improve your family’s walk, and make it even more fun!
Playing I-Spy
One activity that Ms. Paris and I play a lot with the students. It is the classic “I-Spy” game, and we especially love playing it with the class whenever we get the chance to bring the strollers out and go for a class walk to the bayou!
We modify the wording a little bit, by vocalizing and commenting on what we see, asking the children if they can see it as well, i.e. “Look! I see a bird flying over there, do you see the bird? It goes ‘tweet’ ‘tweet’.”
This is a great way to further engage your child with the natural world, and work on some advanced vocabulary with them, that connects your child with their neighborhood, and helps create a fun connotation with an activity that is so healthy for them!
Keep it Interesting
Include streams, parks, the streetcar, and other specific fun visual spaces within your neighborhood that your children can interact with, creating points of interest on your walking route.
Believe it or not, these are wonderful provocations for your child, and can spark a further interest that us teachers can expound upon, later providing activities that build upon this initial curiosity!
Variety
Since young children have very different attention spans to us adults, it’s great to switch up walking routes fairly often, allowing you and your child to explore new parts of your neighborhood and keep each walk an adventure all of its own.
When you hear…
This is another fun game to play with 1-2 year olds, since the auditory world is such a curious and interesting place. Especially as you see cars, construction workers, church bells, the wind rustling the trees, etc, comment on these sounds with your child. You can even ask them, “What do you hear?” “What sounds do you hear right now?” to see if they can pick out any sounds that stick out to them.
Take Pictures
If you feel comfortable, allow your child to hold your phone, camera, I-Pad, etc. and take pictures at different points of your walk. Sometimes Ms. Paris and I let them take pictures in the Beehive, just to let them experiment with being able to control and create still images of different parts of the classroom. They love it, and this is a great way to recall memories of the walk later in the day after you’ve returned home.
Have a Scavenger Hunt!
Okay, scavenger hunts are amazing and so fun, but they can be complicated. The one that you do on your walk absolutely doesn’t have to be! All you have to do is take a sheet of paper, and make a list of colors, certain objects, or even some street signs. Once you begin your walk you can show this periodically or even hand it to your child and they can hold it. You both can point at the image that you see, whenever it comes up throughout the walk.
I hope you and your children have so much fun on your walks!
Miss you all and hope to see you soon!
-Ms. Emily
Abeona House Child Discovery Center 