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No matter what holiday your family celebrates, your preschooler or kindergartener is going to be home from school next week. Maybe vacation started today, but you’ll have them home tomorrow for sure. (Unless your school has a very different schedule.) What are you going to do with them?
For preschoolers, they’re just getting used to the whole routine of going to school. If this is their first year in preschool – or kindergarten, if they never went to preschool – they may not understand what this whole “school vacation” thing is about. I remember that TJ was an absolute beast during his first school vacation because, in his mind, he should be in school, and telling him that none of his friends or teachers would be there just wasn’t cutting it.
So you want to keep them busy!
Head to your local library and find out what sot of children’s programming they have available over winter break. Even if they don’t have something scheduled, you can probably spend hours at the library letting your preschooler peruse the children’s book section. I could probably keep TJ happy for three hours in the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library just looking at books. But they do have an exciting schedule of events for kids coming up!
You can also check out one of our many local museums, whether it’s the New York State Museum in Albany (which has a variety of programs available about celebrating public health), the Schenectady Museum and Suits-Bueche Planetarium (which offers a different science activity each day next week), or the Children’s Museum at Saratoga (which always has something going on, but is closed Mondays). If you aren’t located in Tech Valley like us, you shouldn’t have to look too far to find out more about your local museums and libraries.
Of course, you can always let your kids play outside until they turn blue or take them to one of the local play areas, too. (Your choices range from the Play Place at your nearest McDonald’s or Chuck E. Cheese to something like Tumbling Tykes, Bounce Around, or the TreePaad.
No matter what you choose to do with your little one over winter break, make sure you enjoy this extra time together. They’re only this little once!
What are your plans with your preschooler over winter break? Let us know if you do anything that ends up being a big hit!
This was originally posted elsewhere, but I’ve reworked it for use here.
That’s me: Christina Gleason. I’m a writer, editor, and disability advocate. I'm a multiply disabled autistic lady doing my best in this world built for abled people. I’m a geek for grammar, fantasy, and casual gaming. I hate vegetables. I cannot reliably speak, so I’ll happily conduct business over email or messaging instead.
I like to buy each kid a book and then have them do a book report over the break. When they get wild I tell them to go read.