By Julie Mountain Tuesday, June 28, 2022

While babies should be kept out of direct sunlight, older children can slip on a hat, spray on sunscreen and make the most of the long, warm days outdoors. By Julie Mountain

Don’t forget that summer is a season too – it’s easy to overlook when children learn so much about springtime renewal and growth, autumnal changes and wintry weather over the course of the year. An interesting twist on exploring the seasons is to look at what the seasons are right now in other parts of the world – particularly if you have children with family or cultural roots around the globe. Show children a real globe, pointing out that on the opposite side of the world to us, they have the opposite season – use an orange to represent the sun, to show how the earth spins on its axis (the globe’s ‘stand’) and around the sun at the same time. Concepts to share with even very young children might include:

Small outdoor spaces often overheat during the summer – so it is important to implement measures to make playing outdoors safe and pleasant:

Why do plants make the air around them cooler and more moist? Show children a simple diagram of the water cycle: clouds release rain; rain is absorbed into the ground or flows into the sea; plant roots capture water and use it; then it is released as vapour through the leaves or evaporates from the sea, and goes back into the air where it can become a cloud again.

On a hot day, children can test the coolness and moisture of water by immersing a hand into a bowl of cold water, flicking water in their own face (eyes closed) or by placing a wet flannel or paper towel on the back of their neck.

Where Did You Go Today? written and illustrated by Jenny Duke, is only a few years old but is one of my favourites for taking outdoors; the narrator spends her day outdoors, in locations children will find familiar – the park, the main street – but her imagination takes her on a fabulous adventure around the world, across seas, over the treetops and among exotic animals.

The pictures and text are bursting with movement and perfect for ‘acting out’ in the setting’s garden, using your own features and spaces to spark imaginary interactions.

I’ve been supporting a fundraising urban art trail, Hares of Hampshire, this year – our 2m tall, artist-decorated Hares will be in Winchester and Southampton by the time you read this. There are urban art trails all over the country and many, including ours, also showcase the creativity of local schools, settings and youth groups through smaller versions of the original sculptures.

Not every child will get to go away on a holiday this year, and only a few will make it to the beach.

If you have a sandpit – even a small one – consider giving it a summer revamp with water troughs placed nearby, deck chairs and beach blankets, ice pops in the afternoons (I bought my own reusable silicone ice pop tubes, that can go in the dishwasher – much cheaper and more eco-friendly), big baskets of shells to play with, colourful homemade windmills and much more.

Make up a summer playlist – choosing tunes that your children will recognise from their own home culture – add a Bluetooth speaker, and children will get pretty closer to that full summer holiday vibe!

Summer is also peak bug season. I’ve tried all sorts of anti-bug gadgets over the years, but my current favourite for summer camp is a small container with a hole in the side that we hang from a tree. With a spoonful of honey in the bottom, it attracts wasps, which get stuck in there and can’t get out.

However, the truly eco-friendly way to manage insects is to welcome into your setting’s garden the small mammals that eat them – such as hedgehogs and birds.

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