Sounds of Summer

My preschooler does not care that it is time for summer vacation – he has the nerve to still want to learn about anything and everything. Which makes for a tired mama, who was foolish enough to think teaching a small child could include planned breaks, but that is beside the point.

He is currently fascinated with the amazing ways our bodies work, so we’ve been talking a bit about the 5 senses. I’m going to share a couple of fun activities we’ve done in relation to the sense of hearing. These are perfect for summertime!

One of our very favorite things to do is what we call the listening game. We simply lie down outside, look at the sky, and on the count of three, close our eyes and listen. We try to keep track of the various noises we hear, and then after about two minutes we open our eyes and talk about all the sounds. I don’t really keep track of how much time we spend listening, I simply try to stretch it for as long as I think he can keep quiet.

We hear the wind rustling leaves, birds singing (it’s fun to try to identify them by their song, if you know a few), cars, wind chimes, and little animals scurrying through our woods. Inevitably, we have to do this 3 or 4 times; it’s a huge hit. And this has led to talks about how all the noises of life form a sort of music - babies crying, people laughing, birds singing… all blend together to form an amazing piece of music for our heavenly Father’s ears, and how we can make sure we are making it as beautiful as possible with kind words, no yelling, etc. See? Even preschoolers will have a lot of profound thoughts while doing this! This is also a very relaxing activity, and a great one to do before bedtime, inside, near an open window.

And of course we have to have a sound-related craft – wind chimes! This one is a good candidate for outside craft time, although I didn’t think of that until we were halfway through.

You will need 2 to 4 opened cans, string, nuts (the hardware kind, not the eating kind), acrylic paint, paintbrushes, string, a nail, and a hammer.

Peel any paper off of your cans, if a bit is left stuck on, don’t worry about it – this does not have to be perfect. If you have any sharp edges on your cans, cover them with duct tape.

Begin by using the hammer and nail (screw in my case, too lazy to look for a nail), to punch a hole in the bottom of each can:

Next, paint the outsides of the cans with acrylic paints:

Wear old clothes for this part, acrylic paint does not wash out!

While your paint is drying, tie 1 to 2 nuts onto string for each can, and tie a good-sized knot a couple of inches above the nuts. And use another piece of string to make a loop for hanging.

We chose to have 2 nuts inside of 2 cans, and 1 nut inside each of the other cans. Play around with the sounds they make before securing them inside of the cans.

Once your paint is dry, thread the strings with the nuts through the holes in your cans and tie the upper ends onto your hanging loop (you could use a dowel or stick for hanging too). Then go hang them up! If the wind isn’t strong enough to ring your chimes, find a stick and give them a little jingle yourself. :)