Time With Your Kids

Parent involvement is fundamental for children's mental health and well-being. The family activities suggested in this section are designed to help you spend, with ease, enough quality family time during your day to ensure that you're involved in every aspect of your preschooler's life. Even the most ordinary events can turn into opportunities for bonding, communicating, and learning!

For more ideas on fun ways to spend time with your children, visit our Family Activities page.

The World Around Us
Exploring nature brings awe and wonder into children’s lives. Studies show that experiencing nature is an important ingredient for physical, academic, emotional, and spiritual growth. Making a connection to nature heightens children’s curiosity and develops a desire to explore the world around them. With this knowledge, children learn to protect and preserve the natural environment.

Play Games Together
Many board or online games are excellent tools for teaching logic, reading and reading readiness, classification, sound and color discrimination, and/or memorization. Time spent in learning how to play and in playing quality games is time spent on education.

Make Physical Exercise Part of Your Daily Routine
You know that as an adult you have to exercise your body if you want to stay healthy. Children, too, need to exercise to build strong bones and muscles, have a healthy weight, and be alert during the day and sleep well at night. Exercise, though, isn’t just jumping jacks and pushups. Any kind of movement that increases your heart rate or strengthens your muscles and your bones is exercise.

Being a Good Citizen
Being a good citizen means thinking about others. Good citizens help others—at home, at school, in the neighborhood, and in their communities. Families work together to tackle "good deed" projects. But, it is important to keep in mind your child’s interests and abilities when choosing an activity.

Learning to Love Reading
Learning to read is a continuous process for children that begins early and is greatly influenced by parents and caregivers. The importance of reading to children can’t be overemphasized: it improves brain growth, language development, and academic achievement.

Summer Sun Safety
Summer is a great time to play outdoors with the family. But before you get out the balls, jump ropes, and plastic pools, make sure your child is prepared.

Reading to Children
Reading to children is the most important thing parents can do to ensure success in school. According to "Reading Tips for Parents" from the U.S. Department of Education, there are many things you can do to start children reading.

Portion Distortion
Many Americans suffer from "portion distortion." It's not so much what we eat that's unhealthy; rather, it's that we eat too much of it. The "super-size" generation is growing up obese. How can we plan for healthy eating? How can we steer our preschoolers away from the idea that "bigger is always better"?

TV Time and Your Children
Television can be a good way for children to wind down after playing outside or spending a full day at kindergarten. But the television should not always be a "babysitter" while parents or caretakers get other things done. Here are some tips for making television time a good time for you and your children.

Tips on Time
One of the most important things you can do to safeguard your children is to spend time with them. When strong ties are formed between children and their families, children are less likely to develop drug problems.