Beach Learning

The beach is the world's largest sensory experience but we love to pack some academics and learning fun into our vacations, too! 

We just returned from our annual beach vacation where E thoroughly enjoyed herself more than ever before! She was old enough this year to remember previous trips so her excitement was compounded with our regular traditions.  D got to experience the ocean for the first time!

The following are several ways we extended E's homeschool preschool on vacation.

We found a shell with a perfect hole in it to make a "mermaid necklace" for E.  I had hoped we might find one of these since they seem to be plentiful each year so I brought other necklace making supplies with us including pony beads and a wide stretchy plastic string that was sturdy enough for E to thread the beads on herself.  Threading beads is great for fine motor practice!

We gathered some shells and stones which were great for plenty of activities.  We sorted between the two types, ordered them by size, and made patterns with them!  

I wrote numbers in the sand and E jumped on them as I called them out for gross motor practice and number identification.  Then I asked her to erase them in numerical order.  

She loved writing in the sand and exploring the cause and effect of the waves!

And of course, we had plenty of unstructured play time for sand castles, observing sea creatures, kite flying, and gathering shells!

I hope you can use some of these ideas if you and your preschooler visit the beach this summer!

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This project first appeared as one of our monthly guest post on Lebanon Macaroni Kid!