All About Dad

Submitted by kidspeak on Fri, 06/08/2012 - 09:40.

Father’s Day is just around the corner…….what will you do this year to make the Dad in your life feel special?
One fun idea that your child can do for their dad is to make a Dad Book! This is a great tool to help your child focus on why they love their Dad. You can do this with a child at any age.

Toddlers: Focus the week before Father’s Day on finding or taking pictures of your child with their dad doing fun things together like watching a movie together, playing at the park, eating ice cream, playing trucks/tea party, etc. Then you can glue one picture on each page with a cute simple sentence like, “I love you Daddy because you play trucks with me!” Once you have each page assembled, it is time to let your toddler help. Pick out one theme item for each picture such as sand/pebbles for playing at the park, ice cream stickers for eating ice cream, clipart of sleeping animals for taking naps together. Then have your child glue/stick these on the page however they would like. Here is an example:

Preschoolers: Focus the week on finding or taking pictures of your child with their dad doing fun things together like watching a movie together, playing at the park, eating ice cream, playing trucks/tea party, etc. Then you can glue one picture on each page with a cute simple sentence like, “I love you Daddy because…….!” And leave a blank. Once you have each page assembled, it is time to let your preschoolers help. Pick out one theme item for each picture such as sand/pebbles for playing at the park, ice cream stickers for eating ice cream, clipart of sleeping animals for taking naps together. Begin by looking at one page. Talk about what they are doing with their dad, “Look Daddy and Amanda are playing tea party.” Then sing a fun song about what they are doing. Then say “I love you Daddy because…..” and pause. See if your child can fill in the blank. If they can, then write down what they said. If not then you can fill it in for them “…..because you play tea party with me.” Then have your child glue/stick these items on the page however they would like. Example:

Elementary and older: For children that are elementary school age or older you can have them first brainstorm why they love their Daddy. Make a list together. Then the two of you together can focus the rest of the week on finding or taking pictures of Daddy. If your child is writing, then have them write out why they love their Dad. If they are working on writing you can have them trace it out. http://www.kidzone.ws/tracers/none/index.asp is a great site where you can type out your own tracer pages. Next have your child glue/stick on the theme items. Remember you can have them be a part of this too. “Let’s brainstorm what we should put on the park picture.” You can also have them draw pictures on the page if they want. Here is an example of a brainstorm list:

While you are working on your Father’s Day project don’t forget to work on your social communication skills: asking for more, requesting help, directing attention (“look”), commenting and much more.