100 Things To Do Before Kindergarten
Who says your Living To Do list has to be for when you’re on your death bed? Why not start one earlier—say, when you’re in training pants? Okay, you don’t want your kids battling for Ivy League educations or aiming to climb Everest just yet (I get sick just when my daughter climbs the giant rock at the local playground), but you can still start a fun, lighthearted and no-pressure list for them to have as children.
Use an artist’s sketchbook, cheap 70-page notebook, or a journal that tickles your fancy for your kid’s Living To Do. You might even want to give it a catchy title, like “Tommy’s Adventures!” or something like that. If you happened to catch the adorable Pixar film Up, you might use that as an idea. Let your child decorate the cover with stickers, paint, collage art, or whatever you like. Alternatively, feel free to decorate it to be something special on your own, including mementos, photographs or anything else to make it memorable.
To start your child’s list, you may want to take a look at online lists, such as the 100 Things to Do Before Kindergarten List. It has a wonderful assortment of ideas, from catching a frog to getting a passport, to things that your child likely has already done—such as make a huge mess!—to things he or she will learn to do, such as help clean up said mess, learn to eat an ice cream cone or learn to ride a bike.
I copied this list into my daughter’s journal, and simply omitted things I didn’t approve of (such as go to the circus) and replaced them with things that I knew she’d like to do, like visit an inflatable bounce park.
You may also want to get some ideas from the book 101 Things Every Kid Should Do Growing Up. A fun book, it describes how to do many of these activities, such as playing with homemade playdough, receiving notes from parents and believing in things that can’t be seen.
Parents magazine also came up with a list of 44 Things Every Kid Should Do Before Turning 8 with advice from famous people. Maria Shriver advises to run in the sprinkler, while Jeff Corwin advocates catching and eating your own fish.
What sorts of things would you add to your children’s list? Be sure to post them below!
