SOL What about summer?

I'm a little crazed this week...but I wanted to post something on Two Writing Teachers' Slice of Life, just to keep up my writing habit!

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Our school year is winding down.  I am in the midst of my fourth round of family conferences.  I am finding that these are truly delightful - an opportunity to have a very affirming, positive conversation with families about their child's growth this past school year.  So much growth happens over the course of a preschool year!

With each family, I am sharing my "top five things" to do with one's preschooler over the summer, to ensure they are ready for Pre-K:

1. Go to the library!  Make it a weekly ritual.  Look for books we've read this school year, look for new books, and read, read, read.
2. Create a special corner in your home for your preschooler, where he/she can work on things and leave it and then return to it.  I'm particularly partial to building things with recyclables and keeping a notebook/journal.  But, ideally, there's a little place that your little one can call one's own, to learn to create independently and to revisit these creations, to refine, edit, modify what they've done.  
3. Ask your child the open-ended question: How does your story begin? and record the response.  Keep these precious stories for your child to read (and perhaps encourage your child to draw a picture to accompany these).  
4. Let them dig in the dirt.  Yes.  Simply dig, play, explore, hunt for bugs, turn over rocks, enjoy.
5. Begin a family tradition of "family game night" - these little ones love whole body games like "Hot/Cold" or "Guess What is Different" and simple board games. 

Summer, with its new, irregular schedule, provides such an opportunity to try new things, to create new rituals and traditions in one's family.

What ideas do you have for preschoolers in summer?  I'd love to know!