http://www.fridayschildmontessori.com/blog/keeping-cool/ Some methods for keeping cool include wearing the right clothing; cooling via evaporation; keeping the air moving; drinking plenty of fluids including iced drinks made with fun ice cubes; making home-made ice creams, sorbets and granitas; and taking siestas.

1. Keeping it Cool
www.fridayschildmontessori.com

2. It’s been so hot lately!
We hope you’ve all been managing to
cope with it and even enjoy it.

3. The hot climate is one reason why a
lot of people choose to live on the Gold
Coast.

4. We certainly hope that you’ve been
able to get some time off work so that
you can go swimming with your
children, either at the beach or in the
pool.

5. Children can often get grumpy when
they’re hot, especially when it’s humid
as well as hot.

6. The human body, especially bodies
that have European ancestry, still
doesn’t seem to have got over the Ice
Age and we seem to have more
physical mechanisms to cope
with cold than we do for coping
with extreme heat.

7. As parents, we’ve probably read all the
advice and all the rest of it written in
colder climates that talks about the
importance of wrapping small people
up warmly because little bodies lose
heat quickly

8. (although this might be a matter of
debate – this writer once lived in a
colder climate and saw a small child
trying to run around outside in his
underpants in the sleet and howled in
protest when his mother tried to put
warmer clothes on him and/or bring
him in out of the cold).

9. But forget about all that in the heat.
Choose clothes that let heat escape
rather than trapping body heat.

10. If you have a small baby and he/or
she is indoors, you might want to let
him/her go around in just a nappy
and nothing else (incidentally, cloth
nappies are cooler than leak-proof
disposables).

11. You should ensure that your children
are protected from the sun, but look
out for loose styles, and light natural
fabrics like cotton and linen (silk’s a
bit too fine for busy kids).

12. Ideally, summer clothes should be in
lighter colours that reflect the sun’s
rays a bit more than darker ones, but
these show the dirt very easily – you
have been warned.

13. Apart from clothes, what can you
do to help your children stay
cool (in both senses of the word)
when the temperatures are soaring?

14. The following ideas might be
helpful.

15. 1. Evaporation cools us down,
so if the day is hot but not
humid, try soaking clothes in
cold water.

16. This is particularly helpful for people
large and small who don’t sweat as
much as others, and it’s amazing how
quickly a dripping wet T-shirt will dry
off on a really hot, dry day.

17. Wet clothes feel a bit funny at first
and are a bit harder to put on, so you
may need to help your child get the
clothes on, even if he/she normally
can get dressed solo.

18. 2. If humidity is a problem, the
key thing is to get air
circulating.

19. Hand-held fans made from cardboard
taped onto a stick after being
decorated can be a good craft activity
that will keep small hands occupied
and produce something that keeps
them cool.

20. You can also try making a “cold tent”
out of a wet cotton sheet draped over
a string tied to two fixed points.

21. This makes a good playhouse that
protects children from the shade and
also keeps them cool if they flap he
sides of the tent to get a breeze going.

22. Don’t worry about drips if you try this
indoors – they’ll dry soon enough!

23. 3. Keep up the fluids.

24. Water is best, as you’ve probably
heard. However, most children seem
to like plain water if it comes frozen,
and ice will certainly keep them cool.

25. You can try making novelty ice blocks
to jazz up drinks of plain cold water
by dropping a leaf of mint, a
strawberry or some other berry, or a
wee piece of some other fruit in the
ice cube tray before filling it up with
water and freezing.

26. Also keep an eye out for novelty ice
cube trays in interesting shapes –
silicone chocolate moulds can double
as ice cube trays and come in a
number of novel shapes.

27. You could even try making giant ice
cubes in muffin tins if you’re very
keen.

28. Watching an ice cube melt and the
resulting puddle evaporate is a good
way for children to discover the
different states of matter – basic
science!

29. 4. Ice cream is a wonderful part
of summer but too much isn’t
good for you or for your
children.

30. Why not make your own at home to
avoid endless trips to the convenience
store at the end of the room?

31. The easiest way to make a healthy ice
cream is to pop three or four bananas
in the blender, add a dollop of yoghurt
and maybe a bit of vanilla or
cinnamon, whizz the lot up and then
freeze it overnight.

32. Children can do this with only a
wee bit of supervision.

33. Other possibilities include home-made
popsicles made with fruit juice
(popsicle kits can be bought in most
supermarkets) or sorbet made by
putting stewed fruit in the freezer “as
is”.

34. Or you can get fancy and try an old-
fashioned ice cream recipe with lots of
real cream.

35. With all home-made ice creams that
are frozen in a big tub, you get a
better texture if you stir it every hour
or so (children can do this, and
standing by the freezer for a short
period of time is another way to cool
down).

36. Or freeze whatever you’re making in
a flat tray with a bit of a lip on it (e.g.
a baking dish) and run a fork through
it when it’s solid to make a granita
sort of thing. The tray method is
usually a bit quicker, too.

37. 5. Take a tip from the folk in
Mediterranean countries and
take a siesta in the middle of
the day.

38. This may mean that you and your
children end up getting up later
and/or staying up later at night, but
you do avoid the heat of the day.

39. Our bodies seem to naturally get an
energy slump about lunchtime and
this is the hottest part of the day that
we ought to avoid in order to be sun-
smart.

40. It’s a pity that Australian culture was
so heavily influenced by British
traditions (“The British detest a
siesta,” as the song “Mad Dogs and
Englishmen” tells us), as we could do
with a siesta tradition over here!

41. This article is brought to you by:
Fridays Child Montessori