As the children head off to school you may feel relief or sadness. Either way, make the first day a special and memorable time for them!  Start the tradition of a first day celebration.  Invite a few children over after school for a small get together and yummy snack.

Ideas:

Bake cookies: Prepare cookie dough ahead and have children cut out shapes, letters and numbers. Bake, frost and enjoy!

Homemade popsicles and swim or run in sprinklers:

Use popsicle molds or ice cube trays to freeze any juice or nectar. Make a creamy treat by adding ice cream. Use one cup juice (we like orange) and 1C vanilla ice cream, stirred together until runny but not liquid, and pour that into the mold to refreeze.  For a yogurt treat, blend plain yogurt and fruit (you can add powdered sugar to taste) and pour in molds to freeze.  There are many popsicle recipes, that include sugars and gelatin to make the popsicles not melt as fast, but we just keep the ingredients simple.

Design a scrapbook for the school year. Have everyone design a cover page and a first day page.  Take pictures at school to add later. Use pre-made scrapbooks or use a binder with page protectors to add to throughout the year.  This is a good place to keep school papers, pictures, and report cards.

Design a frame:  Make frames and decorate. Take a picture of child and friends to place in frame.

A mellow evening with just the family. Order pizza and eat a picnic style dinner outside, give each child  journal or new book to read that night as a family.

Designing and making snowflakes involves many important  concepts at all ages.  Beyond being fun, children experience shapes, motor skills, following directions, creativity, symmetry and spatial skills.  I was shocked at how many students in my fifth grade class volunteered to help  make snowflakes for a bulletin board, they loved it.  I thought that they would be “over” that!

With my younger children I demonstrate how to make a large snowflake and then they decorate it.  Then, they attempt their own allowing them to explore and discover the world of shapes and symmetry. Please note that the “snowflakes” are truly unique and may not look anything like a snowflake.

A FEW “FLAKEY” IDEAS:

3D Snowflake: For older children and adults, I found this site that teaches “How to Make a 3D Paper Snowflake.”

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-3D-Paper-Snowflake

Read A Biography:  Snowflake Bentley stated  “Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty; and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated., When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind.”   He photographed the first snow crystal and shared that no two snowflakes were the same.

Symmetry: Look for symmetry in nature starting with butterflies, bugs, leaves and bee-hives. For older children,  you may ask them if snowflakes are symmetrical in nature. (The answer is sometimes, the most common snowflakes are not symmetrical.)

The Life of a Snowflake:  This site is for older students to follow the life and growth of a snowflake. Fascinating!

http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/primer/primer.htm

Growing up in the Arizona desert is sunny and wonderful, but not when you try to explain the concept of seasons and  winter to children!  Traveling north to see, touch and play in the icy snow is always a joyous and exciting event for our family, but we know plenty of children who have not been exposed to snow, winter and winter sports.

So, how can we incorporate this foreign concept of falling snowflakes, winter boots and gliding down the mountain slopes?  The first part of the winter series is dedicated to winter sports and will continue with further crafts and fun soon.

First of all, and most obvious is to visit your local ice skating arena.  They have special classes for large groups, skating lessons and field trips.  For the sports enthusiast you can visit during hockey practice or games.  We wanted to take our son to the professional hockey games, but know it is way too loud for his liking (and mine!)

Find the snow!  This year our zoo, church, city park and train park all had special events where they brought in snow piles for the children to devour.  What a fun and free (except the zoo) way to play in the snow.

Visit the library.  Let’s never forget the powerful magic of words.  Check out books about the winter olympics, winter sports and  famous athletes.  Which sport would you like to try?

We love boxes.  Boxes transform into anything your child imagines, so why not let them decide what to make that can be used in winter.  I am guessing that a bobsled box would be perfect entertainment for an afternoon.

I should have invented carpet skates.  The most genious and simple invention if you have carpet in your home.  Before we found carpet skates for about ten dollars (I think at Toys R Us)  I would tape wax sandwich bags around the kid’s feet and they would pretend to skate around.  They had a blast.  I am sure this may sound crazy to those of you in parts of the world that have real ice outside your front door.

Technology allows us to explore many exciting new things. For example, record the winter games on television and watch as a family as you enjoy a cup of hot cocoa or even Icees.  I am coming around to video games and I know the concern most parents have about these mindless types of activities.  With that said, I love the Wii snowboarding game and have been caught shredding and grinding the slope!

Use your imagination.  Since we cannot snowboard down the real slopes, we made our couch into a mini hill to use with our cardboard boards.  I had pipe cleaners in the crafts area, so we taped them on for the straps.

This little piggy said, “Wheeeee!”

This simple idea was completely child created while watching the movie Surf’s Up. When I saw my pillows being used as surfboards, we got out the poster board and crayons and designed our own boards. The children had a blast and I was happy to have fluffy pillows on the couch.

This could be much more advanced using patterns and measurement in the design. But sometimes it is nice just to hang loose and have fun!

Fun and simple activity for one or a group of children. A great activity for when you are traveling to keep the little ones busy. Just put all of the supplies into a plastic bag and when you are at grandmas, the hotel or even on the plane, take it out for an instant activity. Hint, put masking tape on end to avoid spilling especially while traveling!

What you will need:

String or thin licorice, cheerios, fruit loops, marshmallows, and any other food you can place on a string.

Thread the food on the string and place around neck and tie ends in a knot.

Make this into a learning experience for the little ones by making patterns, counting the amount as you string the necklace, simple addition and identifying colors.

Making a beach frame is a fun way to use your sea shell collection and create a great keepsake or gift.

What you will need:

• Small wooden frame
• Acrylic paint
• Sea shells
• Permanent adhesive glue like GemTac
• Photograph

Remove glass from frame. Paint frame solid color and let it dry.
Use permanent adhesive glue to decorate outside of frame with shells.  You can also use sand for the bottom of the frame.  Let dry completely.
Insert the photo and the glass into the frame.

I found this frame for one dollar at Michaels, but there is not a piece of glass in it. They also have wooden pieces painted or not painted in different shapes such as flip flops, sea animals, etc. (These range from 59-99 cents.)

The Fourth of July is  fun time to start a family tradition!  It does not have to be grand, just something the family looks forward to every year.  Here are a few ideas to get you started.

GOOD CITIZENS:

An opportunity to teach and show children about being a good citizen.  Find a local hospital or shelter to volunteer or donate to the week of 4th of July.  Write a thank you note or bring flowers to a memorial, veteran’s hospital etc.   Help an older neighbor with a chore such as puling weeds or bringing a meal.

PICNIC:

Picnic is the first thing that comes to my mind when I hear “Fourth of July.”  If the weather permits take a lunch picnic to a favorite spot and enjoy!  Meeting extended family and friends with a friendly football, volleyball or any game would be something everyone could look forward to year after year.  Make a silly trophy for the winning family to hold for the year.

FIREWORKS:

Look up the fireworks shows in your area and make an event by bringing a picnic or cold snacks for the family.  The best memory for me was getting to go on the roof once a year and watching all the fireworks from our house.

CRAFTS:

Choose different crafts every year to make as gifts or just keep as decorations for the home.

A fun way to practice skills or just be silly and create fun family times!  Make up a rule for the day and see how long your whole family can follow that rule.  Following are some silly rules but your family can create your own to match your family.  This can also be done in the classroom and creates a fun atmosphere while practicing a skill.

Always enter the room hopping or backwards.

Say the alphabet or a spelling word before sitting down.

Avoid using certain words such as yes or me.

Do a jump every time the child’s name is said.

Snap fingers or clap three times when the phone or bell rings.

Eat with opposite hand (use left hand for the fork if right-handed.)

This is just silly and fun!

The fun thing about having your own family is that you can make your own rules and holidays!  So why not declare an Orange Day on June 23. Everyone must wear orange and incorporate orange food into the meals.  Create crafts and cards around the theme for the day or week.

 To start, have your family sit down with a calendar and large piece of paper for brainstorming. List the animals, people, events they would like to honor in the next year.  Choose the dates to write on the calendar.  

Your children will be creative, but if you need a start here are a few ideas:

Pet Day:

In our house it is a cat, and all day the cat gets special treatment a new toy and a new place mat made by the children.  If you have time at your home you could make cat puppets out of paper bags, make a card for your pet and a frame with a picture of the family with the pet.

Favorite Number Day:

Make pancakes in the shapes of numbers, Count items like rocks or shells, Count and glue buttons or cotton balls on paper to make a design with the favorite number, Give the chosen number of compliments during the day, Look through magazines for the number and cut out, exercise time (Use the favorite number for the amount of exercise, how many jumping jacks, the number of minutes to run etc.)

Picnic Week:

Have a picnic everyday, even inside the house!

The possibilities are endless and the memories will last forever.  This can also be implemented in the classroom, a fun way for the children to feel ownership in their own classroom.