Sheila Ellison
Page 15
Set up an obstacle course for your child using equipment from the house and yard. Your child should have obstacles to go under, over, through, around, inside, and outside. Colored yarn or chalk can be used as a path for him to follow. In the beginning, have him simply walk through the course, following the yarn through each section. Once your child knows the way and what to do at each obstacle, you might time him or clap your hands and count how long it takes for him to get to the end. Make sure Mom or Dad tries it, too!
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Pipe Forts
Age Range: 36 months and up
Materials
White PVC pipe (found at building supply stores and usually used for irrigation systems)
Various joints for the pipe
You will want to buy at least one hundred feet of pipe and a variety of joints so you can put the fort together at various angles. If you have a particular design in mind, such as a teepee or house, you may want to draw up a plan before cutting the pipe. Use a hacksaw to cut pieces of four- or five-foot lengths, or whatever length your design requires. Push the pieces of pipe into the joints according to whatever shape you wish to create. Once the structure is standing, use old sheets, blankets, or fabric scraps to create outer walls. The pieces of pipe can be taken apart and used over and over.
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Backyard Beasts
Protect your child from the sun and bug bites with these tips. To avoid bug bites:
Dress your child appropriately: wear light-colored clothing (bright colors attract bugs); if walking in brush, wear long pants, longsleeved shirts, socks, and shoes. Make sure your child does not wash with scented soaps or use scented lotions, which also attract bugs.
Be wary of sunscreen–insect repellent combinations. These are fine for one application, but re-applying, which you may need to do for the sunscreen, may cause overexposure to DEET (an ingredient in most bug repellents).
Treat minor bug bites promptly by applying an ice cube to reduce the swelling and minimize itching. Hydrocortisone cream can also be used.
Extreme swelling, trouble breathing, hives, swollen tongue, headache, or nausea may indicate a life-threatening allergic reaction to bug bites—in these cases, seek immediate medical attention.
To protect kids from the sun:
Use a total protection approach, which includes using a broad-spectrum waterproof sunscreen of SPF 15 or higher and wearing protective clothing like hats, sunglasses, and other clothing designed to screen out the sun. Also avoid direct sunlight whenever possible between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Put sunscreen on your child before he goes outside—most sunscreens take fifteen minutes before they begin to work.
Even if your sunscreen claims to last all day and is waterproof, reapply it at least once during the day.
Parties and Celebrations
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Party Tips
Schedule the party for no more than ninety minutes in length.
Invite one parent to stay with each child.
Have an activity set up and ready to go so kids have something to do while they wait for the others to arrive. Play dough, pipe-cleaner sculptures, balls, bubbles, and sidewalk chalk are good entertainers.
Hold the party outdoors if possible.
Invite as many guests as the child is years old.
Give prizes or favors to the kids while the birthday person is opening his presents. Stickers, coloring books, beanbags, squeeze toys, toy cars, ice-cream cone certificates, and glow sticks are all good choices.
If planning on having a piñata, look for the kind that has a ribbon to pull that lets the candy fall out. (Toddlers may have a hard time hitting it hard enough to break it open.)
Plan some group physical activities, even if it is simply running around, jumping, or dancing.
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Party Fare
Age Range: 15 months and up
Determining what foods to serve at toddler parties can be difficult. Here are some ideas and tips:
Make a pizza. Ask your pizza parlor to make up the pizzas with dough and sauce, leaving any extra ingredients on the side. Have the children add the cheese and other toppings themselves. They’ll eat a far better variety when they’re the ones putting the toppings on! You can also buy the pizza base at the grocery store.
Serve food that children can pick up with their hands, like chicken tenders, tater tots, pizza snacks, and small burritos.
Skewered anything is fun—fruit, vegetables, cheese, sandwich meats, or grilled chicken. Make sure to buy dull skewers or use straws.
Prepare individual boxed or bagged lunches in advance—sandwiches shaped with cookie cutters, Jell-O, yogurt, applesauce, fruit cups, string cheese, raisins, trail mix, pretzels, juice boxes, etc. Don’t forget napkins. There’s no work required but handing them out!
Prepare a build-your-own-cupcake bar—set out unfrosted cupcakes along with several kinds of frosting, or you can add food coloring to vanilla frosting to make several colors. Use Popsicle sticks to spread the icing. Include all sorts of toppings like sprinkles, gummy bears, and M&Ms. You can do the same with ice-cream sundaes.
If you are having cake and ice cream, scoop ice cream into paper cupcake liners and freeze before the party to make serving easier.
Be sensitive to possible food allergies—consider asking parents when they RSVP if there are any dietary restrictions.
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Decorative Ice Bucket
Materials
Empty cardboard milk carton
Bottle of vodka (to use as a mold since vodka doesn’t freeze)
Decorations
Open the top of the empty milk carton. Put the bottle of vodka into the milk carton and fill the carton halfway with water. Have your child add little toys, fresh flowers, marbles or whatever decoration fits the theme of your party. Freeze. Then fill the carton to the top with water and add more decorations. Freeze again. When solid and ready to use, pull the vodka bottle out. It may take a few minutes to loosen the bottle and peel the cardboard carton off the outside of the mold. You now have a decorative ice bucket. Place in a bowl or on a tray to catch the drips.
* Words of Wisdom *
We’ve started making our own wrapping paper by writing the recipient’s name many times and in many fonts on our computer and then printing each name out on large address labels. We wrap the presents in white butcher paper and then use the name stickers to decorate.
—Rhonda, Chandler, Arizona
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Thank-You Notes
Age Range: 15 months and up
Teaching good manners is part of a parent’s job. Whenever your child receives a present of any kind, get in the habit of sending thank-you notes.
Take a picture of your child with the gift and make a thank-you card out of the picture by gluing it to a plain piece of construction paper folded in half.
Make personal handprint stationery. Have your child dip his hand in paint and stamp it onto a blank sheet of paper. Once the paint has dried, you can write the thank you over the top or all around the outside of the hand.
For relatives who live far away and send a gift, consider making a cassette tape giving a description of the birthday party—the people who attended, the games played, and funny things your child did. Finish the tape by thanking them for the present. Make duplicates.
* Words of Wisdom *
If we are ordering pizza for a party, I ask the restaurant to arrange some of the toppings into the shape of the child’s age.
—Jeff, Brigham City, Utah
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Group Games
Treasure hunt: Hide a treasure, which is a box filled with candy, plastic jewelry, or other party favors. Draw out pictures to show the child where she should go to find the next clue (also a picture). Give each child the first clue at the same time.
Group draw: Tape a long piece of butcher paper to the floor and let all the kids draw or finger-paint on it.
Spaghetti wiggle: Cook three packages of spa
ghetti. Mix spaghetti, 1⁄2 cup vegetable oil, and food coloring of your choice and put it into a child’s wading pool. Let the children play in it.
Parachute: Use a big sheet or store-bought parachute to play all sorts of circle games. Raise the parachute in the air and have kids hide under it, roll a ball around on the top, make waves, or hold onto the edges and march around in a circle.
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Sibling Party
Age Range: 15 months and up
This is a special party planned for the older sibling of the toddler. Toddlers tend to take much of Mom or Dad’s energy, so this is a special party planned with the intent to make the older sibling king or queen of the moment. Hire a baby-sitter to watch your toddler. Invite a bunch of your older child’s friends over for this party, which has no purpose but to focus on your older child. Make his favorite snacks, go someplace fun, or pick a favorite theme—whatever will make your older child feel special. You may also want to plan this party as a surprise. If you have many friends who have toddlers as well as older children, make this a group event where all the older children are invited while the toddlers are either left at home or watched at the party house by a hired baby-sitter.
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Car and Truck Party
Age Range: 15 months and up
Things that roll delight most toddlers. Make invitations out of construction paper in the shape of cars or trucks. Take a photo of your child in the front seat of your car pretending to drive. Copy this photo onto paper. Glue this picture of your child in the window of the car or truck on the invitation. Ask each child to bring a favorite large riding car, a truck, or any toy that rolls.
Set up a vehicle obstacle course specially designed for push cars or trucks. One of the parents can lead the way through the course in follow-the-leader style with each child following behind, directing his own truck or car.
Create a city by taping a long piece of butcher paper to the floor and drawing roads, railroad tracks, and city locations. Let the kids drive their small cars through the city. Make sure to have a supply of small matchbox-sized cars to drive around the city.
If you know people who own vintage cars, ask them to come by and give the kids a ride around the block.
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Tea Party
Age Range: 18 months and up
Little girls love tea parties. Use a child-sized table, set with all the necessary items: flowers, cookies, sugar cubes, teacups, and plates. Invite guests to bring their favorite teddy bears or dolls to accompany them as guests. Make small tea sandwiches, tiny cookies, or finger food. Serve raspberry tea. Mothers can serve the girls as if they were in a fancy restaurant, using a real menu. Before the girls begin enjoying the tea, you might want to decorate hats to wear to the fancy event. Buy a straw hat for each girl at a craft store. Use feathers, silk flowers, ribbons, and bows to decorate the hats. Items will need to be glued on with a hot glue gun, so mothers will have to help by gluing items where children place them.
* Words of Wisdom *
Put the party favors and candy gifts in a basket. Attach helium balloons. As the children remove the favors, the basket rises like a hot air balloon.
—Patty, York, Nebraska
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Bubble Party
Age Range: 24 months and up
Everything about this party is going to be bubble fun from the invitations to the last good-bye!
Print or write out invitations and then have your child blow bubbles onto them—as they hit and pop, you create bubble art!
Make up a bubbly punch by adding sherbet to clear soda.
Make up your own bubble solution (one cup water, two tablespoons light Karo syrup or glycerin, four tablespoons dishwashing liquid and food coloring) to use in bubble games.
Let the kids blow bubbles, catch the bubbles blown by others, make their own big bubbles, see who can pop the most bubbles, etc.
Turn on music and tell them to act like bubbles floating up and down, popping on the ground.
Fill plastic tubs with water and dishwashing soap to create a pile of bubbles to use in making bubble sculptures.
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Fishy Party
Age Range: 24 months and up
Cut out invitations in the shape of fish.
Use fish bowls as serving bowls. Prepare several boxes of blue Jell-O as directed, except use a fish bowl. Cool in refrigerator for about an hour, until partially set. Add gummy fish all around, pushing some into the Jell-O. Return to fridge to fully set.
Make fish-shaped sandwiches or pizza by cutting dough or bread in the shape of fish before covering with cheese or sauce.
Go fishing. Attach a string to a wooden dowel. Tie a magnet to the end of the string. Put prizes into a baby pool or tub behind a curtain or cardboard wall of some kind so the kids can’t see what kind of prize they might get. Attach paper clips to the prizes so the magnet can hold the prize on the end of the line. A parent will need to sit behind the cardboard to stick a prize to each magnet.
Use a blue fabric sheet to create a river and encourage kids to wiggle in the river, pretending to be fish. Some of the kids can pretend to be in a boat floating on top of the river, catching the fish!
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Spring Is Here
Age Range: 24 months and up
Prepare box breakfasts on a Friday or Saturday night. They might include small cartons of milk or juice, muffins, hard-boiled eggs, or yogurt. Include a special note to each person. Before everyone gets up, hide the breakfasts outside in the garden. Leave a note on the kitchen table letting everyone know they must search for their breakfasts. If children cannot read, wait for them to walk into the kitchen, then tell everyone at the same time to begin the search. Also hide packets of flower and vegetable seeds or bulbs to be found and planted. Set up an outdoor table and eat breakfast together. After breakfast, plant the seeds and bulbs in the garden.
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Garden Party
Age Range: 24 months and up
Send seed packets as invitations. Cut out a piece of construction paper to write the party information and glue it to the flower packet.
Flower favors: Take a round-ball lollipop and wrap a piece of yellow tissue paper over it to form the center of the flower. Cut a bunch of big teardropshaped petals out of colored tissue paper. Secure the petals together, fanned all around the lollipop stick, with floral tape. These can also be used as party centerpieces sticking in a flowerpot filled with foam.
Serve fruit bouquets: Stick fruit onto straws or dull skewers—cut in balls or use canapé cutters—and place them in a terra-cotta pot filled with foam.
Flower cake: Make a regular nine-by-thirteen–inch cake, leaving enough batter to make six cupcakes as well. Bake both the cake and pan of six cupcakes. Frost the cake with white frosting. Attach the cupcakes to the upper two-thirds of the cake by putting icing on the bottom and sticking them to the cake. Ice the cupcakes with white icing and decorate with lifesaver Gummies, sprinkles, M&M Minis, and Jujyfruits. Use green gel icing to make flower stems, grass, and leaves.
Flower masks: Use a two-by-twenty-four–inch strip of construction paper. Hold the strip up to the outside of each child’s face. Tape or staple the ends together to fit snuggly in the shape of an oval when slipped onto your child’s face. Cut petals out of colored construction paper. Tape the petals to the strip and then bend them so they stick directly out from the face.
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Moving Party
Age Range: 30 months and up
Sometimes a family has to move out of an area. Help your child say good-bye to friends.
Use your moving announcement as an invitation.
Put the moving boxes together in advance. Set out trays of paint and let the kids paint the outside of the boxes.
Tape a large piece of butcher paper to the floor with a drawing of where your new home will be located in relation to your present location. Let the kids use small cars or planes to trace the road or air route to your new house.
Give each child a good-bye letter, a few self-addressed envelopes with stamps on them for your new house location, and crayons for writing. Hopefully your child will receive many letters within weeks of your move.
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Father’s Day Fashion Show
Age Range: 30 months and up
Invite all the dads to attend this party. Have the dads and kids dress up in fun, gaudy costumes or outfits the moms bring or put together in advance. Make a construction-paper crown for Dad to wear while modeling his fashions. Encourage Dad to work with his child to create some sort of routine or dance they do together while out on the makeshift runway. Serve hot dogs, chips, dip, and soda. Make sure to videotape the fashion show.
* Words of Wisdom *
I’ve started making a cupcake with a single candle for each young birthday party guest along with the birthday cake. That way, when it’s time to blow out the candles, they can all get in on the action without overwhelming or disappointing the birthday boy or girl—and it makes for great photos, too!
—Amelia, Crofton, Maryland
Section Four:
Family Time