If you ask parents what they need more of, many of them will immediately say “time”! Rushing back and forth between work, school activities, and responsibilities at home, many parents are simply run ragged. So if you want to be invaluable to the stressed out parents of your community, consider giving them a break once a week, and make the community clubhouse a kid-friendly zone after school! Most of the time the kids get off the bus and come through the front office to get home. Why not keep them for a bit after school and provide them with snacks and some type of activity? The time will help the kids make friends and give the parents some much needed time. Even one hour is like gold when you are trying to keep up with the world. Take a look at...
Every child needs the opportunity to engage their inner artist – or just make a colossal mess – and cake decorating can give them the perfect opportunity to experiment with colors, textures, and new tools to design a prized creation. Come prepared with plain cupcakes and equip your guests with decorating tools, icings, sprinkles, chocolate chips, marshmallows, and anything else that would provide a unique color or texture to add to the fun.
Today's activity is actually pretty easy, and frankly, it is just a way for us to show off an amazing idea we found recently! Drawing contests are always fun with the kids at a community because everybody can participate no matter the age and skill level. Plus, it's a cheap option with just some markers, colors, etc. Now, having the drawing be a "contest" can be a bit tricky, because you never want to make the kids feel like they did a bad job, so be careful that you navigate that part carefully. That said, we have found probably the best prize we have ever seen for a drawing contest: You can now have one of the drawings be made into a stuffed animal! We stumbled across this absolutely brilliant website that creates custom stuffed animals based upon the children's drawings! ...
Every little girl wants to be a princess, and this is your opportunity to let her live out her dream for a few hours. Invite girls to come dressed in their best princess costume or party dress and offer a “princess makeover,” complete with a tiara, and then host a small fashion show or photo shoot as the parents cheer their princesses on.
We dressed up our GEM car that is used for tours as an ice cream truck. We had colorful pictures of different types of ice cream and flavors taped to our GEM Car. We made a large ice cream cone with one large scoop of strawberry ice cream and that was on the front of the GEM car. We had nursery ryhmes playing as we drove through our community and invited children and residents to come and enjoy some ice cream. Using the GEM car which is battery operated also saved on the environment and our residents did not have to smell the gas fumes of an old ice cream truck.