Family Stations Party
Family Christmas Stations Party
The idea for this family party came from my parents and their friends who did it for us when we were young. Now, we are carrying on the tradition and doing it with our children.
It sounds more complicated than it actually is. If you have everything set up before you start the party, you will be ready and the kids will LOVE IT!
Here’s how it works and how to set it up step-by-step:
Getting Started
1. Invite families. Find about 4-5 other families who would like to do this party with you. A maximum of 12 children works best. Those aged 4+ get the most out of the party.
2. Find a date. This is usually the hardest part!
Getting Ready
1. Pick 3 stations. We do cookie decorating, a Christmas craft, and story reading.
2. Assign a few parents to each station. They are responsible for bringing all the necessary supplies for their station. For example, at the cookie station, these parents bring the cookies, icing and sprinkles. The parents who are doing crafts pick an easy craft to make (there are lots of ideas on Pinterest!) that works for multi-ages and a quick time frame. By dividing tasks, it takes a lot of pressure off the host.
3. Set up your house. Pick three places in the house where the stations will be set up. For us, the cookie decorating is on the kitchen table, the Christmas craft is on the dining room table, and the story reading is in the living room.
4. Make goodie bags. The kids will have a lot of things to take home. I make a paper bag with each child’s name on it and set these out on the window sill. When the child finishes the craft or cookies, they can put everything they got into their bag and take it home at the end of the night.
5. Pre-Activity. I have an activity for the kids to do when they first come in the house. This way, the parents can have a few minutes to set up and get ready and the kids are occupied. This is usually a card making activity that requires little supervision.
I put out Christmas stickers, stamps, and markers and let them make their own cards. I set this up in a 4th area (the sun room) just to keep everything separated, and the kids can come back to it later. When they are finished their cards, they go into their paper bags.
6. Set the tables. I set out all the materials needed for each station beforehand. Knives, plates, baggies, wet cloths, etc for the cookie decorating, and basic craft supplies for the craft table.
I also cover the table in brown paper (more later) and then cover that with my craft table cloths for getting messy.
7. Make groups. I divide the kids into three groups. I like to divide up the families, making sure there is a mix of ages, personalities and leaders in each group.
Party Schedule
4:00 – Guests arrive. Children go to make their Christmas card pre-activity. Parents set up
4:30 – Divide the children into their groups and send each group to a different station.
We run each station for about 15-20 minutes depending on their attention span. I call out when it is time to change and the children rotate through the various stations: making crafts, decorating cookies, and having a Christmas story read to them in front of the fire.
5:15 – Finish up. Children make sure their crafts/cookies are in their paper bags. We then send the kids to the basement to the rec room to start watching a Christmas movie (usually Arthur Christmas). The parents then clean up the stations and get ready for dinner.
5:30 – Supper! We always have a potluck supper with our party. In the invitation I ask families to Reply All to let us know what they are bringing so we make sure all parts of the meal are covered.
I set up a buffet in the kitchen. The children are called up (pausing their movie) and come to fill their plates. They then go eat in the dining room.
I have now taken off the plastic covering (leaving the brown paper underneath). I put crayons on the table, and while the kids are eating, they can draw on the table!
6:00 – Special Visitor! Our special tradition (that you certainly don’t have to incorporate) is that we have a visit from Santa! One of the moms has a direct connection to a wonderful Santa who comes to our house at 6pm to meet with the children, give them a candy cane and ask them what they want for Christmas. It’s a magical part to our evening!
6:15 – The children return to finish watching the movie. Now, the adults sit and eat in quiet and toast a drink to the holidays and to another successful family stations party!
Although it sounds like a lot of work, with many hands working together, it is not! It’s a fun night that the kids will want to keep doing every year – and then hopefully do with their own children!
If you have any questions on how to run a party like this, send me a note to info@valleyfamilyfun.ca or write a comment below!
Matt the Music Man
Matt the Music Man
*Disclosure: I received a copy of this CD to review. It just means that I get to share more great local talent with you!*
“More music! More music!” This is what my 2 year old niece yelled when we turned off Matt the Music Man’s CD.
Songs for Kids Age 1 to 101 is a 20-song all-original album with special guests such as Heather Kelday, Andy and Ariana, Jim Tranquilla of iTromboni, Laura McFarlane Tranquilla, Ananda Kavanagh, children singers and more! It’s fun music ranging from folk to rock ‘n’ roll for the whole family.
Matt The Music Man is more than your typical man from Nova Scotia with a guitar. He’s also quite possibly the only children’s performer around with a pirate hat and a platypus for a sidekick.
I have a musical background. I grew up a part of choirs and bands and am now trying to instill that love for music in my sons. We always have music on in the background, and my older son has taken 2 years of music lessons.
So, when Matt the Music Man asked us to review his new CD, we were happy to take on the job!
In three words: I love it!
This is a fantastically fun CD for kids and adults. The songs are very catchy with easy, memorable lyrics – especially for kids. One afternoon, I overheard my 8 year old singing the song Fat Cat which has quickly become our favourite.
The lyrics are clever and don’t downplay to children. Children can learn about things such as the solar system, why it’s important to read and even about platypuses! The Twinkle Twinkle Black Sheep song is extremely clever and unique and very fun to dance to!
I would equate Matt the Music Man to Raffi. It’s a CD even adults won’t grow tired of listening to because the music is fun and encompasses many different styles.
The CD is best suited for preschoolers and lower elementary school students.
To listen to some of the samples of music, visit the website.
Locally, Matt the Music Man’s CD is available in New Minas at Go As You Grow or in Coldbrook from Baby Central. It can also be ordered on line. CDs are $15.
To give us some props to use while listening to Matt the Music Man’s Fat Cat song, we decided to make a few simple cat puppets.
I am NOT crafty, so we chose three easy designs. I made up a few samples and had my sons and my nieces choose which one they would like to make. They ranged in age from 2 to 8.
Here’s what we came up with:
Folded Paper Cat
Take a square piece of paper and turn it so it is a diamond. (You may have to cut it to make it square).
Fold in the corners to make ears
Draw on a face
Attach a popsicle stick to the back
Paper Plate Cat
- Cut out eyes, ears and whiskers.
- Glue the ears on to the back side of the plate and the glue on the eyes and whiskers on the front.
- Draw a cat face
- Attach a popsicle stick to the back
Paper Bag Cat
This by far was the most popular puppet!
- Cut out eyes, ears and whiskers from construction paper.
- Glue the ears onto the back of the bag and the eyes, nose and whiskers to the front
- Draw in the rest of the face
- Put your hand inside the bag to use the puppet
I laid all the supplies out on the table and let the kids choose which puppet they wanted to make. We had a wide variety of cats!
With our new puppets we had a dance party to Matt the Music Man’s Fat Cat song. As you will see, the kids really got into the song! It was a big hit!
If you are looking for something new to add to your music collection, would like to support local musicians, or need a Christmas gift for someone, I highly recommend picking up a copy of Matt the Music Man’s children’s CD.
Win a copy of Matt the Music Man’s CD by clicking on the banner below and filling out the form. Enter daily until the draw date of December 18th!
For an extra ballot, leave a comment below!
Put a smile on everyone’s face. You won’t be disappointed!
Elf on the Shelf
All your Elf of the Shelf Ideas!
3 years ago Buttons came into our lives. For those of you who don’t know about the tradition of the Elf on the Shelf, go here to get educated! I will post our daily Elf on the Shelf pictures here for you to get some ideas! Some of these we have come up ourselves, other from speaking with friends, and a lot of them from my Elf on the Shelf Pinterest Board.
My biggest piece of advice is that if you are going to start Elf on the Shelf, then for the first year at least, make it a hide and seek game. The children wake up every morning and try to find where the elf is hiding. If you start with creative and funny antics, then you have to keep them up.
After 3 years, this can be hard, and the kids are disappointed if it’s not funny enough. Don’t set the bar too high too soon!
Random Acts of Kindness Advent Calendar
The Kindness Calendar
This year, along with our regular advent calendar Christmas countdown, we (I) decided that we would add a random act of kindness to our calendar.
“But, can we still get our chocolate?” pleads my son.
Yes. We’ll do both.
When I talked to a girlfriend of mine, it turns out that she was planning on doing the same thing with her three boys.
So, in combination with a conversation with her (who learned about it from her hairdresser), a few Pinterest searches, and a few ideas of my own, we came up with a chart.
My husband and I will go through them and pick which ones to include. We would like to make it so the boys can do most them on their own without help from us.
Click on the Chart for a Printable of our Random Acts Cards
We will also steal my friend’s way of executing the plan.
Each morning the boys will draw the card from the pouch of the advent calendar. They will read the card at breakfast, and will be asked to complete that task that day. At supper time, they will report back on their progress.
My kids are cynical. “Mommy, we won’t make it past two days!” My husband isn’t much more hopeful.
But, I am bound and determined that we will give this our best shot to make it realistic and a positive experience!
I have set up the Advent calendar and filled it with chocolates. I have also picked 24 cards from our chart that we will use and put them in the pockets.
However, when I was stuffing the pockets, I had our family calendar beside me! Which activities were realistic based on our activities that day?
Stay tuned for our progress! I will update this blog post as we go along with some pictures!
Day 1: Compliment 2 people today!
We opened the slip of paper at breakfast and talked about how to give compliments. Right off the bus, the first thing out of their mouths was… “I complimented two people today!!” They were so excited to share their stories!
Day 8: Candycane Bomb
So far, so good! The boys have been coming home every day and have at least tried to complete the task.
Yesterday, our task was to candycane bomb a parking lot – put candycanes on every car. We decided to tape it to the passenger window with masking tape so it wouldn’t leave a mark and to make sure the drivers noticed it (unlike under the windshield wipers).
We decided to do this at our church – right before the service -mostly because we knew the crowd and knew that they would not be upset by the task!
The boys were quite concercned that we were doing something illegal! They were a bit embarassed to do the task, but when they came out of church and heard all the comments, they were beaming — and still kept the secret – although most people figured it out!
Day 15: Donate a Stuffed Animal to the Police Station
The police will often carry a stuffed animal in their cars so in case they come across a child in an accident or fire, they are able to give them something for comfort. After much delibteration, we decided to buy a stuffed animal each to donate.
This by far was the hardest task. The kids really wanted to buy something for themselves, but they resisted! Then, they wanted to keep the stuffies for themselves.
But, I was really proud. They walked into the station, explained the donation, and handed them over. A great lesson!
Overall:
We managed to do all but 2 or 3 of the tasks! We couldn’t shovel someone’s driveway because we actually didn’t have snow this year!
Our favourite acts ended up being:
– Make a meal for a busy family
– Candycane bomb a parking lot (even though they were hesitant about doing it)
– Bringing treats to the school staff
– Paying for the people behind us in the Tim Horton’s Drive Thru
This is definitely something we will continue to do every year!
Do you have any ideas for other random acts? Do you do this with your family? Tell me about your experiences!
Other friends had differing experiences.
– One friend’s children were a bit younger than mine (oldest is 7). To them, doing the Random Acts felt more like doing chores that they didn’t get paid for. They were a bit too young to understand the concept
– Another friend has a random act of kindness BLITZ day. They see how many random acts they can do in one day – including giving a gift card to someone in the grocery story line up!
Investing in your Children
Investing in your Children
No one said parenting is easy. Nor is it cheap.
There are countless decisions to be made.
How many activities do you enrol your child in?
Should you send them to a specialized school or put them in an enrichment program?
Should you pay to send your kids to camp or on the school trip to Europe?
I was having this conversation with my neighbour who has successfully raised several children and now has teen-aged grandchildren.
I was talking with her one morning about my boys and whether I should consider enrolling them in a private school, as I knew they would thrive there. I was also bemoaning the fact that I wasn’t sure if I could afford to do so – or not to do so.
Her advice was so wise that I had to share it.
“Your children are going to turn out fine whatever decision you make.”
“With regard to money, you have to decide how to spend your money on your children. Is it better to spend your money on them now when they are young, or is it better to save that money for later when they are older and may need that money for university or specialized training?”
There is no right or wrong answer. You need to decide for yourself how you will invest in your children.
Then, she told me a story about her son. He phoned his mom to talk about his two teen-aged children. One was invited on an international school trip, and another to study in a top-notch program. Both were going to cost a lot of money.
She gave her son the same advice that she gave to me.
“How do you want to invest in your children?”
The next day, to her door, was delivered a big bouquet of flowers with this note from her son:
Thank you for all the times that you invested in me.
Just love your kids and trust yourself.
Egypt: Eat, Read and Do
Egypt: Read, Eat and Do
Recently, we had “Egypt week” in our house.
It all started when our book club selected the book Nefertiti by Michelle Moran.
Every year our book club does a historical fiction novel and my husband, who is a history professor, joins us and explains the real history that happened around the period of the novel. In this case, he gave us a mini lecture on Nefertiti and her husband Akhenaten who reigned from 1370 BC to 1330 BC.
To read my review of the book look for Nefertiti here.
To go along with the theme, I contacted my Egyptian friend, Mariam, to get a recipe for a dessert to serve at book club. She sent me this one for a traditional cake called Basboosa.
BASBOOSA – A Semolina cake with honey and lemon
Syrup
2 cups sugar
2 cups water
1 whole lemon
3 teaspoons honey
Basboosa
3 cups semolina
1 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup sugar
1 cup oil
1 cup milk
Instructions:
1. To make the syrup: Peel the lemon with a potato peeler to get flat strips of peel.
2. Juice the lemon.
3. Bring the sugar, water, and lemon juice to a boil.
4. Throw in the rind of the lemon.
5. Boil until the lemon rind is hard or the mixture is a runny syrup consistency.
6. Add the honey.
7. Set aside while you make the basboosa.
8. Mix the semolina, flour, sugar, and baking powder.
9. Add the oil and mix until all the batter is well blended.
10. Grease a large cookie sheet tray (10 x 16 inches).
11. Add the milk just before you are about to bake.
12. Dot the mixture into the greased pan by spoonfuls.
13. Level the mixture with your hand (dipped in milk).
14. Shake the tray to level.
15. Bake for 1/2 hour at 350 degrees.
16. Cut into squares and return to the oven for 5-10 minutes.
17. Pour the syrup over the basboosa immediately after you remove it from the oven the last time.
Nice also if you embed almonds on the top. Can cut it into squares.
I found the semolina in Bulk Barn with the flours. When you bake with it, use it as is (no need to pre cook it).
The cake was a big hit, and closely resembled corn bread.
Kofta
Next, I made another Egyptian meal called Kofta (although my husband called it Scotch eggs). I remember Mariam making this for us when we were teenagers.
Ground beef
Chopped parsley
Chopped onion
Salt & pepper
1 hard boiled egg per person
Knead all well in a bowl and flatten on a chopping board/flat surface.
Place a boiled egg in the centre and wrap meat tightly around each egg.
Place in an oven tray & bake at 350 C for about 30 mins or until cooked.
The kids loved this recipe and the surprise of finding an egg inside of their supper.
To continue our “Egyptian Week” I did a few activities with the kids.
First, we found Egypt on the map.
Then we talked about Egyptian hieroglyphics and the boys tried spelling their names using the symbols. I found a great chart on Pinterest!
DANIEL
THOMAS
I also printed off some mazes I found on Pinterest that had Egyptian images. However, these were a bit too hard for my 6 year old maze fiend!
Having a week all about Egypt has encouraged us to learn about other countries! Where will we go next?
