A Cultural Holiday Calendar

Research cultural holidays and create a calendar with many different ones on. Web sites such as Crayola.com and Activityvillage.com have a lot of holiday information. There are books of special days too. If you are a teacher, your students or their parents may know of holidays special to their family.

Cultural holidays open up a lot of learning opportunities, fun activities and understanding.

Dig for Party Favors

Add a game to your child´s party using the party favors. Bury the favors in buckets of sand, it works best if the each bucket contains only one type of favor. Let the children use plasic shovels to dig for their toys. Tell them how many they can get from each bucket based on the number of kids in attendance.

Cupcake for guest of honor

Give the birthday boy a cupcake with candles to blow out, rather than putting the candles on a large cake. The cupcake candles will be easier to blow out and the risk of having your child spit all over the big cake is eliminated.

Multiple Costumes

Does your preschooler change his mind each day about what he wants to be for Halloween? Indulge his creative nature and buy more than one costume. You can buy one fancy costume and buy the others second hand. Therefore another option is avialable if your child changes his mind about his favorite costume on Halloween night.

Designate Cameraman

Capture all of the memories of your child´s parties. To accomplish this goal it is crucial that you designate a seperate camera person for the still shots and the video camera. This will free you up to host the festivities without compromising the preservation of memories on film.

Halloween Pictures

With all of the excitement of trick or treating and jack o` lanterns, it is easy to overlook memory preservation. Begin an annual tradition and take your child to a photography studio each Halloween season. S/he will enjoy dressing up prior to the big night and you will be sure to have some great photos for your album.

Creative Invitations

Instead of the commercially prepared birthday party invitations, customize your child´s cards with her own illustration. Collect one of your child´s favorite works of art, shrink it down to size at a copy shop and zerox it onto colored paper. Cut and paste the copied drawings onto the front of blank cards. Add the party details inside. The guests will be thrilled to see the child´s drawings and she will feel very proud of her ability and the fact that you thought it was good enough to grace the cover of the cards.

Useful gifts

Help your class create useful gifts at Christmastime. Ideas include - a decoration for the tree that will last for years, a calendar, a framed photo, a voucher for a favour (eg: "I will make breakfast for you"). Children and parents appreciate creations that are useful and lasting.

Dealing with Scary Costumes

Preschoolers have a difficult time distinguishing fantasy from reality. Everything is real to them and some children have a hard time seeing all of the frightening gorillas and goblins walking around Halloween night. Deal with this issue proactively by having a short tirck or treating session before it is very dark, everything`s scarier in the dark. Explain to your child what he should expect to see in advance of, and in addition to, the actual night. Your child may feel empowered if he dawns a scary costume himself.

Exploring Meanings

Explore the meaning of Christmas for your family with children from a very young age. If you celebrate Christmas, explain to your children why you do. They appreciate a "reason for the season" and it can make it all the more magical.

Take pics with each party guest

Be sure to capture each party guest on film by taking pictures during the gift opening. After you or your child opens a present take a picture with the item and the person who gave it to you. This way you will be sure to have photos with every person at the party.

Fun Party Favor Holders

Instead of plastic or paper party favor bags, use sand buckets to hold the guests´ goodies. You can find the buckets for as little as $0.99 each and they are useful for holding pinata candy and the traditional toy party favors. The guest will be able to play with the bucket instead of throwing away the plastic favor bag.

Fun Frozen Party Favors

Add some excitement to your party favors by freezing some of them in ice blocks. Fill paper cups with water and a small plastic toy, such as a super-hero, an animal, a bug, etc, and freeze. Remove the ice blocks with the toy inside from the cups and float them in a pool of water. Children will love fishing a favor out of the water with their hands and watching the ice melt and their toy break through.

Cupcakes for guests

Rather than, or in addition to, a large birthday cake, give a cupcake to each child. This way the children can poke at the frosting and avoid having to wait for the cake to be cut. For added fun, light a candle on each cupcake for the kids to blow out together. You can put multiple on the birthday girl´s cupcake to designate her new age and to differentiate her cupcake from the rest. This will avoid the problem of having other kids trying to "help" your child blow out her candles.

Alternative to Giving Candy

Rather than buying the packaged, and often expensive, candy at the store for trick or treaters, get creative with your gifts. Stickers and small toys are fun options for kids you don`t know. Bags of popcorn or caramel apples are nice choices for friends. Sometimes the treat that is different is the one that is most treasured.

Extra special birthday mornings

Want a great way to show your toddler or preschooler that her birthday is a special day as soon as she wakes up? Blow up a whole bunch a balloons so that they cover the living room floor. When your child wakes up, lead her to the room and wish her a happy birthday. She will jumping and playing in the balloons and the day will be off to a great start.

Eliminate gift opening at party

Maintain the party pace and enjoyment level for your young birthday girl or boy by eliminating gift opening at the party. Take all of the presents home and open them after the party. This will allow your young child to take her time, play with and fully examine each one, keep her from getting overstimulated and allow the young guests to play throughout the party rather than sit and watch another child get gifts.