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Parent Activities
Parents need activities too. Whether it's something fun, intellectual, or just a little time to recuperate. Here, we provide you with some ideas to create some community among the school parents and for Moms and Dads to join together for some adult conversation.
- Healthy Eating
- Book Club
- Walking Club for Moms
- Fathers' Associationb
- Parents' Night Out
- Disabilities Support Group
- Families-In-Need Support Group - NEW
Start your own healthy eating club where Moms can discuss their own healthy
eating habits as well as their kids'. Discuss how to pack a healthy
lunch/snack or how to prepare a quick healthy dinner. If you meet once a week and each parent shares just one dinner that's healthy and easy to prepare, then it makes at least one night's preparation just a little bit easier.
Gather the recipes you've shared put them into a cookbook and sell it to Moms that weren't able to join you at the meetings. What a great fundraiser!
Another alternative is for families to host a cooking night as a fundraising event, where one parent volunteers to teach how to make an appetizer, one teaches a meal, and one a dessert. All other attending parents pay for the cost of the meal plus whatever you want to fundraise. The fun is cooking, eating, and socializing while also raising funds for the school. Donated food will help increase the amount you raise.
(Idea submitted by LisaM, Mass.)
Get a book club going where all the parents read books relative to their kids, parenting, or school philosophies. Following are few title suggestions. Also check out our Book Club recommendations
Share an idea - Suggest an informative book.
It's exercise, it's relaxation, and it's a stress reliever! Once the children go into school is a perfect time for Moms to walk.
Set a course (2-3 miles) that leaves from the school shortly after the bell rings in the morning. Walking generally takes 15-20 minutes per mile, so a 2-mile walk is enough to get the blood flowing while not taking up too much time from people's busy schedule.
Offer the walking club 5 days per week (Monday-Friday, except holidays). Announce a designated meeting spot at the school (i.e. primary entrance door, by the fire hydrant, etc.). On some days you may have 2 walkers and on others 10 or more.
Get more fathers involved in event planning by offering a Father's Association in addition to a Mother's Guild or a PTO. The men get a chance to gather together and run their own events like a pancake breakfast, golf tournament, or helping out in the soup kitchens. (LisaM, Mass.)
Dinner, drinks, comedy shows, movies are all great ways to get parents together for a social evening. A
Parents' Night Out can be either a nonprofit event or a highly profitable fundraiser. Click here to learn how to plan one.
Offer a support group for parents with children with Learning Disabilities and another for parents of children with Physical Disabilities. Parent advocacy is so important. Parents of children with disabilities receive more information from other parents than from any other source. So if you are one of those parents, it's important to find other parents going through the same experiences so you can share your experiences and offer advice to those just going through the process.
At the first meeting create a member list that includes names, email addresses, phone numbers, and the type of disability. Once the member list is generated and members are able to contact each other, parents will likely feel comfortable asking questions through email and can correspond and share new information as often as they like. Offer meetings every other month or even every third month to discuss any issues that seem to keep popping up in email discussions. Make the meetings a casual lunch or morning coffee at a local coffee shop.
Your group may even decide to put together a quarterly newsletter to be distributed to all parents of the school. Discuss topics such as:
- Individual Education Plan (IEP): Understanding and preparing an IEP.
- The importance of Parent Advocacy
- Does My Child Need Testing? Many parents struggle with whether their child is just being an active child or are there more serious issues involved. Discuss when a child should be tested and when a child may need just a bit more attention to some difficulties he/she may be having. Who to ask and meet with first to get the process started.
- Classroom Adaptation: Does your child require specific seating in a classroom (i.e. Hearing and vision impaired children being seated toward the front of the class; hearing impaired children being seated away from noisy heaters and fans). Does your child require a handicap accessible room and what are the details of that plan? Does your child require carpets in the classroom or other items that reduce background noise (i.e hearing impaired)?
Once the parents get together, the topics of discussion will feed themselves based on the needs of those in the group.
Families often struggle with lost jobs, family illnesses & deaths, and wounded soldiers that need rehabilitation. The PTO can be a conduit for families helping families. Here are some ideas:
Care Package for Mom - Mom’s can pitch in to provide a support basket for Mom, the main caregiver in the family. Attach a gift tag explaining your thought behind each item you've included in the basket. For instance:
- “Therapy for the mind” – a journal and pen
- “Relaxation therapy” – a mask for sleeping
- “Aromatherapy” – lavender liquid or sachet
- “Spa Therapy” – bubble bath
- “A Pick Me Up” – lipstick
- “For your sweet tooth” – a box of candy
- “For your hands” – hand cream
- "For your feet” - foot rub
- “Relaxing Facial” – moisturizer
- “For you hair” –
- “For your body” – exercise mat
- "For your soul" - Music
- "For your spirit" _ book Eat,Pray, Love
Healthy Choices – Send a healthy fruit basket.
Meal Planner – Pair up with pick-a-time.com or some website to allow families to sign up to make meals. The family receiving should be able to approve who can provide meals. So the other family signs up and if the receiving family approves, the supporting family gets a password to get access to the calendar to sign up to provide meals.
Driving Support – Same as above, but the supporting families sign up to drive the kids to and from school. Again, the receiving family has to approve the family before the supporting family gets the password to the sign up calendar.
Babysitting Support – Same as above, except the supporting family brings the kids to the supporting families home after school or takes them on the weekend.
Shopping Support – Send a care-package filled with gift cards to local supermarkets and PeaPod (or home delivery service). Or, actually do a week's worth a grocery shopping for the family in need and deliver it to their home.
Help Around the House Support – Families can pitch in to hire a handyman, housecleaner, plumber, electrician, landscaper, etc. Have the family-in-need sign up for what they need then other families would provide the help.
Read more on how to support school familes-in-need.
(Idea submitted by Lisa, Mass.) Thank you!
Sign up as a PTO Ideas member to share your Parent Activity Ideas. You'll also receive immediate access to Fundraising: Success is in the Details, a Free online guide from PTO Ideas featuring 8 essential steps to creating successful fundraisers, including a list of detailed theme ideas! Click here.
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