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
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. (LisaM, Mass.)
BOOK CLUB
Get a book club going where all the parents read books relative to their kids, parenting, or school philosophies. Following are few title suggestions that can be purchased online at Barnes & Noble:
A fantastic book that that not only has Moms talking but could actually get your young teen reading!
Click on the book to the left for more info from Barnes & Noble.
Also check out my recently published content on AC:
Move Over Harry Potter, Twilight Has Arrived
Setting Limits With Your Strong-Willed Child: Eliminating Conflict By Establishing Clear, Firm, And Respectful Boundaries by Robert J. Mackenzie, Robert J. MacKenzie
Out-of-Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Processing Disorder by Carol Stock Kranowitz, Lucy Jane Miller (Preface by)
How to Be Organized in Spite of Yourself: Time and Space Management that Works with Your Personal Style by Sunny Schlenger, Roberta Roesch
The Defiant Child: A Parent's Guide to Oppositional Defiant Disorder by Douglas Riley
Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program That Allows You to See and Heal the Six Types of Attention Deficit Disorder by Daniel G. Amen, Daniele G. Amen
Share an idea - Suggest an informative book.
WALKING CLUB FOR MOMS
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.
SUPPORT GROUPS
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.
FATHER'S ASSOCIATION
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.)
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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