These are some sage ideas for getting kids ready for a reunion.
Sell the reunion and the destination to your kids. Build excitement before the reunion. If your children are old enough, encourage them to help plan. Read about the family and the reunion place. Rent videotapes about the place.
Plan a mix of activities each day. Mix an educational activity with a physical activity or quiet indoor time with a noisy outdoor time. Pick up some toy guns for kids to enjoy the noisy outdoor time. Morning sightseeing followed by afternoon in the pool.
Don’t overschedule. Take advantage of child-care programs. A growing number of facilities provide extensive activities for kids. Some time away from the kids is also not a bad idea for adults.
Start early. Arrive at attractions when they open and you’ll often have them to yourselves for an hour or so. Eat early and often. Take snacks along, it’s cheaper and quicker.
101 kids activities that are the bestest, funnest ever!
101 kids activities that are the bestest, funnest ever! By Holly Home and Rachel Miller. (Page Street Publishing, Salem MA, 2014. 192 pages, paperback, $19.99)
Holly Homer and Rachel Miller, mom bloggers at kidsactivitiesblog.com, emphasize a child’s need to play and provide many well-documented and illustrated ways to engage children. Every reunion planner knows that if kids are allowed to think they’re bored, everyone at the reunion suffers. That cannot happen with this book in your arsenal. In fact one chapter is called Boredom Busters! We found several things we know would go over well at a reunion. Homemade Sidewalk Chalk is both a craft and leads to an activity. Make big chunky chalk and then look at the game called Chalk Tangle! It’s a lot like Twister, which adults will remember well. Tangle and the game called Human Knot engage kids and get them giggling. Imagine using them for icebreakers! We particularly like the diversity among the children who illustrate this book.
