I recently had a mom e-mail me asking what she could do to help make New Year's Eve special for her toddler, keeping in mind she's on a tight budget. I am all to happy to let you all know what I've got planned for my daughter and I this New Year's. First off, let me premise this by stating that the mother who e-mailed me says she lives in south Orange County, California. Some of the activities are location specific and may not apply to those of you who live farther away.
The first thing I would recommend to anyone living in the Orange County area, or even southern parts of L.A. County is to take a trip to Pretend City in Irvine, CA. You can take a look at their website, pretendcity.org for more information. This place is great for most children under the age of 8 or 9. It's only $11 to get in, and the children will love it. I will definitely be taking my little girl there on New Year's Eve because they will have activities, arts and crafts, and music related to the holiday.
Another thing that my daughter and I love to do is baking. I thought that we could incorporate New Year's into our baking this year. We will be baking lots of cookies and decorating them to theme of New Year's. Some of the cookies will have white icing and then, using black icing, we will make it look like the face of a clock at midnight. Other cookies will have fireworks using sparkle icing of various colors. You can also make party hats designs and confetti on other cookies as well. My daughter absolutely loves this time, and it's special to me as well. I will always remember baking with my little one. Little guys will love this, too! Let them be creative with their designs. You can print up some pictures of fireworks, clocks, party hats, etc. for them to see as a visual (younger children would benefit most from this).
One of the activities my daughter loves the most is painting. I always try to incorporate painting into every holiday. For New Year's, I would recommend you get a couple of your old white socks. Fill them with sand (or fine dirt) and tie off the end of the sock so the sand cannot escape. Use old pie tins (or flat, big bowls) to hold your paint - choose any colors you like, or let your little ones choose the colors they like best. This is an activity best done outside, or indoors with the protection of a sheet on the floor. Put a large sized piece of construction paper on the ground. The children will dip their socks full of sand in the paint (have one or two socks for each color, mixing them might ruin the colors) and then slap it onto the paper. This will create a design that looks like a firework! I've used nylons in the past as well, sometimes these work even better than the socks. You can use sparkle paint to make it look more realistic. The children will love this activity. If they accidentally get a big glob of paint on the paper, don't despair. Just give the kid a straw and tell them to blow at the blob of paint. It will make silly paint spiders, that look similar to their fireworks!
Children can easily make their own party hats with a piece of construction paper in whatever color they like. Let them paint it, color it, sticker it, whatever, and then staple it for them. You can also staple on some strings of paper to the top and sides if you like! Or, the children can help you make a Happy New Year's banner. Each letter gets it's own piece of construction paper (usually cut in half). Make the shape of the letter using glue and let the children glue on buttons, sequins, stickers, noodles, or anything else to make it look unique. Children will feel so proud of themselves as they hang up the banner (letters connected by yarn or string) and see just how creative they can be.
The great thing about many of these activities is that they don't cost money. Most of the supplies needed can be found laying around your home. After all these are done, check out some local firework displays in your area. I hope you all have a happy and safe New Year's. Please e-mail with any questions or comments, or leave on posted here!
No comments:
Post a Comment