On a mother’s group I recently joined, someone posted today asking for advice on how to entertain 12 under-fivers during a Super-bowl party. I figured I’d share my edited response here:

This is going to sound uber anal of me, but I write up a list of things to do as a reference. I rarely need to look back at it during the party, but it helps get rid of those "what was I thinking???" jitters. Even worse! For my kids’ birthday parties, I make up a time-line of what will (ideally) happen when.

Babies will be taken care of by their parents, so no need to have anything ready for them other than a quiet place for naps & nursing, and some whole milk.

For the olders:

*** Don’t bring everything out at once, but bring them out slowly, as needed ***

Ask each parent to bring their child’s favorite CD to share with the other kids. It’s also a nice way for parents to discover tunes they haven’t heard a zillion times. I’m in a Very Small Apartment, so I designate bedrooms as play areas. My kids always like to have dance parties in their room (it also helps keep the noise away from the game).

You can recruit the four and five year olds to help "care" for the littler ones — they love the responsibility and take it very seriously.

• Set up a table with printables. Pre-school aged kids really like doing "homework."
• Coloring pages (also from the web) are also a good thing to have for kids (who don’t eat crayons anymore). I’ll usually print ‘em up following a theme like Jungle, Zoo, Elmo… whatever they’re into these days You’ll need several of each design to prevent water works.
• Crayons, safety scissors, glue sticks & stickers. Only set out markers if you aren’t worried about ink getting on things. It will.
• Play D’oh is also a good thing to have handy.

For outside play you can have activities ready to go, but don’t feel you have to lead too much — kids know how to play. They’re pros at it

Bouncy balls & sidewalk chalk are always a hit. Sidewalk chalk is especially fun if you add a bit of water & don’t mind a bit aof mess. Anything you have for your toddler will be just fine for the older kids (they’ll love playing "baby")

You’ll want to have kid friendly snacks like juice boxes, bottled water, mini pizzas, chicken nuggets, fruits & veggies. I bring these out a bit at a time.

Do you have any suggestions I should send this Mom’s way?

These past few weeks have been pretty busy for us. Miss M has signed on to do a school musical, her first ever, and rehearsals are three times a week for two hour stretches. My Man B has taken up piano lessons and spends most of his time practicing or learning as much as he can about his newfound passion — POKEMON. Little T has been napping constantly… which, honestly, has been giving me time to make a small dent in the housekeeping that I’m always behind on.

{update a few hours later: I just re-read that bit & I’m a little freaked out. I’ve only been home with the kids for 4.5 months after working full-time for about 20 years. This is what I wanted, but it’s still odd to read and know this person is me. Oh, and I’m wearing an apron! I’m totally in love with my apron. You should see my mini-van with all the kid crap stuff strewn about…}

Everyone is too wiped out for much crafting or much of anything else outside of that so I don’t have too many new projects to share just now.

Instead, I thought you might be interested to check out some of my all-time Favorite kid activity books. Let me know in the comments if there are others I should check out from the library.

I CAN MAKE A RAINBOW
The copy I have is one my Mom bought me when I was a kid and needed entertaining (it’s dated 1976!). I rediscovered this book when we visited her back East last summer and I have had such fun going though it again for ideas. At eight years old, Miss M is at the perfect age for a book like this. With 300 pages of fun ideas, she’s guaranteed to find a bit of inspiration on her own (leaving Mom a bit of time to chase the youngers).

NATURE’S ART IN A BOX
I bought this one for the kids a year ago for Christmas. I find it fun to give a quick glance through before heading out on a leafy adventure. We’ve made several of the projects described in the book and they are treasured mementos.

DOING ART TOGETHER
This is one for parents and teachers. I find it a bit academic — not especially light-hearted as I like my muses to be. HOWEVER, it is full of very detailed instruction for introducing young ones to Art. My only regret with the edition I have is that the images are in black and white. Color is almost always what catches my attention.

Ever since mentioning my delight at having my Paumes books in hand, I’ve been trying to understand what about the experience was so familiar. After several days of ruminating this I finally figured it out — My Père Castor Books!

When I was little I had a boxed set of French word books, L’imagier du Père Castor published by Flammarion in 1952 (they were already old books when they got to me). I loved them. Really, truly loved them. I could easily browse through my eight little books for hours on end, and find something new and beautiful with each reading. (more…)

In Maggie’s art class the children were asked to draw three self portraits. The first is a baby picture. The second as they see themselves in a few years time. The last as they will look when they are old.

After they completed the self portraits they were asked to write a bit about the person in the picture.

I found it so interesting to see what my daughter thought about life at each of these stages. I’ll have to make sure to tell her that you do not have to stop reading when you get old!

FamilyFun.com has a really great tutorial on how to make a dollhouse out of recycled materials.

I made a similar one with my sister some thirty years ago (shhh… I’m in denial that I actually just said that), and I still remember it as a wondrous thing. Full of beautifully framed pictures, upholstered furniture, and lovely wallpaper. I’m pretty sure we’d also figured out nice floor treatments, but my memory is getting a bit foggy.

I’m planning to show this to Miss M later today. I know she will be similarly inspired!