One of the challenges of family get-togethers is keeping the children happy while you are preparing and eating the meal. Many choose to create a separate child’s table for the children can eat. If you choose this option, optimize the arrangement be using the table for activities to keep the children occupied. Stack up some age appropriate children’s games close by. Include some crafting activities to alleviate the wiggles that are natural to children. Be sensitive to the balance of need for attention with the need for independence. In other words, keep an eye on how things are going without over-structuring the activities. You want to be able to enjoy all the aspects of the day, so engage some of the other adults to take turns with supervision. Here are some tips to making the children’s table a smashing success for all.
Start with Setting the Table: Don’t take the fun out of the day by burdening yourself and the children by having them use Grandma’s irreplaceable and highly breakable china. Instead, use kid friendly dishes and decorations on the table. One fun alternative is buying some inexpensive holiday themed dishes; many stores offer dollar plates, bowls, and cups. Besides being worry free, you can use them every year. Be sure to use items that are nice and definitely festive.
Make Feel Special with a bit of Personalized Attention: Make kids feel special with a decorated table. Make, or let them create, a pretty place card. Many office software has templates for place cards; print them plain and let children embellish them. You can use mini pumpkins. Let them decorate them before the meal. Small toys or stuffed animals with kids' names or holding little name cards is another good option. Having some decorations and activities ready when they arrive makes them feel special, and goes a long way towards encouraging behaviors you will all be thankful for.
Take a Tip from Restaurants: Cover the kids' table with craft or butcher paper and let kids draw or decorate with stamps or stickers before and after the meal. Use this activity to emphasis the meaning of the day by having them color, and then share, whatever makes them thankful.
Another quick and easy activity is printing some holiday-themed coloring books or printable coloring pages from the Web. Use them to assemble your own restaurant-style coloring placemats, complete with a small bundle of crayons for each child. Small individual boxes of crayons, as well as other favors, can be found in the stationary section of your local grocery store or pharmacy.
School age children would enjoy holiday printables such as word searches, cross word puzzles, and mazes. A nice touch is to assemble a booklet together before hand, with construction paper covers bound by some yarn, ribbon, or pretty string. Write each child’s name on the cover, and place on each plate for a personalized touch guaranteed to make them feel special.
Turn the Kids' Table into the Craft Corner: If kids are old enough to use glue sticks, holiday-themed projects such as Indian headbands, turkeys, wreaths, woven paper placemats or tree ornaments can keep them happily occupied. For smaller kids, pre-cut parts from construction paper, craft foam or felt so they just have to stick the pieces together. The week before the dinner, put the pieces in lunch bags so each child has a complete kit.
Lunch bags can also be decorated for or by the children for the children to take home as treat bags. Before the day, prepare some goodies for them to take with home with them. Mini cookies, stickers, and holiday pencils are good choices for contents. Place your goodies in bowls or bags and let the children choose one from each as they leave. Receiving a bit of a good bye treat will have them feeling thankful for Thanksgiving all the way home!
Children need lots of attention: if they don’t receive positive attention, it can lead to misbehaving. Remember, negative attention is better than none for children in general. So if children are part of your celebration, a bit of pre-planning and preparation for them can go a long way in smoothing out the day. The suggestions here require minimum supervision, unless the children are under three. This allows the grown-ups the freedom to enjoy themselves as well. Have a great Thanksgiving!
~~Debra Contreras©2009
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