Preschoolers on Shine

Holiday Parties, Preschool-Style

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Have you been reckless enough to invite a bunch of preschoolers over to your house for a holiday get-together? Or did you impulsively volunteer to organize your preschool's December party? In case the prospect is sending you into a slight panic, Being Savvy has a few tried and true ideas for a happy, easy holiday party for small kids. The truth is, the preschool crowd is pretty easy to please, so there's no need for anything too elaborate other than good friends and a few of the following activities:

4 holiday performances we treasure

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We find it especially nice to establish a holiday ritual that involves taking in a theater or ballet performance all together as a family. It's an excuse to dress up, it's an early exposure to live acting and dancing and applauding and, yes, staying quiet for stretches. If your local community theater puts on a holiday performance -- even if your local middle school puts on a holiday songfest -- by all means, take your little one out to see it! If you are looking for a holiday performance a bit closer to, say, your own couch, or if your little one tends to like to view a favorite performance on repeat, consider these at-home version of especially memorable productions:

The Giving Tree: An Appreciation

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Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree is one of the many books that our generation has rediscovered upon becoming parents. It's ubiquitous -- found in every library, bookstore, and preschool classroom. And yet, rereading it again for the first time in thirty (or so) years can come as a bit of a shock. Many parents we know have commented: "It's so depressing!" And on one level, that is perfectly true. A boy and a tree have an idyllic, playful, nurturing relationship that is forever transformed when the boy, inevitably, begins to grow up. Now he doesn't want to play; he wants apples for money. And then wood for a house. And then a tree trunk to make a boat. And then, finally, a stump to rest upon. The tree offers him everything he needs, and each time he accepts, the progressively shorn and mutilated tree is "happy."

Friendship Bricks and Friendship Smacks

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To help them both understand, I made up a thing called "friendship bricks" and "friendship smacks." If you say, "I made this picture," and someone responds, "I can make a better one," or "I don't really like it," that's a friendship smack. It undermines a relationship. If you say, "Good job!" or "It's beautiful!" or even, "Tell me what's happening in this picture," that's a friendship brick. It's a brick in the wall of a friendship.

Why A Handwritten Note Will Never Go Out of Fashion

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All of us who care about our good green earth are doing our best to cut back on paper. We get ourselves off catalog and junk mail lists, receive electronic bills, and bank online; we email, text, and read the news on the web. With a houseful of children’s paraphernalia, the last thing we need is more paper clutter. And since most of the paper that passes through our hands eventually winds up in the recycling pile, doesn’t it make sense to forgo any non-essential paper in the first place?

The Birthday Party Social Whirl

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Sometimes we get a bit frazzled when the wave of invitations splashes onto our family's calendar, but the truth is that nothing -- repeat, nothing -- is cuter than preschoolers at a birthday party. Put kids in this age group around a table with tiny chairs and cupcakes and party hats, and cue the "ahhhs" now. Bring on the smiles and the tears, both ours and theirs for both, and call it precious. Because it is.

Little Book With A Big Heart

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My wife Janice had always wanted to publish a children's book, but it wasn't until we became grandparents that the dream…

Should Preschoolers Toy With Phone Apps?

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Stranded by a thunderstorm, I sat in Dulles airport and watched how the little kids (under 5) coped with waiting. Of the seven in my immediate vicinity, two napped, one threw a prolonged temper tantrum, and three played with their parents' (or at least I hope they were their parents')

SavvyPicks: Travel Tricks of the Trade

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Preschool's out, and the beach beckons! Or Grandma's house, or the lake you daydream about during chilly winter afternoons, or wherever it is your favorite mode of transportation might take you. Walk, ride, fly, float. Do whatever you need to do to plot a getaway! And whether you are packing the kiddies up for a trip across the world or just across town, we thought you might appreciate our tried-and-true Savvy tricks for holding the (sometimes infinitesimally) short attention span of your preschooler during the trip.