Don’t miss this coming Father’s Day (September 1st!) to involve your children, even if they are very young. It’s an amazing bonding and learning opportunity with plenty of possibilities. Here are some ways you can celebrate and let your kids express how much they adore their Dad even if they can’t speak yet.
Decorate A Sign Together
Buy some bright, non-toxic paint and three large sheets of art paper from a supermarket or store, A3 size or larger should do it. Draw a letter on each sheet to spell ‘DAD’ and have your kids decorate in whatever way they choose. Some great ideas for young kids (provided you supervise them closely) are printing with their painty hands, or block printing; you could carve a heart shape into half a potato and let the kids go wild! Glitter, dried pasta or sequins are optional but always be careful that your kids don’t’ ingest harmful things. When finished, you’ll have a great sign for Father’s Day.
Bake Your Heart Out
If you are feeling adventurous you could bake a sponge cake and let your kids decorate it. For a quicker and simpler idea why not try biscuit icing? You just need a packet of plain biscuits and some ready-made icing tubes. Kids will love icing the biscuits as the tubes are easy to squeeze for little hands. They’ll be delighted by the colours and can top the biscuits with an assortment of sweets. You can lend a helping hand by icing a special biscuit with ‘Dad’ written on it and in turn your kids will help you make any leftover sweets disappear!
Father’s Day Clothing!
Perfect for kids too young to speak yet who want to say how much they love their Dad, you can get infant bibs or T-shirts with ‘I love Daddy’ or ‘I love Dad’ printed on them. You might know a local printing shop or you can easily find an online store that you can get these from. Stores that sell Mother’s Day clothing should be able to help you out. If not, you can order custom stickers that you iron onto blank bibs and T-shirts. This works out a bit cheaper as you can buy supermarket clothes but it won’t look as nice or last as long as custom printed ones.
Go On A Picnic
What better way to celebrate Father’s Day than with a relaxing picnic? Young children will adore helping you choose Daddy’s favourite food to go into the picnic hamper. If your kids show an interest in helping you wash the vegetables for the salad and the sandwiches then you can really involve them by setting up a large bowl of water on the floor and letting them help. Of course, you do the real wash and rinse afterwards! When you’ve finished with all the chopping, kids will love helping you toss the salad. Every Dad loves cookies too, so getting your kids to help you make a fresh batch is a sure-fire way of helping them express themselves.