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Back-to-School Celebrations

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Are back-to-school parties more for the parents or the kids?

After all, I don’t know many children who joyfully celebrate the end of summer and their subsequent freedom to stay up late, sleep in, and hang out at the pool, park or beach all day.

Still, the long Labor Day weekend begets partying whether your child is in the mood or not. Whether you choose to host a back-to-school theme or a more subdued late-summer event, consider taking advantage of the ability to celebrate outdoors as Old Man Winter will be here before you know it.

Back-to-school shindigs don’t have to be elaborate affairs. Rather, you could simply invite your favorite friends, neighbors, or families whose children are the same age as your own. If you decide to gather clans with kids, you might consider hosting a back-to-school backyard book swap party.

This party idea requires going through your children’s bookshelves and weeding out the titles they have outgrown or simply have no interest in reading again. Your party guests should do the same at their homes and bring their unwanted reading material to your party. Depending on how many people you are inviting, you may want to put a cap on the number of books each guest should bring. A safe number is between five and ten.
Since the idea behind the book swap is to get rid of old books and take home a few new titles, you don’t want some families showing up with 50 books while others only bring two.

Once all of your guests have arrived, get organized by displaying their literary contributions on a series of tables, making sure that each of the titles is plainly visible and people are able to access them easily.

Before you start the book swap, have each guest draw a number noting which order they can browse the tables. Depending on the size of your party, you might consider putting a limit on the number of books each guest can take home. If there is more than one child who wants the same book, the child who drew the higher number gets the book.

Related Articles:

Summer Fun for Kids in the Great Outdoors

Super Summer Sanity Savers for Parents

Affordable Ways to Keep Kids Busy This Summer

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About Michele Cheplic

Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin. Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism. She spent the next ten years as a television anchor and reporter at various stations throughout the country (from the CBS affiliate in Honolulu to the NBC affiliate in Green Bay). She has won numerous honors including an Emmy Award and multiple Edward R. Murrow awards honoring outstanding achievements in broadcast journalism. In addition, she has received awards from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association for her reports on air travel and the Wisconsin Education Association Council for her stories on education. Michele has since left television to concentrate on being a mom and freelance writer.