Welcoming Committee

Materials:

• Poster board or a roll of paper (or paper bags)
• art supplies

All family members like a hearty welcome home, even if they've only been away for the school or work day, a half-hour errand, or a ten-minute excursion to shovel the walk.

Supply your child with large sheets of paper or poster board and art supplies to make welcome-home signs that can be placed near the door. For banners, provide a role of wide paper or have your child tape together sheets of paper or flat sections of paper bags.

Young children can draw pictures for the person who's been "away," while older kids can write greetings such as: "Hope you caught some rays while you were gone today." "We missed you so much while you went to the store!" "Hope you had fun during gym today."

In any case, encourage silliness! The shorter the amount of time a particular person was away from the house, the more earnest should be the welcome message and greeting ritual. Speaking of which, welcome back from your walk around the block with the dog; everyone missed you a lot!

More on: Activities for Children Ages 6-10

Excerpted from:

© 2005 by Steve and Ruth Bennett. Excerpted from 365 Unplugged Family Fun Activities with permission of its publisher, Perseus Books Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

To order this book visit perseusbooksgroup.com.