Celebrating St Patrick’s Day with your Preschooler

Spring brings such excitement into little lives.  Once again, children can spend time outdoors and beautiful things begin to grow.  Along with Spring comes St Patrick’s Day.  This is a great opportunity to have a little fun with your kids and help them enjoy the holiday.  I heard from some of my Mom friend’s and they had great ideas.  I have added a few of my own and listed them below.

1.)  Explain the meaning of the day – Wikipedia has a great explanation (that can be abbreviated for preschoolers.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick’s_Day.  You can talk about Ireland, find it on a map and discuss the culture and foods.

2.)  Leave evidence of Leprechauns – Put green food dye in the toilet bowl, green eggs for breakfast, finger prints and some chocolate gold coins for lunch, introduce some traditional Irish foods at dinner or try green mashed potatoes! (Thanks to my Mom friend’s for some great creative ideas!)

3.)  Make some St Patty’s Day Crafts – Draw four-leaf clovers, talk about what your kids feel lucky about and help write it on the leaves.  Have your kids help decorate green or gold cookies.  They can even help baking.  Make a Leprechaun mask – use a paper plate, green construction paper for a hat, and orange crepe paper for the beard and eye brows (http://familycrafts.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&zTi=1&sdn=familycrafts&cdn=parenting&tm=39&gps=54_1621_1260_624&f=20&tt=14&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www.thebestkidsbooksite.com/craftdetails.cfm%3FTopicID%3D484)

4.)  Play some St Patty’s Day Games – On the following website I found some great ideas (http://kids-outdoor-activities.suite101.com/article.cfm/st_patricks_day_outdoor_activities_for_kids)  Play Green Clover – It’s the same as Red Rover Red Rover just say Green Clover Green Clover.  This game is played by making two lines of kids.  One line calls ‘Green Clover Green Clover send Suzy over.’  Suzy runs towards the other line and tries to break through.  If she cannot she must join the enemy team!  Have a treasure hunt!  Hide Leprechaun loot around the yard (for example chocolate gold coins.)  Have your kids find them.  You can then have then sort or count the different treats they find.  Play  Leprechaun hide and seek. Take a green hat or scarf.  The Leprechaun gets to wear it and hide.  Everyone else ‘seeks’.  Whoever finds the Leprechaun then becomes the one to hide.

Most importantly – enjoy the day and the luck of the Irish.

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