Works for me Wednesday: Identifying the kids in your group while in public places

I flaked on Menu Plan Monday this week, so I thought it fitting to get a post ready for Works for Me Wednesday instead!

 

When Connor turned 6 last month, we hosted his first real "kid" birthday party.  Both Plan A and Plan B were field trips to public places/events and as Todd and I hadn't memorized all the kindergarten kids faces, I knew we needed a way to quickly ID them all as part of our group.

Plan A for the party was to attend a Dartmouth College home football game (they have a Kid Zone with bounce houses, face painting, balloon animals...the works!), but alas it was raining.  Instead, we did Plan B -- go to the Montshire Museum, which is a highly regarded kids science museum. 

As you can see from the above photos, we used strands of green party beads (12 in a pack from iParty, under $2-3) as part of the "goodie bag"... and then had a physical reminder of who was in the group.  The kids did a great job and didn't try to take them off, which I was pleased about as the group was mostly young boys.

Of course, we also invited parents of the 6 friends to join us, so the parents each kept an eye on their own child as well. ;)

This Works for Me Wednesday tip would be great for any group activity:  class field trips, scouting activities, big family events.  I would note however that this would be most appropriate for preschool aged children and older who would not chew on the beads, and I would not use this for a sporting activity where running would be expected.  But for our use, it was great!

Check out the other fantastic ideas at Rocks in my Dryer.  Have a great week.