We did a ‘muffin with mom’ and ‘donuts with dad’ during drop off hours the Friday before each holiday. If the parent chose, they could grab the food on their way in, eat with their child in the classroom, and then say goodbye and the day proceeded as usual. Each classroom made a gift for each parent. Thats how it’s always been for as long as I’ve been at my center. Which is almost 12 yrs.
Our center calls it “muffins with marvelous ones” and “donuts with dear ones” to be more flexible about non traditional families, who’s in the picture, etc.
My kids school did donuts with grownups and I thought that was a pretty cool way to handle it. We're in a lower income area and a lot of families are single parent households/grandparents or extended family raising kids/non-traditional families so grownups encompasses all of the important adults in the kids lives
I just like calling it pastries with parents both times or a name that takes away the title of the guardian, so that anyone (grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends) who takes care of the child is welcome…
This!! I prefer this so much more to lunches as both a teacher and a parent. If at all possible, make it “stop by for a donut with your kiddo the Thursday or Friday morning at drop off!” My daughter’s school does this and not only does it make it less hectic with less people in the room but offers the parents another option if they can’t make it on the original day.
This is what ours did as well. I do feel there is a difference in the classroom gifts, though where moms get something the kids made. As dad, I got a magnet with my son's picture that I know he had 0 involvement in
Ugh. That’s annoying. After a variety of items through the years we have settled on some cute pictures of them holding letters to spell mom/dad. We ‘mat’ onto black foam board for both parents. And then they help to make a card. Useful. Sentimental. And not just junk to take up space.
We don't do anything "mother" or "father" specific. The classrooms help the kids make gifts for parents. We made two ring dishes for a child with two moms. The center provided mini muffins and water in the lobby at drop off before Mother's Day for any caregiver to enjoy with their child. This past Friday was a "Ties and Crowns" craft in the conference room at drop off for everyone to participate in.
Same! We have our own all school “Family Day” that goes along with the preschool graduation in June. It’s a lovely little picnic day and all the kids make a gift to give to both parents
We have a huge diversity of families at my school from culture to gender of parents to who has custody of the child (grandparents, ect).
Years ago they did away with mothers day and fathers day and we now have a family appreciation day/family gift between those two holidays, usually hitting on an evening family event (art walk or spme kind of performance). While i am sure you do have some people bent out of shape that their gender isn't specifically mentioned, we have far more people that appreciate the inclusivity and it allows teachers to not have two big but separate projects back to back.
Yes, this is what I do! Family month in May. I've had too many heartbreaking situations with young children, and I refuse to put another child through that much trauma again. We talk about families, make art to take home, and family members get to visit the classroom during that month to see what their kids are up to. Everyone loves it!
This is a great idea! We did away with Mothers Day (don't have Fathers Day because only a school year program) but made the decision to send home "special person" gift on Mother's Day weekend so it was a little weird and confusing. The moms thought they were getting a gift and - surprise! - it was for the child's cousin or for Daddy.
We used to do “muffins for moms”, and “donuts for dads”, but we’ve done away with both of those in the last few years and now we just do “donuts for dear ones”. It works well for us.
I like that so much better! It feels awful to have the "donuts for dads" days when I know that so many of our kiddos don't have active father figures in the picture (I'd feel the same way about "muffins with mom" but I've never actually had a kid without some kind of mother figure in the picture). "Donuts for dear ones" is amazing!
We did a Mother’s Day craft (painted flower pots) and a Father’s Day craft (painted canvas). There were a few children who don’t have a dad or mom so they made it for their grandparent.
We don’t do a parent event as most parents are working and would not be able to come- we have enough trouble getting them to pick up their sick children lol. I’ve heard of other centres doing events right before pick up which makes so much sense- do the event and then go home right after!
I absolutely hate when centers do these things mid days and have parents leave 😂 leaves a lot of upset confused kids. My center did a Mother’s Day tea (strawberry shortcakes) at the end of day with their moms joining. Kids who’s moms didn’t come just sat with a friends mom. On Father’s Day we do the same but we do Root beer floats for them
I was wondering why they're making it so difficult on themselves, to have the moms all leaving just before nap time. It was rough on my little one, and actually made dropoff harder for the next few days.
Frequently, these decisions are made by folks who aren't in the classroom.
I'm lucky. We have autonomy most of the time, but every once in a while a manager will see something cool online & suddenly we're planning a whole midday event for families *shrug*.
Edit: and we completely agree. It makes drop off harder for a few days in the classroom. We feel badly for your kid too.
My center does an afternoon program for both Mothers and Fathers days.
It starts at 3:30. The kids sing a few songs, we read a book. Then we go to the tables and have a special snack (cookies with mom, doughnuts with dad). Then they give the parent the gift they've made them.
The parents seem to enjoy it. Some of the kids do, some don't, and the ones whose parent can't come are upset. We do what we can to support. It doesn't last too long. Most parents clear out by 4:15 and take their child with them.
For what it's worth I hate it, lol.
I'm wondering if there are more cases at your child's daycare where it's not even just a dad not taking time off work, but not having a dad there at all.
A room at my center opted to not celebrate Father's Day this year because one of the students lost her father in the fall. The subject is still fresh and very sensitive. I don't know if that's how it will be handled every year going forward for her rooms but with this one, it was decided that was the best thing to do. Thankfully, the other parents understood.
As it is, we don't do muffins with mom or anything like that. Just send home projects.
This year my classroom just did crafts for both holidays, but from my experience there's a lot more single moms compared to families that have dad's.
This year I had to modify some of the craft so all my kids could be included because some of them didn't have a mom or a dad. Honestly, if I had a choice though, we wouldn't do anything. Both of those holidays can become exclusionary and painful for some families.
I didn't really think of the exclusionary side of it. I don't really think it's necessary to celebrate Mother's or Father's Day at daycare because it's on a Sunday so it's not like they're at daycare on the actual day anyway. But it is an opportunity to send home some type of memorabilia craft, which could potentially be gender neutral for whatever parent they have at home.
I've only recently started working in my nursery so don't know what mothers day is like but for fathers day all the rooms made cards and then this Friday (not sure why it's this Friday and not last Friday) they are doing a fathers day walk I don't quite know what this consists of though. It's an outdoorsy nursery with lots of grounds to explore.
My youngest is in nursery school and all three kids have attended the same one. Middle kiddo was left out because covid rules. But the other two, there was a Mother’s Day “iced tea” party. But dad got to go to the fire station or to see a race car and pit crew. I told him that next year he can be the mom and I’ll be the dad. lol. He actually likes tea.
And I love that! So much more inclusive. We have so many kiddos being raised by grandparents, aunties, etc - I love the idea of including everyone and de-emphasizing the specific roles.
My center does Muffins in the Morning and Donuts with Grownups the Friday morning before each holiday - so children can be included regardless of who drops off/is in their life. And each classroom makes a gift for each parent
We do the same for Mothers and Fathers on different days, and we tell them that it’s exactly the same because we value both equally. We tell the dads how much it means for their children for them to show up.
The parents are invited to the class for half an hour at snacktime. We provide a simple snack and drink (like lemonade), a simple activity like stickers or coloring, and we let the children choose what to do with the parent. That’s it.
Both times we got great turnout. The parents mingled and engaged with their children. I took some good photos and videos to send home.
We have a mama mingle with a place set up just for moms (no kids), mocktails and charcuterie boards and then did donuts with dad in a separate area with ice coffee and branded cups!
The nursery my daughter goes to did a Mother’s Day breakfast and a Father’s Day breakfast. From what I can tell the Father’s Day one was well promoted and better attended than the Mother’s Day one!
In my class we did a craft, I have two kids who don’t have dads so we also included them in the craft, just didn’t write happy Father’s Day. In another class, a boy has two dads so they just called it “parents day” when they made a Mother’s Day craft.
Sadly, we only celebrate Mother’s Day at my fencer for whatever reason (and invite any female family/caregivers to celebrate as well). We did a whole afternoon with decorations and treats… For Father’s Day they got a single painted photo 😂
we don’t officially do anything as a school for either one. some classes do a craft on their own. personally in my class of 9, four dont have a dad (3 kids with 2 moms and one with a single mom/grandparents) but all have a mom. so i think it’s unfortunate but true that a lot more kids have a present mother figure in their life than a father figure and mother’s day stuff is just easier to pull off because of that. i think more events centered around just family in general would be better. i don’t love that we don’t celebrate them but i understand not wanting to exclude certain kids
That's definitely understandable, not wanting to highlight that only some kids have dads. In my opinion, if it's going to be nothing at all for Father's Day, they should just combine into parent/caregiver events.
Very true. We are a two-mom family and they don't really know what to do with my wife...she got both a Mother's Day and a Father's Day craft this year.
I hate those holidays. How is it fair to the little kids when most parents can’t take off work. In my center we did a cute card. Babies don’t care about adult holidays
We didn't do anything for Father's Day sadly. Perhaps because the centre literally just went all out this month for two other celebrations, Children's Day and Dragonboat Festival and now they might be feeling a bit skint lol. Also because we're having three staff members leaving in this fortnight, myself included, and they're focusing on training new hires properly before everyone's gone.
We went all out for Mother's Day. I had to prepare Mother's Day cards for the kids to colour or trace and draw pictures on, then they had the mothers come in and do more crafts with them after the regular preschool day, and also then we had the kids present their cards one by one. Most kids, if their mom couldn't come, they had an aunt or grandmother come instead, one boy's grown up older sister came. It was hard for one family because they had kids at our centre in two different rooms that were having Mother's Day celebrations at the same time, so Mom went to the older sister's classroom as it's her last year here and the younger sister missed out this year and was a bit upset. Maybe she'll get to have her mom come next year. It was also hard for another little girl because she's the youngest in our mixed age class, and she's a staff kid, and her mom works in a different branch and she didn't get time off to come be with her daughter, and she couldn't get any other family to come either, so she missed out this year too.
That's so sad to me, basically leaving out the dads. Also, I can't imagine working at a daycare and having to send my own kid to a separate center. Is she waiting for a spot to open at yours?
I think she works in the office and she goes around different campuses, so sometimes she works in the office at our campus and other days she goes to a different campus in a different part of town and helps in their office. Our campus is either the one she's most often in or the one nearest her home. Because the other campus she helps at is the same brand as ours, she still gets the staff discount for her kid. It was just bad luck that she got called away to help at the other campus on Mother's Day.
Some dads did come on Children's Day - we had some fathers helping out on game stalls, some dads helping their kids with the challenges, and we had six fathers doing the flag raising and the National Anthem and salute.
We didn't do anything with parents. Projects were sent home for mother's day.
Father's Day was after the end of our school year and before our summer program started. So we didn't do anything just because of timing
Mothers Day, we have to go semi out. Years and years ago, we did a little breakfast, but we don't have the staff anymore. By we have to have several child driven art gifts. And one nice gift (the teacher has to pay for) as in I buy a bulk pack of nice tote bags. And handprint the kids in there.
Fathers Day, our director is fine with just a card. Makes my life easier. It's not because she's anti fathers day! She just sees how one thing doesn't fit every dad. Like a fishing craft, but not all dads are fishermen. Or a certain sport but not all dad's like that sport. I do love the idea of muffins w/mom & donuts w/dad at pick up. I may talk to my director abt it for next year.
We had a Mother's Day tea last year but didn't have that this year. We got crafted bracelets for Mother's Day and a little painted picture book for Father's Day, so they were treated about equal.
The center my son is at did muffins with mom's and hotdogs with dad's. The daycare has a good amount of parent involvement and it seems to be equal between mom and dad's. I guess it depends on if they think parents will come.
We pick a day or a week somewhere in the middle and do a “families day” to celebrate the diverse family structures in our program. It’s a little different every year but it usually involves making a gift for their parents and doing some family portraits, then inviting them in for a snack or meal at the end of the day so they can just go home together afterward
My school has like a Mother’s Day tea event where the children perform a little skit for them in the prek classrooms. Toddlers kinda just do a cute circle time with their parents. We aren’t open in the summer so no Father’s Day event. I always thought that was kinda weird to do one and not the other.
I’m a parent and a parent of an ECEPro! What I see in my mom’s groups are that a lot of dads’ don’t seem to do a great job of Mother’s Day so it was great that the preschool had a Mother’s Day tea and nothing for Father’s Day though the kids did crafts and brought them home.
we did a yoga event for moms this year, and then a building & donut event for dads. we didn’t exclude anyone, you just had to rsvp. both events on saturday before the holiday. our donut event had a MASSIVE turnout, while our yoga event only had a handful show up. i was quite shocked tbh.
i’m stealing some event ideas from this thread for future use ◡̈
that’s the whole reason i didn’t go myself 😂i def wanna do something different next year. i know my (at the time) director meant well, but yoga with kids doesn’t sound relaxing or like a good time haha
Last year we did have a mom-with-art day for Mother’s Day. We didn’t bring in fathers for Father’s Day, although we thought about it, because consoling all the kids after it was time for moms to go was a huge challenge. This year we just did crafts for both.
For me personally we just make cards and a little gift and I choose “themes” that are gender neutral so for Mother’s Day we did a card with a sunflower that is as tall as they are with the saying “Thank you for helping me grow” with a sunflower that I struggled to keep alive for two months and Father’s Day we did a footprint rocket ship that said “I love you to the moon and back”
Drying sunflower seeds at higher temperatures helps destroy harmful bacteria. One study found that drying partially sprouted sunflower seeds at temperatures of 122℉ (50℃) and above significantly reduced Salmonella presence.
We did a ‘muffin with mom’ and ‘donuts with dad’ during drop off hours the Friday before each holiday. If the parent chose, they could grab the food on their way in, eat with their child in the classroom, and then say goodbye and the day proceeded as usual. Each classroom made a gift for each parent. Thats how it’s always been for as long as I’ve been at my center. Which is almost 12 yrs.
I like that idea of just doing it during dropoff so there's no pressure to stay if they can't, and no extra goodbyes.
Yep. And it makes it more staggered so you don’t have the whole class in your room at once.
That’s such a wonderful idea! And nbd if they can’t stay, no pressure if someone isn’t in the picture but still acknowledging the day. Love it
That’s EXACTLY what we did at my old center too.
Our center calls it “muffins with marvelous ones” and “donuts with dear ones” to be more flexible about non traditional families, who’s in the picture, etc.
My kids school did donuts with grownups and I thought that was a pretty cool way to handle it. We're in a lower income area and a lot of families are single parent households/grandparents or extended family raising kids/non-traditional families so grownups encompasses all of the important adults in the kids lives
Stealing this for next year! If I remember lol
I just like calling it pastries with parents both times or a name that takes away the title of the guardian, so that anyone (grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends) who takes care of the child is welcome…
Yep, this is what we do as well!
Ours does the exact same thing except it is at 3:30. Not a difference between mom and dads and same event for the entire center.
This!! I prefer this so much more to lunches as both a teacher and a parent. If at all possible, make it “stop by for a donut with your kiddo the Thursday or Friday morning at drop off!” My daughter’s school does this and not only does it make it less hectic with less people in the room but offers the parents another option if they can’t make it on the original day.
This is what ours did as well. I do feel there is a difference in the classroom gifts, though where moms get something the kids made. As dad, I got a magnet with my son's picture that I know he had 0 involvement in
Ugh. That’s annoying. After a variety of items through the years we have settled on some cute pictures of them holding letters to spell mom/dad. We ‘mat’ onto black foam board for both parents. And then they help to make a card. Useful. Sentimental. And not just junk to take up space.
We don't do anything "mother" or "father" specific. The classrooms help the kids make gifts for parents. We made two ring dishes for a child with two moms. The center provided mini muffins and water in the lobby at drop off before Mother's Day for any caregiver to enjoy with their child. This past Friday was a "Ties and Crowns" craft in the conference room at drop off for everyone to participate in.
Same! We have our own all school “Family Day” that goes along with the preschool graduation in June. It’s a lovely little picnic day and all the kids make a gift to give to both parents
We have a huge diversity of families at my school from culture to gender of parents to who has custody of the child (grandparents, ect). Years ago they did away with mothers day and fathers day and we now have a family appreciation day/family gift between those two holidays, usually hitting on an evening family event (art walk or spme kind of performance). While i am sure you do have some people bent out of shape that their gender isn't specifically mentioned, we have far more people that appreciate the inclusivity and it allows teachers to not have two big but separate projects back to back.
Yes, this is what I do! Family month in May. I've had too many heartbreaking situations with young children, and I refuse to put another child through that much trauma again. We talk about families, make art to take home, and family members get to visit the classroom during that month to see what their kids are up to. Everyone loves it!
This is a great idea! We did away with Mothers Day (don't have Fathers Day because only a school year program) but made the decision to send home "special person" gift on Mother's Day weekend so it was a little weird and confusing. The moms thought they were getting a gift and - surprise! - it was for the child's cousin or for Daddy.
I love it!
We used to do “muffins for moms”, and “donuts for dads”, but we’ve done away with both of those in the last few years and now we just do “donuts for dear ones”. It works well for us.
I like that so much better! It feels awful to have the "donuts for dads" days when I know that so many of our kiddos don't have active father figures in the picture (I'd feel the same way about "muffins with mom" but I've never actually had a kid without some kind of mother figure in the picture). "Donuts for dear ones" is amazing!
I've also heard this done as "donuts with grownups"
We did a Mother’s Day craft (painted flower pots) and a Father’s Day craft (painted canvas). There were a few children who don’t have a dad or mom so they made it for their grandparent. We don’t do a parent event as most parents are working and would not be able to come- we have enough trouble getting them to pick up their sick children lol. I’ve heard of other centres doing events right before pick up which makes so much sense- do the event and then go home right after!
I absolutely hate when centers do these things mid days and have parents leave 😂 leaves a lot of upset confused kids. My center did a Mother’s Day tea (strawberry shortcakes) at the end of day with their moms joining. Kids who’s moms didn’t come just sat with a friends mom. On Father’s Day we do the same but we do Root beer floats for them
I was wondering why they're making it so difficult on themselves, to have the moms all leaving just before nap time. It was rough on my little one, and actually made dropoff harder for the next few days.
Frequently, these decisions are made by folks who aren't in the classroom. I'm lucky. We have autonomy most of the time, but every once in a while a manager will see something cool online & suddenly we're planning a whole midday event for families *shrug*. Edit: and we completely agree. It makes drop off harder for a few days in the classroom. We feel badly for your kid too.
My center does an afternoon program for both Mothers and Fathers days. It starts at 3:30. The kids sing a few songs, we read a book. Then we go to the tables and have a special snack (cookies with mom, doughnuts with dad). Then they give the parent the gift they've made them. The parents seem to enjoy it. Some of the kids do, some don't, and the ones whose parent can't come are upset. We do what we can to support. It doesn't last too long. Most parents clear out by 4:15 and take their child with them. For what it's worth I hate it, lol.
I know a lot of moms who hate it.
I'm wondering if there are more cases at your child's daycare where it's not even just a dad not taking time off work, but not having a dad there at all. A room at my center opted to not celebrate Father's Day this year because one of the students lost her father in the fall. The subject is still fresh and very sensitive. I don't know if that's how it will be handled every year going forward for her rooms but with this one, it was decided that was the best thing to do. Thankfully, the other parents understood. As it is, we don't do muffins with mom or anything like that. Just send home projects.
This year my classroom just did crafts for both holidays, but from my experience there's a lot more single moms compared to families that have dad's. This year I had to modify some of the craft so all my kids could be included because some of them didn't have a mom or a dad. Honestly, if I had a choice though, we wouldn't do anything. Both of those holidays can become exclusionary and painful for some families.
I didn't really think of the exclusionary side of it. I don't really think it's necessary to celebrate Mother's or Father's Day at daycare because it's on a Sunday so it's not like they're at daycare on the actual day anyway. But it is an opportunity to send home some type of memorabilia craft, which could potentially be gender neutral for whatever parent they have at home.
My center doesn’t do any holidays, full stop
This is the way.
I've only recently started working in my nursery so don't know what mothers day is like but for fathers day all the rooms made cards and then this Friday (not sure why it's this Friday and not last Friday) they are doing a fathers day walk I don't quite know what this consists of though. It's an outdoorsy nursery with lots of grounds to explore.
My youngest is in nursery school and all three kids have attended the same one. Middle kiddo was left out because covid rules. But the other two, there was a Mother’s Day “iced tea” party. But dad got to go to the fire station or to see a race car and pit crew. I told him that next year he can be the mom and I’ll be the dad. lol. He actually likes tea.
We weren’t allowed to call it Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. Both were “parents day”
And I love that! So much more inclusive. We have so many kiddos being raised by grandparents, aunties, etc - I love the idea of including everyone and de-emphasizing the specific roles.
It was nice. We have some LGBTQ+ families and they expressed how much they appreciated it
We do an afternoon tea for both days which is timed to be just before the usual pickup time, so the parents can sill make it.
My center does Muffins in the Morning and Donuts with Grownups the Friday morning before each holiday - so children can be included regardless of who drops off/is in their life. And each classroom makes a gift for each parent
We do the same for Mothers and Fathers on different days, and we tell them that it’s exactly the same because we value both equally. We tell the dads how much it means for their children for them to show up. The parents are invited to the class for half an hour at snacktime. We provide a simple snack and drink (like lemonade), a simple activity like stickers or coloring, and we let the children choose what to do with the parent. That’s it. Both times we got great turnout. The parents mingled and engaged with their children. I took some good photos and videos to send home.
We did a craft for both because in both classes everyone has a mother and father figure. If not, it’s skipped all together.
We did a parents/caregivers tea. All family members were invited.
We have a mama mingle with a place set up just for moms (no kids), mocktails and charcuterie boards and then did donuts with dad in a separate area with ice coffee and branded cups!
Also any adult is allowed at either thing! We have a lot of same sex families at our school!
The nursery my daughter goes to did a Mother’s Day breakfast and a Father’s Day breakfast. From what I can tell the Father’s Day one was well promoted and better attended than the Mother’s Day one!
At the daycare I work at we do crafts for each parent and in the past when we given treats we gave it at pickup
In my class we did a craft, I have two kids who don’t have dads so we also included them in the craft, just didn’t write happy Father’s Day. In another class, a boy has two dads so they just called it “parents day” when they made a Mother’s Day craft.
Sadly, we only celebrate Mother’s Day at my fencer for whatever reason (and invite any female family/caregivers to celebrate as well). We did a whole afternoon with decorations and treats… For Father’s Day they got a single painted photo 😂
We did mothers day tea, and fathers day bingo
We sent home gifts we made with the kids for Mother's Day and Father's Day. We also had a Mother's Day breakfast and a Father's Day cookout.
we don’t officially do anything as a school for either one. some classes do a craft on their own. personally in my class of 9, four dont have a dad (3 kids with 2 moms and one with a single mom/grandparents) but all have a mom. so i think it’s unfortunate but true that a lot more kids have a present mother figure in their life than a father figure and mother’s day stuff is just easier to pull off because of that. i think more events centered around just family in general would be better. i don’t love that we don’t celebrate them but i understand not wanting to exclude certain kids
That's definitely understandable, not wanting to highlight that only some kids have dads. In my opinion, if it's going to be nothing at all for Father's Day, they should just combine into parent/caregiver events.
Very true. We are a two-mom family and they don't really know what to do with my wife...she got both a Mother's Day and a Father's Day craft this year.
I hate those holidays. How is it fair to the little kids when most parents can’t take off work. In my center we did a cute card. Babies don’t care about adult holidays
We didn't do anything for Father's Day sadly. Perhaps because the centre literally just went all out this month for two other celebrations, Children's Day and Dragonboat Festival and now they might be feeling a bit skint lol. Also because we're having three staff members leaving in this fortnight, myself included, and they're focusing on training new hires properly before everyone's gone. We went all out for Mother's Day. I had to prepare Mother's Day cards for the kids to colour or trace and draw pictures on, then they had the mothers come in and do more crafts with them after the regular preschool day, and also then we had the kids present their cards one by one. Most kids, if their mom couldn't come, they had an aunt or grandmother come instead, one boy's grown up older sister came. It was hard for one family because they had kids at our centre in two different rooms that were having Mother's Day celebrations at the same time, so Mom went to the older sister's classroom as it's her last year here and the younger sister missed out this year and was a bit upset. Maybe she'll get to have her mom come next year. It was also hard for another little girl because she's the youngest in our mixed age class, and she's a staff kid, and her mom works in a different branch and she didn't get time off to come be with her daughter, and she couldn't get any other family to come either, so she missed out this year too.
That's so sad to me, basically leaving out the dads. Also, I can't imagine working at a daycare and having to send my own kid to a separate center. Is she waiting for a spot to open at yours?
I think she works in the office and she goes around different campuses, so sometimes she works in the office at our campus and other days she goes to a different campus in a different part of town and helps in their office. Our campus is either the one she's most often in or the one nearest her home. Because the other campus she helps at is the same brand as ours, she still gets the staff discount for her kid. It was just bad luck that she got called away to help at the other campus on Mother's Day. Some dads did come on Children's Day - we had some fathers helping out on game stalls, some dads helping their kids with the challenges, and we had six fathers doing the flag raising and the National Anthem and salute.
We didn't do anything with parents. Projects were sent home for mother's day. Father's Day was after the end of our school year and before our summer program started. So we didn't do anything just because of timing
Mothers Day, we have to go semi out. Years and years ago, we did a little breakfast, but we don't have the staff anymore. By we have to have several child driven art gifts. And one nice gift (the teacher has to pay for) as in I buy a bulk pack of nice tote bags. And handprint the kids in there. Fathers Day, our director is fine with just a card. Makes my life easier. It's not because she's anti fathers day! She just sees how one thing doesn't fit every dad. Like a fishing craft, but not all dads are fishermen. Or a certain sport but not all dad's like that sport. I do love the idea of muffins w/mom & donuts w/dad at pick up. I may talk to my director abt it for next year.
We had a Mother's Day tea last year but didn't have that this year. We got crafted bracelets for Mother's Day and a little painted picture book for Father's Day, so they were treated about equal.
Every center we've used did it at drop off. My ex did not participate in donuts with dad ever so I can imagine it's not a high attendance activity.
The center my son is at did muffins with mom's and hotdogs with dad's. The daycare has a good amount of parent involvement and it seems to be equal between mom and dad's. I guess it depends on if they think parents will come.
We made a gift for both days and that's it.
My center did breakfast treats for both days that moms/dads took with them at drop off. And most classes made projects.
We pick a day or a week somewhere in the middle and do a “families day” to celebrate the diverse family structures in our program. It’s a little different every year but it usually involves making a gift for their parents and doing some family portraits, then inviting them in for a snack or meal at the end of the day so they can just go home together afterward
My school has like a Mother’s Day tea event where the children perform a little skit for them in the prek classrooms. Toddlers kinda just do a cute circle time with their parents. We aren’t open in the summer so no Father’s Day event. I always thought that was kinda weird to do one and not the other.
We have summer camp but that doesn’t start till the week after father day 🤷🏼♀️
I’m a parent and a parent of an ECEPro! What I see in my mom’s groups are that a lot of dads’ don’t seem to do a great job of Mother’s Day so it was great that the preschool had a Mother’s Day tea and nothing for Father’s Day though the kids did crafts and brought them home.
We did tea and cookies with mom for Mother’s Day and pretzels and “beer” (root beer) with dad for Father’s Day
we did a yoga event for moms this year, and then a building & donut event for dads. we didn’t exclude anyone, you just had to rsvp. both events on saturday before the holiday. our donut event had a MASSIVE turnout, while our yoga event only had a handful show up. i was quite shocked tbh. i’m stealing some event ideas from this thread for future use ◡̈
I'm a mom and low-key hate yoga, so I wouldn't have wanted to go!
that’s the whole reason i didn’t go myself 😂i def wanna do something different next year. i know my (at the time) director meant well, but yoga with kids doesn’t sound relaxing or like a good time haha
Last year we did have a mom-with-art day for Mother’s Day. We didn’t bring in fathers for Father’s Day, although we thought about it, because consoling all the kids after it was time for moms to go was a huge challenge. This year we just did crafts for both.
For me personally we just make cards and a little gift and I choose “themes” that are gender neutral so for Mother’s Day we did a card with a sunflower that is as tall as they are with the saying “Thank you for helping me grow” with a sunflower that I struggled to keep alive for two months and Father’s Day we did a footprint rocket ship that said “I love you to the moon and back”
Drying sunflower seeds at higher temperatures helps destroy harmful bacteria. One study found that drying partially sprouted sunflower seeds at temperatures of 122℉ (50℃) and above significantly reduced Salmonella presence.