Friendship Parties

Some of you know I lead a book club for my kinder and 4 of her friends.

SO. MUCH. FUN.

We meet weekly and after every book, we do some type of culminating activity.  

We just finished The Hundred Dresses.  If you are thinking, "Oh, I love that book" (as I was before we read it for this book club) then let me promise you that you do not remember the book.  Think Streisand's lyrics, "What's too painful to remember, we simply choose to forget."  My goodness, that is one depressing book.  Why a person would put it on a kindergarten read aloud list is BEYOND ME....

Luckily, the deeply depressing message of the book went right over my girls' heads and we are focusing on what we learned about how to be a better friend.

And our culminating activity is a 

Friendship Party!!!

This is so easy to throw together and the girls are really excited about it.  It would be a really fun and easy way to get a group together to celebrate Valentine's Day.  And it could easily be adapted for grown up girls...

Each girl is making a gift and wrapping it.  Understand, the girls are making the gifts themselves.  So, while some of the girls may come with something really elegant and time consuming, my Monkey made a beautiful picture and she made a jewelry box out of a shoe box.  So cute. 

The 5 girls will each bring their gift and we will exchange them by passing the gifts until the music stops and then opening the gift each child is holding.  Then we will have a cute little dinner party (book club is in the early evening, so we have dinner each Tuesday while we discuss our book).  Finally, the girls will present the "show" they have been working on while they wait for pick up after we finish book club.

At home, each girl will write a thank you note for the gift they received.  

So many teachable moments during this fun time: thoughtful gift giving, dinner party etiquette, letter writing, and of course social skills.  Moreover, it's a simply way to celebrate friendship.  And shouldn't we all take more time to celebrate our friendships?