Fall Fashion Show, Pretend Travel, & Decorated Gift Bags
some easy, fun activities as you transition to fall
Hello!
Oops, the Monday post accidentally went out on Saturday, so here it is if you missed it: To the Person Who Struggles with Self-Care.
Today we’re sharing three fun activity ideas for you: Fall Fashion Show, Pretend Travel, and Decorated Gift Bags. I hope you like them!
Fall Fashion Show
When it’s time to do some fall decluttering and wardrobe-switching, you can put up this poster and announce the order with which you’ll go through each family member’s clothes. To turn this slog of a chore into more of a strut, host a fashion show!
First, the kids and I simply laid down a sheet in the shape of a long rectangle and hung up the “Fashion Week” poster. Then we played “Fashion Show Music” on the Amazon Echo, drank sparkling juice from fancy glasses, and we took turns holding a lamp towards the models as they walked down the catwalk and showed off their clothes. One daughter came dressed in a robe, concealing her outfit until the very last moment so she could do a grand reveal 😅
This activity is practical, too! We definitely had a “That’s way too small; we have to donate that” moment once the outfit was tried on. It was cool to watch one child’s confidence grow through each new strut, too. I hope your kids enjoy!
Pretend Travel
If you want to indulge your wanderlust without spending a dime, here’s a printable map for you! First ask your kids what kind of vehicle they’ll be taking (horse? flying carpet? hot air balloon?), then pretend to go to the places on the map!
The destinations on this map are a little less well-known than Big Ben or the Great Pyramids, so you might need to do some Googling or visit the library so the kids can learn more about places that interest them. (That’s not worst-case scenario, right?)
Decorated Gift Bags
August and September is high birthday-party season, and this activity is simultaneously fun and thoughtful. Simply buy white gift bags (we bought 25 for $10 on Amazon but they have bigger and nicer ones) and invite your kids to decorate them! Watercolor, colored penciles, markers, gel crayons…all of them should work!
If your kids are very young and/or they can’t write well yet, you can write the main words and let the kids decorate the bag!
By the way, I love The Lazy Genius’s advice to “decide once.” I have already decided what we get for most gifts—which isn’t very personal, but they don’t know that unless their parents are reading this newsletter 😉—so the personalized bags make it have an extra touch! (If you’re curious, we give gel crayons, a drawing tutorial book, and a cheap sketchbook.)
I hope these ideas work well for you!
Warmly,
Hope from Family Scripts
Hope, such an adorable post! I particularly enjoyed reading your pretend travel suggestion. I just signed Emilia up for a “Little Passports” subscription box. The global exploration, from home, for now, I find particularly exciting. I appreciate all your newsletters. Much love xxx
Love the gift wrapping idea! I do this with E with plain wrapping paper. I used to love going all out wrapping gifts according to party themes but our birthday party circle has gotten to big. It was hard to plan, time consuming, and wasteful. So this was a life saver. The bag idea will give E even more of the independence you know she loves. Thank you