Make New Year’s Eve Fun for Your Kids

New Year’s Eve is one of the most grown-up holidays, because there aren’t a lot of young kids who can stay up until midnight, or whose parents would want them to.

But that doesn’t mean the turning over of a new year can’t be fun for kids, too. Here are some great ideas for activities related to new year’s that you can do with your kids, for a noon year’s eve celebration or at any time during the days around new years.

Glued to My Crafts has a great roundup of new year’s activities for kids, including making celebratory gak, coloring pages, a wishing wand, shakers, firework crafts and edible party hats.

If you want to include the kids in the grown ups’ party or throw a party just for kids, Sunny Day Family has some ideas for games, treats and a fake countdown to midnight (and Netflix will have streaming countdowns again this year, so “midnight” can be any time you like).

And Making Time for Mommy has tips and ideas for a noon year’s eve party, where you celebrate in the morning and have your countdown at noon instead of midnight. This is still lots of fun for the kids and everyone gets to bed on time. Win-win.

Do you do anything special for new year’s with your kids? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo by pippalou, via Morguefile.]

Lots of Americans seem to think that May 5 is Mexican Independence Day, but that holiday actually falls on Sept. 16.

May 5 is the celebration of the Battle of Puebla, in which the Mexicans defeated the French in 1862. Independence Day marks the beginning of their fight for independence from Spain in 1810. That was the day of what’s known as El Grito de Dolores, or the cry of Dolores, for when the Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla rang the church bells at his church in Dolores and declared that Mexico should be free from Spanish rule.

They would fight for their freedom until 1821 when they finally gained independence.

Fabulous Classroom has a little of the history and ideas for celebrating the holiday for all age groups. There’s also a link to a good video in that post about the real story of Mexican Independence Day.

Twinkl also has a good tops about the history and different activities, discussion ideas, crafts and foods that can be incorporated into lessons at school or used at home.

I also found a few pins that no longer link to a website but include good information on Mexican Independence Day, including some questions for students to answer based on the reading. You can find more printables and questions for kids from TX Homeschool Mama on Etsy (also available in Spanish).

You can find a lot more paid resources about Mexican Independence Day at Teachers Pay Teachers.

Mexican flag crafts are a fun option for celebrating Mexican Independence Day (though the current iteration of their flag has only been in use since 1968). Kids Activities Blog has a free Mexican flag printable and a few different ideas for decorating it including dot markers and torn tissue paper.

You can also find some great Mexican crafts at Red Ted Art. The post includes all sorts of Mexican inspired projects including Day of the Dead crafts, Frida Kahlo pinatas and upcycled musical instruments. I love the giant paper flowers they shared from Honestly WTF.

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