Make your Family Bonding Night a Classic Movie Night

Classic Movie Night
A good cheep inexpensive Saturday night activity and way to bond with your children is to hold a classic movie night. This can’t just be sitting down and watching a movie, you have to do a little more but it can do a lot for you and your children.

Picking a Classic Movie
Choosing a classic movie will give you something to talk about with your children. You can talk about how you felt when you first watch this movie, where you lived and why you really liked it. It gives you a reason to share a little about yourself with your children.

To find a good classic movie you can check out the Turner Classic Movie website. It has a database of movies, lists of what it's playing and tons more.

Create a Setting
Bring down pillows and blankets and make a large area for you and your children to lay down or sit comfortably. Sitting together can help make it a bonding moment too. If you’re all sitting in different seats it’s not as much of a together moment.

Or line some chairs up like a movie theater and turn out the lights, this creates a mood for the children.

Make some Snacks
Letting the kids help make popcorn, or snacks such as banana splits, milkshakes can make it a fun time too. While making the popcorn maybe make a couple of different bowls with mix-ins such as chocolate candy, different seasonings, or caramel popcorn, to make it interesting.

Learning Moments
Depending on the age or age range of your children if the movie has a nice message this can be a lead in to discussing important morals or values you want to instill into your child.

Super Single Mom Moment: These are the movies you loved, why not expose your children to something dear to you!

Birthday Parties! A Yearly Expense

I don’t know about the rest of you single mom’s out there but when I know one of my children’s birthday’s are coming up I start to tear up, and it’s not only because they are another year older! Birthday parties have become an expensive event. You can almost rank it up there with Christmas and it usually exceeds Easter and Halloween!

Why? After you buy all the party supplies aka: matching decorations, the present, a new outfit, party favors, food and a cake do you have anything left for entertainment? I don’t, so I try to find creative ways to bring my cost down. I have already talked about my Ohio Direction card which takes care of the food, cake and snacks. However, even with it I don’t usually have any extra every month so I must plan and budget for these things.

If you have the money to it can seem like a great idea to give store baought party favors. Where do those little toys that you can buy from Wal-Mart and other stores really end up? Mine usually end up in the trash or sometimes as bath toys for a while, because I don’t mind throwing them away.

Instead of giving cheep toys why not give something that they could actually use? A picture or a t-shirt is something they can have fun designing and keep forever. If you give a picture you could buy a cheap frame from a dollar store or make them from Popsicle sticks.Let the kids decorate them as part of the entertainment. T shirts can be bought in packs of 5 and then either written on with cloth markers or puffy paint. These materials can also be used over and over and are somewhat of an investment. Doing cheep crafts with them helps with something to do and gives them something to take home.

I also believe in using things you already have, for girl’s slumber parties, old dress up clothes and make up is an easy way for them to be entertained. Food crafts are always fun too. Have them help bake some cookies, cupcakes and then decorate them. Having a dance contest is cheep and makes for great video's that can be made into keepsakes. The winner doesn’t need to get a prize, they can get other perks, like the first to pick an outfit or get their hair and make up done. There are tons of cheep sleepover games to play with all different ages.

For summer birthday parties a trip to the park is always an A+ with my kids, the playground equipment is the entertainment and all I have to do is worry about getting the food around, the presents opened and taking good pictures!

Super Single Mom Moment: Fun is the most important ingrediant in a good Birthday Party not Money!

Photo by: Heather Camden

The Bond of Siblings

Super Single Mom Moment:When two of your children are so close let them play and strengthen their bond.