Birthdays are one of the best moments in life. No matter how old we get, we long for the day which comes once in a year. Be it a child, a teenager, an adult, or an elderly person, birthdays are always special. When we have someone to celebrate it with us, the excitement and happiness is large.
Children are the “little bundle of happiness”. They are power-packed and are always super energetic. When this is with normal days, just imagine them on their birthdays. They would be super-duper dynamic and zestful.
For such a cheerful child, it is necessary to make their born day much memorable and happy to cherish throughout the year. Up to a certain age, say 2 years, children don’t have an idea on birthdays and the birthdays are just another usual day for them.
After that, they start to observe and learn a lot. They relate when someone in their class celebrates their birthday. Later, they dream about their special day and wish to make it as dreamy as the fairylands.
Dreams and Birthdays
Some of us, as parents love to have a grandeur celebration with themed birthday celebrations, party halls, splendid return gifts, an expensive cake, an extravagant party and buffet food.
Some celebrate their child’s birthdays in a temple by praying to god, some visit an orphanage with their child and donate whatever they can, some take their child to new places and some arrange a get-together function along with their family & relatives.
However, the celebration is, our ultimate motive is to keep our child happy on the day they entered our lives. Research shows that, children who celebrate birthdays are good at handling emotions, have a healthy relationship, feel secure, and confident.
A School Celebration
Celebrations can just be blowing out a candle and cutting a cake. This reassures the child that they are valued and it improves their overall well-being. Celebrations in the home are often customized.
But this cannot be followed in a social environment which is common for everybody like schools, colleges, or temples. We frequently find kids enjoy their birthday in a school environment with their friends to a greater extent than being at home.
As a fellow mommy, I share an idea of what to look out for when you want to celebrate your child’s birthday at school.
Rules and Snacks
The First and foremost thing that every parent should be mindful of is the rules and regulations followed by the school. Few institutions might not allow wearing a colorful dress, some don’t encourage distributing candies and some don’t even entertain birthday celebrations. So, it is important to be aware of them.
It is best to avoid sweets/candies/cakes for distribution among students. The parents along with the birthday child can prepare a snack the day before birthday like savories. It may be samosas, cookies, sandwiches, vegetable rolls, or muffins.
These are some healthier and tummy-filling snack options to distribute to the kids. This actually creates a bonding among family members at the same time the child enjoys the process.
If snacks /food items are prohibited by the school administration for distribution, a pack of school goodies can be given to each student. This can be a pouch that contains a scale, pencil, eraser, sharpener, and coloring kits.
Gifts and Responsibility
The child can also gift a book on every birthday to the library mentioning his name, age, and year. It would be a useful and responsible gift by the kid. It is good to inculcate habits that help others right from childhood.
Apart from books, planting a sapling in the school can also be done every year if the school management permits. This sets as an example for other children.
A small gift can be given to the teachers who handle the child. This is just a small token of love. It may be a good book, a Dhronacharya figurine, or any figurines that the kid love to give his guru. Eco-friendly gift options like a small succulent pot or a small-seeded statue can also be given. The seeded statue, when watered in a pot, grows into a plant.
Eco-friendly return gifts like ceramic piggybanks, wooden clippers, recycled paper pocket notepads, fridge magnet, and cute wooden pen stands can be gifted to the class friends. Eco-friendly choices not only make it safer to earth but also make the children environment cautious.
When a child gets to know the reason behind using them, it automatically benefits the pillars of the future generation. This means our future is in safe hands. “Word of mouth” plays a major role in such a case. This spreads too many people in turn.
Collect Memories
The birthday child can bring an autograph note to collect everyone’s wish in the class along with their names. This would be a sweet memory for the child to look back. Instead of an autograph note, it can also be the child’s old & unused white shirt. A fabric writing pen would suffice.
This way of collecting wishes will make the students much excited. Apart from classmates, the birthday child can also take this as a chance to develop a friendship with fellow children whom he travels within van, extra-curricular classes if the child attends any.
A video can be customized for the birthday child by parents along with his friend's help. This can be a collage of the whole year memories, activities, and special occasions of the birthday child, which has both his friends and family members. With approval from school administration, the video can be played during circle time or common prayer. This definitely surprises the child.
Apart from the above-mentioned things, friends of the birthday child together can make small role-plays, read his favorite story, sing a song, dance together, have fun activities, and play a “treasure hunt” game during their leisure/ break times. Initially, the clues need to be guessed by the child, and later the clues guides’ way to find the gift.
The return gifts can be hidden in the play and can let the children seek and find them with fun. This definitely will become a big hit.
The happiness of an adult and the happiness of a child are usually different. A child’s happiness is not always from materialistic things. Memories with no money value attached to it sometimes bring a lot of joy and fun to them. As a parent, we always go above and beyond to bring a smile on those cute little faces.
Because it is after all the big day of our superheroes!!!