Room mom? Me? Um…

TL;DR – everything you need to know is in this e-book!

Several weeks ago, there was a plea from the PTA for room moms for both my kids’ classes.

I said I’d take both.

There’s a sucker born every minute.

The first of my assignments is the Halloween party. The only problem? (well, ok, one of the many) I’m now in charge of two parties that are scheduled for the exact same date and time. So there’s that.

And then there’s the other issue – I have no freaking idea how to plan a Halloween party for kindergartners OR fourth graders.

I don’t know why, but I was completely overwhelmed by the thought of planning these parties. I consider myself a fairly competent person, but this just threw me for a loop.

I figured I’m not the only stumped room mom out there, so I thought I’d share some of the resources I’ve come across.

I bring you…

First of all, VolunteerSpot.com.

They have all kinds of resources, but the thing I found most helpful is their Classroom Party Guide eBook. They’ve got ideas for all kinds of parties, including Halloween, and I’m swiping several of their suggestions for games.

I actually found that site on a post from TeachMama.com, which also had all kinds of helpful information. I completely and totally ripped off her Classroom Parent Letter. Because despite the fact that I routinely write letters for work that are sent to tens of thousands of people, I seriously could not come up with a letter asking for help with the parties all by myself.

The third site I found that’s been extremely helpful is SignUpGenius.com.

This is basically a site that allows you to organize volunteers and events electronically. You build a “sign up” with one of their templates (they have a theme for every event you could imagine) and say what you need people to do or bring, and then send out a link to your volunteers. They just check off what they want to sign up for, and the site sends you an email alert. It’s very simple and pretty brilliant. The thing I love MOST about it is that it doesn’t require volunteers to register for the site or log in or anything. They just click what they want to bring and type their name – easy peasy. I sent sign ups out for both my parties yesterday and the volunteer spots are almost full already.

Plus, it prevented me from having to actually pick up the phone and call people. WIN.

So, that’s what I’ve learned about being a room mom so far. Oh, I have also learned one more thing – parents of kindergartners are very eager to help. Parents of fourth graders are pretty much over it.

I shall report back after the actual parties take place – I’m sure I’ll have many more lessons learned by that point!

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