My Experience as a Room Mom

As a stay at home mother it is my privilege to volunteer to be a room mom at my kid's school. Since I have multiple children I have volunteered as room mother for many years and multiple times. So I have quite a bit of experience when it comes to being a room mother.

When to Volunteer

The room mom volunteer sheets are usually up somewhere in the classroom or right outside of your child's class room when you go to parent teacher night at the children's school. That is the evening where you basically go to meet your child's teacher and he or she sits all the parents down to tell you about herself, the curriculum, and what will be expected of your children. If you have a strong desire to be a room mom, ask the teacher where the sheet is and sign up as soon as you get there. Otherwise all of the spots might get filled. Over the years I have experienced class room where 5 or 6 different moms or dads want to be room mothers (or fathers), I have also experienced classes where they didn't have enough volunteers. Since you don't know what kind of class you are going to have make sure to sign up right away.

If you can't make that parent teacher night, call the teacher and let her know you would like to be the room mom or dad but you cannot make the meeting and could he or she please put you on the list.

What Does a Room Mom or Dad Do?

The basic responsibility of a room mom is to come in and assist your child's teacher during class parties. What exactly is expected of you depends on what the teacher wants. All teachers are different. I have had some that have the whole party planned, and have contacted the parents who volunteered to bring stuff, and basically you just have to show up and pass out food and help out with games.

There are other teachers that will want you to plan the whole shebang. You may need to do things such as get a list of people who volunteered to send things for the party and call them all to remind them that they volunteered to bring whatever item or items. You may have to get a class list and call all the parents to ask them if they would be willing to volunteer to send certain things. You may also have to plan a game or other activities to do during the party, and possibly will have to bring prizes for those games.

As I said I have had teachers who organized the entire party and I have had other teachers that left it all up to me. I even had a new teacher one year who had no idea what to do. Lucky for her I was very experienced and told her I would take care of everything.

Talk to the teacher a week or so before the party to find out just how involved he or she would like you to be involved in the party planning.

At the very least you will be expected to pass out the food, and clean up. On Halloween you may need to help kids get their costumes on. Sometimes teachers will have planned craft projects and you can help the kids assemble them. But you could have to plan the entire party and run the whole show. You need to find this out as soon as possible. I have found that the older the kids get the less involvement you have.

Also make sure to ask the teacher what time you should be there, don't be more than a few minutes early this aggravates some teachers as your presence can be a disruption as she is trying to wrap up the days studies. Don't be late either because you could throw off the entire party schedule. Look to be about 5 minutes early.

Many times you will be working with other moms or dads. This may require you talking on the phone or meeting with the other mom or dad to make plans for the party.

Memorable Room Mom Moments

I have been partnered up with other wonderful moms over the years, I have also been paired up with the pushy over bearing know it all, do it all kind of mom, and I have been paired up with the passive mom the kind that says, "Do whatever you want just tell me what you want me to do." I have also flown solo.

The Pushy Mom and The Valentine Craft

The know it all do it all mom was the biggest challenge. This mom that I worked with had everything planned out the way she wanted it done, and if I had an opinion I never had a chance to express it. At the end of her long drawn out explanation of her plan, I just conceded and said what would you like for me to do? It was Valentine's Day and she wanted to do a craft with the kids where they would glue premade foam hearts on to doilies and decorate them with crayons and stickers, etc. It was a good idea. She told me I could make the hearts, and she would bring the doilies, and stickers. That was fine it was a good idea. I spent time drawing out and cutting all the hearts and what do you know she had also made the hearts, and of course she wanted to use hers. Fine, I took my hearts back home and my Girl Scout troop used them for a craft. She pretty much ran the whole show and I just assisted. It was not worth making a fuss over. I just did what I could. This would be the first and last time I ever had to work with her, so I just let it be.

The Carnival Party

Another time I worked with 2 other moms (the younger the kids the more moms). One of the moms came up with an idea to do like carnival type games. This was a cute idea. We each got to decide and pick a game that we wanted to do, and we all bought little prizes to give out to each child after they completed the game. We also had an additional game that the teacher did as well. So there were 4 different little games going, and the kids could line up at whatever game they wanted to do first and then when they finished they went to line up for one of the other games. The kids loved this because they got prizes for each of the games. We had a few left over prizes so each child could do one of the games twice if they had enough time left over.

One of the games was a pin the tail on the donkey type game. One of them was a bozo ball game where they set up 5 little buckets and had the kids try to throw a ping pong ball in to each of the buckets and of course it got more difficult as they went along. For another game one of the moms brought in an old toss across game with bean bags. Another one of the games consisted of 5 lunch bags with 5 small items inside the kids had to stick their hands in the bags without peaking and try to guess what it was they were touching. Since this was Halloween some of the things were kind of slimy and gross.

Right Left Christmas Story Game

There was one year where I was the one and only room mother. I knew I needed to play a game that would keep the kids fairly contained and all in one area. So I decided to play the Right Left game. Basically in the Right Left game you have a wrapped gift. All of the kids get in a circle and you begin to read a story that has the words Left and Right in it several times. After choosing who will start out with the package you begin reading the story and every time you say the work left the present gets past to the left, every time you say the work right, it gets passed to the right. The person who ends up with the package wins what is inside.

I didn't really like the idea on one child getting a gift though. So I went to the Oriental Trading web site and bought several small toys, and several small gift bags. I put a few little toys and a little candy in each bag and I made sure to make each of the bags a little different. Then I stapled the bags closed. Instead of only one package they each had a package, but they had to pass whatever package they were holding left or right. At the end of the game I told them they could each open the package they had in their hand they loved that.

You can make up your own Left Right Game or you can find already written ones here:

http://www.scoutingweb.com/ScoutingWeb/SubPages/ChristStryRL.htm

Another Present Game

Another year at Christmas I wrapped up one larger box and wrapped it up as many times as there were kids in the class. The kids had to unwrap a layer of paper and then pass the package the last one to remove the paper and reveal the box is the winner. At least that is what they think. Inside is a candy bar for that person, but once they open the package you tell the kids that they are all a winner and that there is something in there for each of them. That year I gave each of the kids and inflatable punch ball balloon. Of course they were not supposed to blow them up till they got home, but some of them didn't listen.

You can do this at any time of year.

Bingo Party

Another teacher had pre-made Halloween bingo cards they were pretty cute, of course instead of numbers in the boxes were things like Vampires, ghosts, Jack O Lantern, Witches, Candy, etc. The kids all got M&Ms to mark their cards with and each of the winners got a little prize. This was a slightly older class.

A similiar game can be made for Christmas and Hanakau or Valentines Day. Just use words related to what ever holiday.

Fishing for Creatures

Another year amongst other games we played Fishing for Creatures. I have previously posted an article on how to play this game:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/426338/halloween_party_game_fishing_for_creatures.html?cat=2

You could of course play this game any time of year, instead of creatures you could use fish, or hearts on Valentine's Day with different sayings on them, or different colored gifts for Christmas.

Cookie Decorating Party

One mother brought premade sugar cookies in for the class and several tubes of that premade decorator icing and let the kids all decorate their own cookies.

Ice Cream Sundae Party

Each child was responsible for bringing in an ice cream topping. The teacher bought in enough ice cream for all of the kids, and someone brought in disposable bowls, and someone brought in disposable spoons. The kids all go to come up to a large table and create their own Sundaes. This was really messy but the kids really loved it. If you do this I would recommend bringing a disposable plastic table cloth. You can get them at the dollar store. That way you can just pull off and throw out the table cloth.

Wrap Up

I hope my Room Mom party experiences have inspired current and aspiring Room Moms and Dads. Hopefully you will benefit from my experiences and I hope that I have given you some good party ideas.

I must also highly recommend Oriental Trading for little prizes. You can get bulk prizes for little money.

Remember to communicate with your child's teacher to find out how much involvement and planning she expects from you.

Also decide if you are willing to spend money as well, for prizes or supplies. If not you will need to get other parents to volunteer to send those items.

I also found that sometimes parents who volunteered to send things sometimes forgot. I always put enough juice boxes and enough of some kind of treat in my car just in case the parent who was supposed to bring the juice boxes or the treats forgets leaving the entire class with no treat or minimal treats. That way if need be I can just run out to my car and save the day. If we don't need my emergency stash I can be sure that my family will consume it, but in case of an emergency it is there. I have had to resort to the emergency stash a couple of times.