Entertaining the little ones on any holiday...

My sisters-in-law are both teachers. I remember a Thanksgiving dinner - can't even remember which house it was at - at which they made a point of providing some little craft thing for the little ones to do while the grownups were visiting.

There were 8 of us grandkids when I was growing up and I remember the holiday dinners and trying to figure out how to entertain ourselves. Oh, we played and there were the inevitable turf wars as the dinners rolled from house to house. But, through my wiser eyes I can see an advantage for the harried hostess to plan ahead of Thanksgiving Day to keep the little visitors busy.

Coloring pages. What a simple yet brilliant idea. Pick one coloring page and print enough copies for each child expected to be in attendance with a few extras "just in case". Thanksgiving means time spent with family and keeping the children entertained leaves more time for the adults to visit. If it plans to be a lengthy visit, print several for each child. Give them a place to color with a huge bucket of crayons and let the fun begin.

My friend Mar has assembled a list of free coloring page resources for Thanksgiving or any holiday. You can find it here .

Yeah, I always fantasized about this Thanksgiving table, too! Courtesy equiLearn at sxc.hu