We don't have anything on our calendar except fundraising events and I would dearly love to see us do something free for the parents. I'm planning on bringing this up at the next meeting and I'm sure the idea will be met with resistance unless I can convince them that the event will be cheap and easy. I've scoured the boards for info, have lots of great ideas, but I would love to hear from those of you who have done family nights...what has been your easiest event and/ or cheapest? Thank you !!

Sorry--I should mention that the school already did a reading night so I don't want to duplicate that and I have already proposed a Chuck E Cheese night that no one wants to do --which wouldn't be free anyway.

We did a Family Fun and Games Night with the kit from PTOtoday. We had over 200 people attend! It was a huge hit and we're doing it again this year.

As for work, two of us coordinated the event. We got teachers and some highschoolers to run the games so all the parents could participate. On a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the most work, I'd rate it a 1 1/2. We kept refreshments to veggie trays, grapes, crackers, chips, and juice-most of it donated. I think the whole night totaled less than $100 and actually cost us less than $10 because of the donations! We did surveys at the event and most people asked that we do a low cost meal for the next one, so we'll probably have pizza or hotdogs this year and just charge enough to cover costs.

Even if we had to pay for the whole night it certainly wouldn't have been cost prohibitive and I don't think you can beat an event like that for building goodwill and improving the preception of your group.

Our easiest family night yet was a bingo night. We had free admission but everyone was asked to bring some kind of snack whether it be baked or a bought munchie. We stopped 1/2 through and served the snacks. We sold soda (which we had, we always buy it when it goes on sale). We had prizes left from our cookie dough fundraiser but you could buy things from Oriental Trading. Every child got a prize. All the families seemed to love it. We also had an make your own sundae party this year. We got the ice cream donated and every family was asked to bring one topping. That was fun and easy too. We played some games after the ice cream and it was nice so the kids played outside.

Family Movie Night...we are doing one for Dec 02, 2005. We are not charging admission and we are allowing families to bring snacks/food. We will be selling concessions for a very reasonable price for those who chose to purchase snacks. We paid for the license $50.00 (one time use). We will be doing another in Spring if all goes well, it will be outside on our lawn then.

I'll second the bingo vote... at this point, I think I could do it blindfolded! We sell each card for 50cents. Then, the prize for each game is $5... with $10 for the blackout bingo at the end. We play 8 rounds and name each different game after a teacher... for example, Mrs. Bing's "O" (all of the numbers around the outer edge of the card.) In between games, we give out candy bars to the kids (We're looking for a 4th grader with I-22, for example.) This way pretty much every kids goes home a winner. We sell pizza, soda, popcorn, and ice cream for just a bit over cost for dinner. Usually, we end up making a profit on the evening... though that isn't our goal!

Craft Night has been easy for us... but it does cost more upfront.

Good luck with whatever you do, Writermom!!!
Kelley
Madison PTO
Mount Vernon, WA