When you are the parent who is hosting a play date or a sleepover for a group of kids it often turns into a balancing act of keeping them all happy and busy, without having anyone feeling left out. the longer you have them over, the more challenging this becomes. One way to do this is to have some organized activities planned where the adults are in charge. One thing many parents have started to turn to are kids school projects ideas, like science fair projects, as a fun and entertaining group activity.

Here are some suggestions for how to do use kids school projects ideas when friends come over:

Choose a project that is not obviously a science fair project, or looks like a classroom assignment. If you have a group of middle school girls sleeping over you could do something with shampoo or make-up and see which last the longest or have the most "natural" ingredients.

You can imagine how much fun a group of ten and eleven year olds would have with a fingerprinting experiment or a crime scene investigation project.

A sleepover lets you do the sort of experiments where you set it up in the evening and check the results in the morning.

Make sure there is something for everyone to do. Do not make plans for an experiment that only has four jobs to do when you have six kids coming over. You either set up the same experiment for them all to try, or slightly different ones where each one tests out something different, like they use a different material or different liquid. You do not want to have one person doing most of it and the rest "watching" as that's when they get squiggly.

Be sure you have enough materials for everyone. Sharing sometimes works and sometimes does not, depending on the ages. Sharing scissors never works because they usually need to use them at the same time. Sharing one bottle that one of the ingredients you need will work.

Preparation is key. Get everything organized ahead of time. You want them to come in and let you explain it all to them, and then get busy. You do not want to get them all excited about it and have to wait for you to organize it all. Preparation might mean being sure to have enough adult supervision.

This kind of activity where you bring in kids school projects ideas into a group activity when a group of kids is at your house could save the day, You do not have to worry about kids separating off into groups and leaving kids out. It keeps their attention focused. You use up a hunk of time and keep them away from the video games. Unfortunately it won't help them go to sleep at a decent hour!

Look on my website for some easy science experiments for kids to use not only for a sleepover activity but for your upcoming science fair. Look for kid tested, teacher approved interesting science fair projects that not only can be done quickly, but are scientifically sound in the way they are organized. Making learning fun is so important, no matter if you are working with kids in school, with your kids homework or when you work with kids in any group setting.