I used to seriously dread April Fools’ Day, especially when I was a teacher. I really don’t like when people just tell fibs on this day and call it an April Fools’ joke. I also really dislike pranks that are mean or a huge mess or environmentally-wasteful. I do, however, appreciate punny/silly jokes like these:
–Google lets you put a 3D animal into a scene on your phone or for pictures. The kids thoughts these were great fun last year.
–I cut up a bunch of “E”s from brown paper and told the kids I was bringing out a tray of “Brown E”s. (Be sure to have the real thing after the joke. =)
–This year, the kids loved giving their Dada a mysterious packet labeled “bagel seeds” that instructed him to leave them in a tray by a window sill. “No watering or soil necessary!” they wrote. “Bagels will grow in 2 hours!” The seeds were Cascadian Os cereal, and when Dada left the room, we quickly switched these out with hidden bagels I had purchased ahead of time.
(This one could also work with “doughnut seeds.”)
–I also love the good ol’ dessert dirt in a pot. I make the cookie part only from these homemade Oreos, with a lot less bother on presentation, of course. Then we blend them into crumbs and mix with homemade vanilla pudding. Yum! Gummy worms are fun too, but we couldn’t find any this year.
Instead, our daughter decided to include an instruction tag that said we could tell if the soil was still “good” by tasting it.
And here are some April Fools’ jokes I haven’t tried, but sounded cute:
–Switching your kids into one another’s beds, if they’re heavy sleepers.
–Writing “April Fools!” on the toilet paper that they will unwind.
–Stick googly eyes on fruit or lunchbox foods.
–Switch out morning cereal in box with another kind or with popcorn or Legos, etc.
Even our 3-year old got into making up his own pranks this year. He insisted on hanging some long strands of yarn on the wall for Dada to see. Then he instructed Dad to leave the room while he cut the strings to be very short. Sneaky little guy. ha
Anyway, I’m glad that now as a parent I’ve found an appreciation for this first day of April. The kids get so excited to play these good-natured pranks. Instead of seeing it as I used to, a day of feeling gullible or hearing about mean pranks, I see it as a day to be goofy and have fun. That kind of foolishness for a day sounds pretty good to me.