Our school's Family Movie nights were such a success this past year that we decided to use Family Movie night as a parents' night out in the fall and then a parents' night away in the spring--a new dvd release on a wide screen in the school gym is SO MUCH FUN...and keeping the kids happy is generally not a problem. A double feature would be just the ticket for lots of us moms and dads!
For the spring, we intend to do the same thing, only just for the moms and dads--a social hour followed by a movie is going to be a great night away from the kids.
Our schools athletic teams do this as a fundraiser. We pay a fee to drop our kids off at the high school and there are parents, athletes, and coaches. The gyms are open for different games like basketball, t ball, volleyball. Our cafeteria is open and there is face painting, a karaoke machine, and an area selling food (Food is the only thing that costs money after the admission). There is a movie room with board games set up. There is sometimes a ping pong table all set up. My kids love it. It is so much fun to hang out with the high school kids and get away from mom and dad hahaha.
I have not been able to convince our school to do this but when I was in elementary school we would have what we called a Lock In Night. It was usually held arround the holidays so that parents could go Christmas shopping. They would ask the teachers and PTO members to come to school in the evening 3 hours(volunteer). Students would be dropped off and start in the cafeteria with some ice cream and then head off to different areas of the school to watch movies or play board games (Always leaving the library for quiet reading or napping). To encourage teacher involement we would give them a set dollar amount based on the number of students in their class that they could be reimursed for things they purchased for the class during the holiday season.
I'm looking for the "how-to's" of organizing a Parent's Night Out. By this I mean that we want to offer our parents the opportunity to drop their children off at the school (very small with small# of students) while they go out for the night.
