Boo Hoo Breakfast: Planned for Parents on the First Day of Weekday Preschool
Buy or Assemble: Donuts or a couple of pastry trays from Sam’s Club, Coffee and Coffee fixins – buy the good stuff! Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, flavored syrups and creamers, and the good disposable “to go” coffee cups with lids. We have boxes of tissues everywhere, and even send them out with a travel tissue that has “ BOO HOO – It’ll be ok” owl stickers on them. For 200 enrolled kids, three dozen donuts and a couple of tubs of those tiny mini muffins (or three pastry trays) are usually enough. Not everyone snacks. I usually fill up four of those pump coffee carafes and buy two gallon-size jugs of orange juice. The coffee is the biggest hit. It’s key to have everything set up in a room, not in the hallway, so that It will not distract the littles coming in to school for the first time! Make posters and signs directing the big people to the room. Several of our staff have been known to parade the halls with boxes of Kleenex offering free coffee therapy and discounted counseling. Have information available about your church, extra info from the preschool (that parents may have lost since open house night)- such as calendars, the text number and instructions to sign up for the text alerts, etc.
Our church staff and pastor are available at the Boo Hoo Breakfast and we mingle with the parents and grandparents. We’ve had very verklempt parents who needed a hug; parents who said it’s an “OH YEAH!” and not a Boo Hoo; a mom who went into labor as soon as she dropped off her older child and we sat with her and helped her until her hubby arrived to whisk her off to the hospital; prayer over a mom going through chemo; parents who are new to town and are looking for a church home; parents striking up conversations with each other and making connections. It’s a good thing!
Writer: Debra Stephens
