As a last-minute service project, provide space for teens to offer a baby-sitting service for parents who need to do last-minute Christmas shopping. The teens baby-sit the children at the school or parish while the parents are shopping. Recommendation: Do not accept children who have not been potty-trained. If you can pull this event together in the short-term, the Saturday before Christmas would be an opportune date.
At the event itself, arrange several stations where the teens can interact with and supervise the children, for example, two or three different craft areas where teens lead the construction of things like Christmas wreaths, coloring projects, or the cutting out of snowflakes from white construction paper. At another station, keep several DVDs on hand. It's preferable to have short thirty-minute presentations rather than full-length movies in order to continually attract the attention of more and more kids. Finally, many teens can spend one-on-one time with the children playing board games and interacting in many other forms of play.
Make sure to go through any proper channels and provide permission slips and sign-in sheets as needed. Keep the teenagers around to clan up the nursery area when the baby-sitting is over.
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