Father's Day is held on the third Sunday of June in the United Kingdom

Fathers are appreciated for their role in parenting on Father's Day. ©iStockphoto.com/Becky Reed

Father's Day is held on the third Sunday of June in the United Kingdom. It is a day to honor fathers and father figures, such as grandfathers and fathers-in-law. Many people make a special effort to visit their fathers or to send them a card or gifts.

What do people do?

On Father's Day, many people make a special effort to visit their father. They often take or send cards and gifts. Common Father's Day gifts are ties, socks, underwear, sweaters, slippers and other items of clothing. Other people give tools for household maintenance or garden work, luxury food items or drinks.

Many Father's Day gifts have slogans such as "The World's Best Dad", "For My Father" or just a simple "Dad" on them. The increase in print-on-demand services offered by photo processing companies has made personalized gifts even more popular for Father's Day. 

Photographs of children can be printed on desk calendars, mugs, T-shirts, mouse mats, bags and even ties. Many fathers are expected to take these to the office to remind them of their families while they are working.

In the days and weeks before Father's Day, many schools, Sunday schools and children's organizations help their pupils to prepare a handmade card or gift for their father. Mothers and other family members may help children to make personalized gifts, such as calendars with drawings made by the children.

Some families celebrate Father's Day by planning an outing or weekend trip, perhaps just for the male members of the family. This may be a simple walk in the countryside or a whole planned "experience". Popular Father's Day experiences include driving a fire engine, rally car, tank or even airplane or taking a golf, football or cricket lesson with a celebrity coach. 

Other families organize a special meal at home or in a pub or restaurant. A common Father's Day meal is a traditional roast dinner with meat, stuffing, potatoes and vegetables, which can be eaten in a pub and accompanied by pints of ale or lager.

Public life

Father's Day is not a bank holiday. In terms of public life, it is a normal Sunday. Public transport systems run to their normal timetables. Pubs and restaurants may be busy, as people take their fathers out for a meal to celebrate.

Background

There are some suggestions that the idea of Father's Day may originate in pagan sun worship. Some branches of paganism see the sun as the father of the universe. Since the summer solstice occurs around the same time of year as Father's Day, some people see a link between the two.

The idea of a special day to honor fathers and celebrate fatherhood was introduced from the United States. There, a woman called Sonora Smart Dodd was inspired by the American Mother's Day celebrations to plan a day to honor fathers. Father's Day has been celebrated in June since 1910 in the USA. The celebrations in the United Kingdom are thought to have been inspired by the American custom of Father's Day. This is in contrast to Mother's Day, which has a very different history in the United States and the United Kingdom.

About Father's Day in other countries

Read more about Father's Day.

Summer Scholar Sunday #5

Each week, I will feature an activity found in the Sun Scholars Summer Program and share some highlights from our Summer Scholar Families.  We'd love to have you follow along.  If you like what you see, and would like to learn more about my Sun Scholar Summer Program, click HERE.

Rocket Snack Packs

Subjects:    Art

Time:         10+ mins

Supplies:       Paper Tube (Toilet Paper Roll), Foil, Glue, Tissue Paper (red/orange/yellow), Scissors, Sharpie Marker, String or Ribbon, Snacks

1.  2.  3.

4.  5.

1.  Glue a small piece of foil to cover one end of your tube.

2.  Fringe the bottom ⅓ of a rectangle of tissue paper.  Glue the top ⅓ around your tube.

3.  Glue a rectangle of foil around your paper tube.

4.  Create a triangle out of foil.  Add glue to your triangle and lay your rocket on top.

5.  Fill your rocket with candies or dry snacks.

6.  To finish, tie a ribbon around the tissue fringe to close.  Use a Sharpie to decorate.

this is from Week 9 - Space Explorers of the Sun Scholar Summer Program

What have the Summer Scholar Families been up to?

Amy

For Sun Scholars this week, we chose to do The Great Outdoors. This is the week my kids have been looking forward to the most, and finally the weather cooperated. The activities we did were:

Story Time: books about different climates: desert, rain forest, beach, arctic, etc.

The kids enjoyed learning about the differences in each area and then drew pictures of what they thought it would look like.

Picnic of Shapes:

We enjoyed eating foods of all shapes. We cut sandwiches into squares, cheese into triangles, carrots into rectangles, oval chips, grapes, bananas cut in circles and ice cream cones.

Nature Hike:

We went on a nature hike up the local canyon. The kids enjoyed hunting for things from nature. They found more rocks than we could carry, bugs, shells, leaves, etc.  We had a busy week (my little brother got married), so we are looking forward to painting the rocks and doing the rocks around the clock next week.

Miniature Terrarium:

The terrariums were such a fun project and turned out so cute. The kids had a great time building their mini forests and even added tiny plastic animals, bugs, fairies and army guys.

Crafty Clocks:

This project was a great one for us, since my kids are very good at digital clock reading, but not so great at reading analog clocks. We have been working on this the past few months, so we really enjoyed this project.

Fairy Homes and Elf Hotels:

To go along with this project, we watched Tinker Bell & the Great Fairy Rescue. Princess wanted her fairy house to look exactly like the one in the movie, so we came as close as possible.  It was so fun to listen to the kids imagine what fairies and elves would be visiting soon. Luckily we had plenty of doll furniture to borrow from. They left a fairy tea party set up in the house, with mini marshmallows. The hubby and I snuck out after the kids were in bed and left tiny footprints and half-eaten treats. The kids were amazed in the morning.

Tree Through the Seasons:

This was a fun project. It was especially interesting to see how my little ones perceive the seasons. We used different mediums for each season, cotton for winter, tissue paper for fall, pussy willows for spring and grass for summer. Handsome thought in terms of holidays more than seasons, so his trees were decorated with stickers. Stockings and ornaments for winter, pumpkins for fall, watermelons and beach gear for summer and Easter eggs and bunnies for spring.

We had a great time this week! Due to the wedding we didn't get to do as many activities as usual, but that's what I love about this program. You can just do what fits your schedule and save the rest for another time. They are great boredom buster activities.

Melissa

We were off of school this week but I wanted to send you some photos of our Movie Night that we held in conjunction with last weeks teachings!   We showed the original Toy Story. We had about 6 families over. Served Popcorn, Cracker Jacks, Twizzlers and drinks!  Had a blast. Also had the bonfire going!  

 

Emily

I really enjoyed this week, do I say that every time?  This week was perfect for us.  We were able to go camping with a friend for a week, and I was nervous to how I was going to work out the Sun Scholars Activities.  This weeks plans added structure and fun to our trip.  Plus it was a blast to have extra kids and hands to accomplish it.

Picnic of Shapes.  I was doing a quick lunch and just cut the food into different shapes.  The kids loved the picnic and all the different shapes they could eat.  Instead of asking them to eat their bananas, it was funner for the kids to eat their circles.  Plus it was easier to plan the food by shapes.

Nature Hike & Hunt.  We did this a couple of different times.  They loved learning about the different plants and looking for the objects. The kids would run to an object and then run back with grins.

 

Painted Rocks.  I love how these projects all lead into one another.  I used fingernail polish to let the kids paint.  they loved the little brushes and their own paint without making a huge mess.

Rocks around the Clock

Nature Words & Story Time.  Since we were camping we only had a couple of books, so we reread these a couple of times.  Then the kids would use the words they learned when we went on our hike.

Mapping the way.  Since we were in a new place, this was a great idea for the kids.  They complained about it at first, but were super proud of themselves afterwards.  Plus it helped for them to make a map to the fire where we got to eat smores.

Writing with Sticks.  We did this on our hike.  The kids loved writing their names.  We also wrote different words with the sticks.

Over all we loved this lesson.  I wish we had more time to do all of them, we'll just have to come back to this lesson.  We loved running around the woods with each other and can't wait to do it again.  Thanks for this week.

Thanks to the Summer Scholar Families for sharing with us.

We'll see you back next Sunday for our last week with our Summer Scholar Families!

Flower Garden Birthday Cake

We just celebrated my sweet Tatum's 4th birthday.

This was the Flower Garden cake to top off her Fancy Four Affair.

Each birthday I try to make a special cake for my kids.  Though I love baking, cake decorating is not  my forte!

I found this fun idea in one of my favorite books, What's New, Cupcake? by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson.  I love this book because the ideas are fairly simple and the results are so impressive.  Here is how I made it, following the instruction from the book.

Supplies:
Yeah, this one had TONS of items on ingredient list.  However, that is mostly due to the fact that I chose to make a variety of flowers for my flower garden.  Here is basically what you'd need...
- Cupcakes (I'd go with homemade for a firmer cake to stick the flowers into, though not necessary.)
- Green Cupcake Liners (though again, not necessary)
- Tray, for your Flower Garden to sit in
- Pretzels, sticks
- Cookies (sturdy, flat and round work best), one for each flower
- White Chocolate Chips, about 1 cup
- Frosting
- Green Food Coloring
- Assorted Candies for Flowers, I used M&Ms, Mike & Ikes, Jelly Bellies, Gummy Lifesavers
- Assorted Green Candies for Leaves
- Assorted Green Candies to fill in around the cupcakes (optional)
- Marshmallows (for flower petals), I used mini and a medium-sized variety in mine
- Sugar Sprinkles (assorted colors), for the marshmallow flowers

... I added some cute butterfly picks that I found at Hobby Lobby, that I thought were a nice touch.

Directions:
1) Make your marshmallow petals.
Do this by cutting them on the diagonal as shown below.  Set them aside so they can regain their shape.

Choose some colored sugar sprinkles, and place them in a small dish.

Take each of your cut marshmallow petals, and press the cut side into the colored sprinkles until it is nicely coated.  I used two different sizes of marshmallows, and opted to use colored sprinkles to match the color of the marshmallow.  I really liked how the medium-sized marshmallows looked on the finished flowers.

2)  Create your flowers!

Line your cookies up on a try.  I had 20 cupcakes to decorate, so I chose 20 cookies.  I also found it helpful to pre-sort my candies by color so I could quickly grab what I needed before my chocolate had set.  Once I had everything ready....

... I put 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips in a ziplock bag.  Place THE OPEN BAG in the microwave for 10 second intervals, mushing the chocolate in between each, until it is completely melted (may take about a minute).  Remove the air from the bag, and seal it.

Snip about 1/4" from the corner of your bag, and you are ready to pipe your chocolate!

See what I'm doing here?  Not a good idea.  I thought the chocolate would take longer to set than it did.  My recommendation would be to work on 2 or 3 AT THE MOST at a time.  One at a time might be a little too runny to easily decorate without your candies slipping out of place.

Pipe chocolate onto your cookie, and decorate it to your liking with your assorted candies and prepared marshmallow petals.  After a bit my chocolate was getting too "cool" and hard to work with.  I just popped it back in the microwave for 10 seconds, and we were back in business.

Here are my finished flowers.  Perhaps you can select some favorites from mine and copy them rather than experiment until you find one you like.

Note: I made the flowers the night before the party.  Cover them and hide them from the kids... :)

4) Prepare your cupcakes.
I know... I cheated.  I used store-bought frosting and added green food coloring to make it a nice, grassy green.

I frosted each cupcake, added some green sugar sprinkles to the top, and placed them on the tray.

Next, I filled in the gaps with all of the green candies I had stolen from my flower candy supply.

5)  Add your stems to the flowers.
The original instructions didn't call for this, but I happened to have some green candy melts on hand.  I chose to dip my pretzel sticks in the green candy melts.  I did this for two reasons.... 1, because I thought they would look nicer... and 2, because sticking a pretzel in a moist cupcake will cause the pretzel to get all soggy. Ick!

I melted my candy melts as directed on the package, rolled each pretzel stick in each, and let them set on a piece of wax paper.

Next, I melted another 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips in a small glass dish, as directed on the package (in the microwave for 30 second intervals).  I found that it worked best to lay the flowers upside-down, roll the end of the pretzel in the white chocolate, and rest it in place on the back of the flowers.  I then added white chocolate over top of that to make sure it was nice and "glued" into place.  You may have to hold the pretzel in place for a bit to allow it to set... or find a crafty way to rest it in place while you work on the next.

I transferred these to the fridge to allow them to completely set, about 5 minutes.  Set these aside, and add to your cupcakes right before you are ready to display your cake.

6) Arrange your flower garden.
I used green fruit slice candies for the leaves.  They were a little thick, so I cut them in half.  They were a perfect shape, I thought.

Place a flower into each cupcake.  Add a leaf or two to the base.  I rested my leaves in the frosting at an angle on most.  I also added some cute little butterfly picks.  Isn't it pretty?

We added flowers directly onto our extra cupcakes.  Charlotte had fun designing some of these.

And the finished display...

I thought it looked so pretty on the table!

A couple of thoughts...

*   The candy flowers were very heavy.  Little, if any, of the pretzel stem was left showing, as I had to insert them fairly deep to support the weight of the flowers.  I am not sure if there would be a better option.... perhaps a thicker pretzel?

*   Next time I may use green food coloring in the cake as well....

Happy Birthday Tater-Bug!!

Sunday Thought & Inspiration

Photo via ~ publicdomainpictures.net

Your hands made me and formed me;
give me understanding to learn Your commands.
Psalm 119:73

paper pieced cr84fn

hiya!
here's my entry for kraftin kimmie and cr84fn =)
ENJOY!

here's the colour challenge:



here's my card:



challenges:
1) cr84fn - http://cr84fncolorchallenge.blogspot.com/2011/06/cr84fn31.html
2) kraftin kimmie - http://kraftinkimmiestamps.blogspot.com/2011/06/challenge-81-cut-it-out.html

Fathers Day Activities

Fathers Day Activities

1. Cool Cards for Dad:

• COUPON CARD FOR DAD
• DAD CARD
• TIE CARD
• DELIGHTFUL DOG CARD
• CUTE CAT CARD
• BROWN PAPER AND RIBBON CARD
• SCARY POP-UP CARD
• All-Purpose Check-Off Card

2. Frames You Can Make for Your Father:

• TWIG EASEL
• DAD FRAME
• RUSTIC TWIG FRAME
• FOAM PICTURE FRAME
• PLASTIC PICTURE FRAME
• STAMP DESK SET CRAFT
• WALL POCKET
• PRETEND STAINED GLASS

3. Miscellaneous Father's Day Worksheets to Print:

• Find 8 Adjectives Describing Your Father
• Father: Draw and Write
• Father Acrostic Poem
• Write Ten Things About Your Dad
• Father's Day Spelling Word Questions
• Match the Syllables: Father's Day Words
• Father's Day: Word Hunt Worksheet
• Essay Topic: How Are You Like Your Father?
• Essay Topic: The Best Advice Your Father Gave You

4. Father's Day Books to Print:

• My Dad and I...
• My Father...

5. Family Tree Crafts:

• FAMILY TREE
• PAPER FAMILY TREE
• SEMI-CIRCULAR ANCESTRY CHART
• FAMILY COLLAGE

Fathers Day England

Fathers Day England

The Fathers Day England date is the same date of Fathers Day USA.

its third sunday of June, therefore there will be no any fix date.

in 2011 Fathers Day England date is 19 June 2011, Sunday.