Tricky Little Leprechauns

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A leprechaun is a type of fairy in Irish folklore, usually taking the form of an old man, clad in a red or green coat, who enjoys partaking in mischief. Like other fairy creatures, leprechauns have been linked to the Tuatha Dé Danann of Irish mythology. Leprechauns spend all their time busily making shoes, and store away all their coins in a hidden pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

If ever captured by a human, the leprechaun has the magical power to grant three wishes in exchange for their release. Popular depiction shows the leprechaun as being no taller than a small child, with a beard and hat.

Children are always captivated by tales of fairies and the idea of a mischievous little leprechaun spiriting around your house this week stashing and re-stashing his pot of gold is almost too good to pass up for a prank-loving grandparent.

Examples of ways the leprechaun can “prank” your grandchild:

1. Stealing a sip of their milk (or water).

A small drop of green food coloring swirled into your grandchild’s drinking glass is all you need to start searching for the naughty leprechaun who stole a sip!

2. Taking a nibble of their apple.

Food coloring on the tip of your (clean) finger spreads nicely onto the edge of an apple or pear slice.

3. Hopping In the Tub!

What happens when a leprechaun beats your grandchild to the bathtub? Green water (or green-tinted bubbles), that’s what.

4. Fingerprints on the Door

(or on the closet, or back door). Two tiny thumbprints in washable ink (think: crayola markers) are all the evidence your grandchild needs to know that silly leprechaun was spying on all the fun you are having this week. Give their Shoes a shot of the green thumb for some extra added mischief.

5. Clovers in the Yard.

What better way to tart guessing than a small scattering of clovers in your very own backyard, or on your porch.  Is this where the little guy is taking his nap?

Related articles

• The Leprechaun (kieraworld.wordpress.com)
• St Patrick Day Party Games (grandmacents.com)

Rainbow Suncatcher Crafts

One of my favorite activities is planning holiday-themed crafts to do with my grandchildren while they are at my house. I especially love when those crafts can be easily displayed and shown off to my friends, or spur adventures and imagination.  Rainbow suncatchers are a beautiful way to start hunts for leprechauns and pots of gold!

Materials

• red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet tissue paper
• contact paper
• painter’s tape or masking tape

Directions

1. Cut the contact paper into a rainbow shape and place sticky side up on a table.

2. Tear up pieces of red tissue paper and place on the sticky contact paper in an arch. Repeat for the other colors.

Related articles

• DIY Suncatchers (myhomelifemag.wordpress.com)
• Lucky Rainbow Craft (grandmacents.com)

Lucky Rainbow Craft

Legend says if you catch a leprechaun he will show you to the end of the rainbow and you can keep his pot of gold. This simple craft lets you bring rainbows from the outside in… you can hang them our use them as colorful toys.

What you’ll need:

• 1 paper plate
• Paper streamers or wide ribbon in rainbow colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple)
• Scissors
• White craft glue
• Piece of ribbon for hanging

How to make it:

1. Cut a large circle out of the center of the paper plate. You will end up with just the rim of the plate.
2. Cut 1 streamer or ribbon of each color about 18″ long.
3. Glue each streamer to the bottom half of the circle.
4. Poke a small hole at the top of the circle and thread a piece of ribbon through it. Tie a loop in the ribbon and hang up the streamers.

Tips:

• Use a pencil or pen and pressing firmly on the paper plate, draw the circle to cut out. Pressing down firmly will make a deep indent making it easier to cut out.
• If you like, cut the ribbon or streamers twice the length, then drape through the circle and glue at the center. This will give you double the hanging streamers and you can display from either side.
• Foam plates are nicer for this craft than paper as they have a smooth outer edge.

St Patricks Day Hat Craft

A super fun hat that can be worn on St. Patrick’s Day by children or grown ups.

What you’ll need:

• 3 sheets of Green construction paper
• 1 sheet of Yellow or Gray construction paper
• 1 sheet of Black construction paper
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Pen
• Tape
• Large circular object (however wide the construction paper is)

How to make it:

1. Trace around the large circular object on the green construction paper with the pen. Use a smaller circular object, place it in the center of the ring you just created and trace around it.
2. Cut out the circle and then cit out the inside circle – tip: since construction paper is so thin, you can use less if you are able to create two full circles, one small and one a ring (the brim of the hat and the top of the hat) in this step by cutting carefully.
3. Edge a second piece of green construction paper with some tape along the longest side, leaving half of the tape showing and unstuck, sticky side facing out, and slide the shaped paper into the center of your ring so the tape is towards the bottom.
4. Use the remaining tape edge to adhere the ring to the rounded paper, forming a “brim” with the circle of paper serving as the “stovepipe” of your hat.
5. Secure the top circle (small circle from the center of your ring) to the top of your stovepipe, thus creating the hat.
6. Cut a strip about 2″ wide out of the black construction paper.
7. Cut a 4″ square out of the gray or yellow construction paper.
8. Cut a rectangle in the middle of the gray construction paper about 1 1/4″ x 2″. Discard the little piece of construction paper. Hint: Fold the square into fourths and cut a square out of the middle of the folded area. Open up the square.
9. Check positioning of the black band by laying it around the hat about an inch above the brim. Cut off any excess construction paper where it meets in the back.
10. Lay the gray or yellow (buckle) over the black band as shown in the photograph. Once the layout is satisfactory, tape in place.

St Patrick Day Party Games

St. Patrick’s Day Parties are often thrown at local pubs for adults, but you can throw your own party for your garndchildren for very little cost by using your imagination.

Games to Play
Any traditional party game can be transformed to fit a holiday. The classic game of pin the tail on the donkey, for example, can be made into pin the stem on the shamrock, or pin the hat on the leprechaun. You can also make a typical bucket toss game into a pot of gold toss by wrapping black construction paper or felt around empty coffee cans or similar containers, and have children toss fake gold coins into them. The idea is to stand behind a designated line and try to get the coins into the bucket to win a prize.

Irish Hot Potato

Supplies:
Potato
Celtic or Irish Jig Music

How To Play:
Sit the children in a circle. Hand one child the potato. Explain to the children that when the music begins they will pass the potato to the person on their right. When the music stops whoever’s holding the potato scoots out of the circle and playing resumes.

This game also provides a great opportunity to discuss agriculture in Ireland. Perhaps they could pass while you talk and when you stop (every once in awhile) the person holding the potato has to recap what you said.

Hide and Gold Seek

Supplies:
A large gold coin.

How To Play:
A child is chosen to be the Leprechaun and hides her eyes as a gold coin is given to a child to hide in his lap or behind his back. The Leprechaun then has three chances to guess which child has their gold coin. (All children hide their hands in their laps/behind their backs like they have it.)

Find the Gold

Supplies:
Construction paper gold coins cut out

How To Play:
Hide the coins while the children are out of the room. Have the children find as many coins as they can. Then have children go back to their tables or groups and count how many coins the whole group has. Highest number of coins collected get to have their treats first.

Lucky Leprechaun Says

How To Play:
Played similar to Simon Says. The player up is “Lucky Leprechaun”. Player will say “Lucky Leprechaun says hop on one foot”. The children will hop on one foot. Player will say “Stop”. The children are to keep hopping on one foot until player says “Lucky Leprechaun says stop”. Repeat for additional activities such as take one baby step forward, step backwards, turn around, sit down. Sometimes Lucky Leprechaun will say “Lucky Leprechaun says” and sometimes he won’t. It’s a fun game to play with young children.

Freeze

Supplies:
Irish Jig Music

How To Play:
Begin playing music, everyone moves and dances until the music stops then they must “freeze” in whatever position they happen to be in.

Shamrock Stomp

Supplies:
Large laminated green shamrocks, taped to the floor, one for each child
Irish Jig Music

How To Play:
Every child begins by standing on a shamrock that has been taped to the floor. Start the music and have the children walk around the room. When the music stops they need to stand on a shamrock or they’re out. Remove one shamrock after each musical segment.

Shamrock Shimmy

Supplies:
Shamrock for each child with instruction written on one side and a chocolate shaped gold coin taped on the other.
Instructions might include: Hop like a bunny, walk like a crab, bear walk, skip, walk backwards, etc.

How To Play:
Children divide into two teams. Put the shamrocks at the end of the room in two piles. On your mark the first child on each team runs to the pile, takes a shamrock and does what the shamrock says while returning to their team, then sits down. The next team member then runs to the pile…etc. The first team to be sitting down wins. Everyone enjoys a chocolate in the end.

Leprechaun Hop

Supplies:
Gold coin pillow for each team.

How To Play:
Children divide into two teams. Give each team a gold coin pillow. Pillow size should be larger for younger children and smaller for older children. Have one child from each team place the gold coin between their legs and hop to the end of the room and back. They sit down and the next team member goes. This repeats until one team is all sitting.

Pass The Blarney Stone

Supplies:
Samll Grey stone bean bag for each team.

How To Play:
Children divide into two teams. Give each team a grey stone bean bag (about the size of an orange). On your mark, the first child puts the pillow between their chin and neck and passes it to the next player. Here’s the catch, players may only use their heads to pass (no hands or teeth allowed). The process continues to the last person in line and then reverses sending the pillow back to the first player in line. The first team to complete the game wins. You can substitute out a small potato for the bean bag.

Shamrock Relay

Supplies:
2 Large construction paper shamrocks per team

How To Play:
Divide children into teams. The first person of a team takes the 2 shamrocks and lays one of the shamrocks out on the floor. The child steps on the first shamrock and then places the second shamrock in front of them. The child steps on the second shamrock, reaches back and picks up the first shamrock and then places that shamrock in front of them. Continue to the end of the course and then run back and tag the next team member. Variation: Divide the teams in half and have the person walk on shamrocks to the other side.

St. Patrick the Man

Even though Saint Patrick the patron saint of Ireland and one of the most celebrated religious figures around the world, the factual information about his life and times is quite vague. Most information about St. Patrick has been twisted, embellished, or simply made up over centuries by storytellers, causing much ambiguity about the real life of St. Patrick. However, there are some elements of his story about which most scholars accept to be true.

According to Coilin Owens, Irish literature expert and Professor Emeritus of English at George Mason University, Saint Patrick is traditionally thought to have lived “between 432-461 A.D., but more recent scholarship moves the dates up a bit.” At the age of sixteen he was kidnapped from his native land of the Roman British Isles by a band pirates, and sold into slavery in Ireland. Saint Patrick worked as a shepherd and turned to religion for solace. After six years of slavery he escaped to the Irish coast and fled home to Britain.

While back in his homeland, Patrick decided to become a priest and then decided to return to Ireland after dreaming that the voices of the Irish people were calling him to convert them to Christianity.

After studying and preparing for several years, Patrick traveled back to Ireland as a Christian missionary. Although there were already some Christians living in Ireland, St. Patrick was able to bring upon a massive religious shift to Christianity by converting people of power. Says Prof. Owens, “[St. Patrick] is credited with converting the nobles; who set an example which the people followed.”

But Patrick’s desire to spread of Christianity was not met without mighty opposition. Prof. Owens explains, “Patrick ran into trouble with the local pagan priesthood, the druids: and there are many stories about his arguments with them as well as his survival of plots against them.” He laid the groundwork for the establishment of hundreds of monasteries and churches that eventually popped up across the Irish country to promote Christianity.

Saint Patrick is also credited with bringing written word to Ireland through the promotion of the study of legal texts and the Bible, says Prof. Owens. Previous to Patrick, storytelling and history were reliant on memory and orally passing down stories.

Patrick’s mission in Ireland is said to have lasted for thirty years. It is believe he died in the 5th century on March 17, which is the day St. Patrick’s Day is commemorated each year.

The first year St. Patrick’s Day was celebrated in America in 1737 in Boston, Massachusetts. The first official St. Patrick’s Day parade was held in New York City in 1766. As the saying goes, on this day “everybody is Irish!” Over 100 U.S. cities now hold Saint Patrick’s Day parades.

Being Irish (And Then Some)

My family is a blend of Irish and Scottish, and my husband’s family is Slovenian. This, I think, officially makes my children American Melting Pot babies, and since my children then married people from different ancestries, it certainly makes my grandchildren part of the grand tradition of acclimation into the United States.

Much like many immigrant families, we have stories of grandparents coming on ships overseas, settling in culturally defined downtown areas based upon the languages they spoke, working in trade jobs to create the American Dream for our parents, and in turn for us and our children. Of embracing their new communities while holding to traditions that were important to them. Some of them may seem silly to outsiders and even our own children, I remember how my daughter laughed when her grandmother suggested she dance with a broom at her wedding. But some we hold fast to and even see others from outside of our family adopt – like the great feast of St. Patrick, now know as St. Patrick’s Day.

As a grandparent I like to take holidays like St. Patrick’s day and teach my grandchildren a little bit of their own family history – who were the Murphy Clan, what our crest looks like, what the McLellan’s family motto (Think On) really meant and why we have such storied tradition of negotiation first, but battle if necessary. And I love to sit and spin tales to my grandchildren about how an Irish family and a Scottish family came together and why this is important not just for their identity, but as a model for how they should accept and try to understand others. We are proud of each piece of our history, and I am excited to share with you some of that.

Facts about St. Patrick’s Day Holiday

St. Patrick’s Day is observed on March 17 because that is the feast day of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. It is believed that he died on March 17 in the year 461 AD. It is also a worldwide celebration of Irish culture and history. St. Patrick’s Day is a national holiday in Ireland and a provincial holiday in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

In Ireland on St. Patrick’s Day, people traditionally wear a small bunch of shamrocks on their jackets or caps. Children wear orange, white and green badges, and women and girls wear green ribbons in their hair. My daughter who lived in Europe for a time actually traveled to Dublin with her friends one year to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, and what a pub crawl it was – teams of four dress alike and travel from location to location on a treasure hunt, at the end of the day there is actually a team winner. It is quite an adventure – perhaps one you might want to have for the adults sometime.

Many cities have a St. Patrick’s Day parade. Dublin, the capital of Ireland, has a huge St. Patrick’s Day festival from March 15-19 that features a parade, family carnivals, treasure hunt, dance, theatre and more. In North America, parades are often held on the Sunday before March 17. Some paint the yellow street lines green for the day! In Chicago, the Chicago River is dyed green with a special dye that only lasts a few hours. There has been a St. Patrick’s Day parade in Boston, Massachusetts since 1737. Montreal is home to Canada’s longest running St. Patrick’s Day parade, which began in 1824.

Facts about Saint Patrick

St. Patrick was born in 385 AD somewhere along the west coast of Britain, possibly in the Welsh town of Banwen. At age 16, he was captured and sold into slavery to a sheep farmer. He escaped when he was 22 and spent the next 12 years in a monastery. In his 30s he returned to Ireland as a Christian missionary. He died at Saul in 461 AD and is buried at Downpatrick.

Facts about the Irish

34 million Americans have Irish ancestry, according to the 2003 US Census. That’s almost nine times the population of Ireland, which has 4.1 million people.

Some American towns have “Irish” names. You could visit: Mount Gay-Shamrock, West Virginia; Shamrock Lakes, Indiana; Shamrock, Oklahoma; Shamrock, Texas; Dublin, California and Dublin, Ohio.

The harp is the symbol of Ireland. The color green is also commonly associated with Ireland, also known as “the Emerald Isle.”

The Irish flag is green, white and orange. The green symbolizes the people of the south, and orange, the people of the north. White represents the peace that brings them together as a nation.

The name “leprechaun” has several origins. It could be from the Irish Gaelic word “leipreachan,” which means “a kind of aqueous sprite.” Or, it could be from “leath bhrogan,” which means “shoemaker.”

Facts about Clovers

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the highest number of leaves found on a clover is 14! So I guess finding the one with four no longer seems like such a feat.

One estimate suggests that there are about 10,000 regular three-leaf clovers for every lucky four-leaf clover. If you are lucky enough to live in a mild climate, you and the kids could adventure out on a four-leaf clover hunt.

Legend says that each leaf of the clover means something: the first is for hope, the second for faith, the third for love and the fourth for luck.