Crafts & Fun

Your fly is open, toilet paper is stuck to your shoe, and there’s green goo on your nose. Either you’re having a very bad day or… it’s April 1 and you’re the latest victim of that hoary tradition, the April Fool’s gag.

Want to rack up cool fool points? Share these easy, safe and fun tricks with your kids. They’re guaranteed to garner loads of laughs.

Merry Morning Mayhem

• ’Twas the night before April and…you reset the clocks in your house one hour ahead. Everyone will think they’re waking up an hour later than usual. Of course, only you know it’s really 7 a.m., not 8 a.m. Say “Happy April Fool’s Day” as you let them in on the joke.

• Make getting dressed even more of a challenge for your little sleepyheads by secretly — and very quietly — moving around the drawers in their dressers after they’ve gone to bed.

• Get the kids to stuff toilet paper or tissues into the toe part of your partner’s shoes. Looks like someone’s feet grew overnight.

• Just before going to bed, unravel the toilet paper a few spins. With a marker, write: “Help, I’m lost in a toilet paper factory.” Roll up the paper again so the writing is hidden. The first person to use the bathroom will have a good laugh.

Originally published in Today's Parent, April 2006