A Leprechaun's Poem - Mommy's Manifesto

A Leprechaun’s Poem is the perfect addition to your kid’s St. Patty’s Day celebration!

St. Patrick’s Day is around the corner and I’ve been searching for some fun projects to do with my toddler son. The latest St. Patty’s Day trend is for kids to make a leprechaun trap! This sounds like so much fun and an awesome way to get some family creative time in. When I asked my son if he knew what a leprechaun was, he had no idea. I mean, he is only two. I wanted to find a fun way to introduce the idea of a leprechaun to him so I set off on an internet search that left me disappointed.

Basically, the idea behind the leprechaun trap is that if you catch a sneaky leprechaun they have to give you their gold. The majority of the children’s leprechaun stories and poems depict the leprechaun as someone ‘mean’ and ‘mischievous’. Kids make the leprechaun traps and then the leprechaun leaves behind gold tokens or gold chocolate coins. So, we’re teaching our kids it’s ok to trap someone and take/steal from them?!? And if you don’t actually catch a leprechaun you’ll be rewarded anyway? Um, no! Definitely not something I want to be presenting to my two-year-old. Yes, maybe I’m overreacting but that’s kinda my thang! I’m not normally this much of a stickler but we’re still teaching our kid ‘nice hands’ and I don’t want to encourage him to be a jerk…even if it’s just make believe.

After coming up empty handed and spending too much time on the internet, I decided to write my own Leprechaun introduction. I’m so excited to share ‘A Leprechaun’s Poem’ with you and hope that you enjoy it as much as I do! I basically wanted it to come across as my son needing to ‘help’ the lost leprechaun by letting him stay with us. They would become friends and then the leprechaun would return home on St. Patrick’s Day after remembering how to find his way back to Ireland. They would have so much fun together it would become a yearly tradition.

The idea is for the leprechaun to leave notes and treats for my son. I also plan on making a few green treats, doing a gold coin scavenger hunt, some St. Patty’s Day crafts, and maybe a few silly leprechaun tricks such as turning milk green at snack time. All very good natured ‘tricks’ that are sure to please a toddler! I can’t wait to share some of these ideas with you!