Parenting
Children’s Parties By Kate Duggan www.kateduggan.co.uk
Keep the fun levels up and your stress levels down with our top party tips. Outdoor parties Most kids love a treasure hunt, and it ties in well with a pirate, knights or princess party. You could leave a series of clues leading to one big stash of small prizes to split (chocolate coins tend to go down well). Or you could hide sweets, trinkets and other mini prizes around the garden. Just make sure you keep a few extras to hand, to avoid any tears. Once they’ve found the treasure, you could: • Have a water pistol fight. • Challenge the kids to an obstacle course. • Hold a mini-Olympics, complete with ‘real’ medals. • Set up a tin can alley, or a game of skittles. Parties for craft-loving children If your child loves nothing more than creating a new work of art, why not dedicate the party to ‘making stuff’? Depending on the age of the children, you could: • Make masks out of paper plates, feathers, stickers, glitter and so on. • Paint pots or trinket boxes. • Decorate plates or mugs with porcelain pens. • Raid the recycling box to make robots, spaceships or monsters. Make sure you tell parents that the children will need old clothes or painting aprons. And bear in mind that paint may not have dried by the time the party finishes, so you’ll have to deliver the artwork at a later date. Parties for pre-teens Pre-teens may prefer to head out somewhere with a couple of friends. If they do want a party though, you could: • Host a sleepover, complete with movie, popcorn and a chocolate fountain.
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• Hold a fashion show. Just raid some charity shops and let kids loose on the clothes with fabric pens, glitter and badges. • Have a disco party, with glow sticks, a glitter ball and a dance-off. Parties that let you take it easy If this all sounds like a bit too much work, you could turn to the professionals. From hiring a children’s entertainer to heading to a soft-play centre, there are plenty of options to choose from. And they’re often not as expensive as you might think. Some companies offer a full package including entertainment, food and a party bag, which can actually work out around the same price as you’d pay to buy it all yourself. Alternatively, you could let your child choose two or three friends to take out for the day. Head to the zoo, trampoline park, cinema, theme park, or just out for a picnic. Top tips for a successful party: • Don’t invite too many people. A good rule of thumb is to only invite one or two more than the age of your child. So if your son is turning five, you might want to invite six or seven children. However, it is a very rough guide, as all children are different. • Consider how many children there are in the class or friendship group. Inviting 12 of the 14 girls in your daughter’s class could cause a lot of upset. • Don’t overwhelm your child. Younger children may struggle with lots of excited guests, loud music and bright lights. Try to create a safe, quiet space where they can retreat if they need to. • Don’t feel you have to spend a fortune. Often the simpler, cheaper parties are the ones that children love the best. • Rope in as many helpers as you can!
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