Loading ...
What if you want to throw your child a great party, and yet you, as the parent, don’t have a lot of energy to keep up with the kids?
This question recently came to me from a Mom who was pregnant. She wanted her first child to have a great birthday party and have fun, while also taking care of herself and not over-exerting herself.
With kids under the age of 5, most parties should not last more than 90 minutes. If your child is between the ages of 3 to 5, and if your budget allows for it, this would be a good time to hire an entertainer for the kids. The entertainer should provide a full hour of entertainment for the kids. Also, some entertainers provide balloon animals and other little party items. If you hire an entertainer who provides this stuff, I would not get any further “goody items.”
Basically,with an entertainer providing the fun and games and goodies…all you will need to do is serve cake and ice cream. That is quite easy and fun.
If you are not going to hire an entertainer due to the age of your kid and/or budget reasons, there are still a host of easy games and activities that can be done to entertain the children.
Some easy games include:
- Red Rover.
- Pin the Tail on the Donkey, or any version of this game that you like.
- Mother May I?
- Musical Chairs, or any version of this game.
- Balloon Catch. Have one child hold a balloon, and then he calls out another kid’s name and lets the balloon go. The other child must catch the balloon before it lands on the ground. He is “it” next.
- Tag.
- Hide and Go Seek.
- Duck, Duck, Goose.
- Hot Potato.
- Red Light, Green Light.
- Simon Says.
- Telephone Line, send a birthday message in whispers around the circle of birthday guests, and have the birthday kid be the last to receive the message and have him say it aloud!
- Bean Bag Toss
All of these games will most likely be known to your guests and will be easy to conduct and also inexpensive. You can also throw in bubbles and balls and they will be playing outdoors without a lot of help from you. I would definitely get another adult to help out with the games and supervision however. That will then leave you serving cake and ice cream.
Some tips on this situation:
- Keep it simple. The tried and true will work really well at this party.
- Get additional help.
- Limit the party to 90 minutes.
- If you hire an entertainer, make it for the full hour and have him provide goodies. Spend the other 30 minutes serving cake/ice cream, opening gifts, and free play.
- If you don’t hire an entertainer, play the simple games tht the kids know and love for 30 minutes, you can slow it down with a story, also have them make an easy craft or color a birthday banner for the birthday child. Free play, cake, and opening gifts should take up the rest of the time.
- Enjoy the party by not over-doing it this year!!
