Birthday Party Games Lady Blog

Aside from the obvious issue of the appropriateness of the content, many parents are concerned that their pre-teen party kids won’t be able to handle the complexity of the ’set-up’ of a murder mystery party. To make the game interesting and fun, a lot has to go on. Parents are rightfully concerned about overwhelm and non-participation because of confusion.

The Medieval Party Game feedback I received from Mary in Ontario addresses just this issue (and I’ve highlighted her very relevant comments):

I’d love to give feedback. I have a twin boy and girl who turned 11. We have always had their party together except for last year she wanted to do girl things but they both still joined in each others party anyways…this year we were in search of a joint party once again. I also seem to be in the pattern of one year doing a party outside the home and the alternate year at home. Of all the fun and inventive ideas we have for outside the home the kids seem to talk most about the parties we plan at home (sort of a novel idea these days I think!)

I had an adult play King Stephen and they said after 5 minutes that 45 minutes would be too long for this age group. I said let me put the food in the oven and I’ll be back out (we did the reception in the back yard). Well, I could not get them to stop the reception! Once they got into it and the kids who were a little confused began playing, it was hilarious. During the wedding feast Queen Lisle, who had promised to marry 3 different people, kept wondering when her weddings would take place…

Some of the kids did not want to go along with their ‘secrets’ and I just let it flow. Some chose the murderer based on their interpretation of what they saw, and others chose because someone refused to make a deal or marry them. So at whatever level the child was at, they made it work and all had fun, both the shy and the outgoing children.

The feedback from parents was they were overwhelmed at first with the invitation package but so excited, and now a week later the kids are still telling details of the party to friends and family. The kids just make it work, so there was no need to stress if they would understand or get involved.

It is important to be working with a group of kids that enjoys a challenge- what I’ll call fairly high achievers. The outgoing ones will carry the shy ones along into the fun once they start to click.

If this isn’t your group, take a look at my 4 other birthday party games.

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With the new Harry Potter movie due out this month, I thought it timely to start my blog postings of parent feedback with the Harry Potter Party. And this quote from Tenna in Virginia nicely demonstrates the flexibility that’s built into the party package: it’s easy to change elements of the party around to suit your needs and the interest of the guests.

Tenna wrote:

“Yes, the kids had a great time at the Harry Potter party. All of your package information was very helpful. It was easy to follow your directions. With this group of fourteen 10-year-old boys I found that there was not much interest in crafts (might be more for girls) so we only did the magic wands and my son wanted to play the third version of Quidditch involving marbles anyway (he felt it was the closest to the real thing). Besides the crafts, I also didn’t use all the decorations because it is expensive to print it all out on the computer and I did find a banner, a snitch, and an owl at the party store. The trivia game took a long time as did Quidditch and the potions (we didn’t get to the third one with Borax) because the kids were enjoying them so much. According to my son everyone talked about the party for days afterwards, it was a big hit. And he- a big Harry Potter fan- loved it himself. The party package saved me a HUGE amount of time which is why it was so valuable to me.”

Fun and time savings are what the Birthday Party Games Lady parties are all about.

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