Birthday Party Games Lady Blog

It’s hard to keep pace with the changes as our kids grow up. And annual events like their birthday party can be particularly challenging: old habits die hard. What worked and was important when they were 4 isn’t really what’s going to work when they’re 6 or 8.

Pre-schoolers don’t really yet know the ropes and often depend on situational cues to know what to do. So- those party hats and noise makers help them to act appropriately at a birthday party and get them on the road to having fun. But by the time they’re in 2nd grade or so, they no longer need these cues: they’re old hands at birthday parties. So- you don’t need to spend your money on this stuff any more. Save it for what’s important.

And what’s important to the fun of a birthday party is the experience. Experience is an active word. Absorbing the surroundings like decorations and a pretty birthday table is passive. We all know that kids are all about active, not passive.

It’s your games and activities that create the birthday experience, so these should always be the focus of your party planning and your party expense.

Recognize that your elementary school child may not really know what kind of ‘experience’ they want for their birthday party. Just due to their youth, you may hear “I want a (fill in the blank) birthday party this year- either because they just went to a (fill in the blank) party and had fun, or that’s what they’re into this week, or they can’t think of anything else to tell you. In all likelihood, your child is really looking to you to come up with the good ideas that make the party fun, so don’t just accept what you hear from them. Remember how many times you’ve heard “I don’t want to” and then they had a blast doing whatever it was? Birthday parties are no exception.

The word ‘experience’ also connotes something out of the ordinary, not the same as every day. Without denying the importance of play for our kids, it’s not an experience worthy of a celebration. They need your guidance and planned activities to have an ‘experience’.

But it doesn’t take all that much, and certainly not more than you can provide, to give elementary school age kids a fun birthday party experience. One of the best tricks to doing this is activities that require them to use those brains! Or have them do a familiar thing in a new way. Challenge them- to create something, to solve something, to work together on something. You can get ideas about how this can be done, or grab your whole party, with any of the Birthday Party Games Lady party packages.

To just pick one example, see how the Harry Potter party games take old, familiar games and makes them new and challenging, creating a venue where the kids’ imaginations can let them ‘be’ Harry Potter for a few hours and come away with a real birthday party experience.

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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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