Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Indoor carnival
from this post:
http://dontletsstart.blogspot.com/2006/05/no-we-didnt-have-baby-but-we-did-have.html
Ticket booth (Big roll of tickets, striped paper bags to carry prizes -- which meant I didn't have to prepare loot bags in advance -- and a CD playing circus calliope music Greg downloaded for free. Each attraction/activity was 1 ticket, but we gave them out liberally. Mostly it was just for effect.)Bounce house (minimal living room furniture, high ceilings and a small bounce house the kids got for Christmas a while back made this possible)
Face paintingClown photo board (the only real "project" involved, made from leftover gift wrap and balloons; the pictures of kids will be sent out with the thank-you cards)
http://static.flickr.com/55/142410203_330750f2d3.jpg?v=0
Balloon stand, hot dog/popcorn stand
Bean bag tossPrize walk (like a cake walk, only with bulk toy prizes, with music from Laurie Berkner, kids' music superstar)
Deep Sea Treasure Diving Adventure (last-minute brilliant idea using our pop-up playhut with a tunnel, some plastic balls and toy prizes, and snorkeling equipment)
Soccer in the park
from this post: http://thestar.blogs.com/parenting/2006/05/prepare_to_get_.html
Soccer in the park: (or baseball or Capture the Flag or whatever your kid is into). Bring drinks and freezies in a cooler and big bags of junk food (they never eat real food at birthday parties anyway) and birthday cupcakes. Play. And play. Then eat. And play some more. If some kids get fed up, have contests like soccer shoot-outs or races or just go on the playground equipment. Who ever gets tired of the monkey bars anyway? Don't forget to pray it doesn't rain.
Soccer in the park
from this post: http://thestar.blogs.com/parenting/2006/05/prepare_to_get_.html
Soccer in the park: (or baseball or Capture the Flag or whatever your kid is into). Bring drinks and freezies in a cooler and big bags of junk food (they never eat real food at birthday parties anyway) and birthday cupcakes. Play. And play. Then eat. And play some more. If some kids get fed up, have contests like soccer shoot-outs or races or just go on the playground equipment. Who ever gets tired of the monkey bars anyway? Don't forget to pray it doesn't rain.
Space Party
from this post: http://thestar.blogs.com/parenting/2006/05/prepare_to_get_.html
The space party: You get a couple of mega-cardboard cartons from an appliance store. Ask the guests to bring a bike helmet. When they arrive, you adorn their helmets with foil. Then they build a rocket and cut out some windows. They decorate it with sparkles and streamers and markers and stickers. Then they put on their "space helmets" and you count down to blast off about 500 times and they go in and out and and in and out. This will keep them amused for
many minutes. Trust me. And after that you can play pin the astronaut on the moon and have an asteroid hunt (for silver Hershey kisses) and play statues by "moon-walking" to the theme from 2001 A Space Odyssey. If all goes well, you'll barely have time for cake.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Pass the parcel
from the comments on this post: http://momm-eh.blogspot.com/2007/01/party-game-ideas-for-3-year-olds.html
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/mothership/549656828874246682/#234888
Sit in a circle, pass around a parcel loosely wrapped in layers of paper. When the music stops, the kid holding the parcel takes off a layer of paper - the 2 year olds and 3 year olds probably need adult help so they don't unwrap the whole thing. You could use gift bags and fabric bags and boxes for some of the layers. In the middle you should have treats or mini toys for all to share.
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/mothership/549656828874246682/#234890
with the additional twist I saw done once where the child who unwraps gets a task to do -- you have a list of tasks and give the right one to each child. Things like, "sing ABC" or "twirl around" or "make a funny face." You control the music to make sure each child gets one turn. Birthday child gets a second turn at the end and opens the box of treats and hands them out.
Treasure hunt
from the comments on this post: http://momm-eh.blogspot.com/2007/01/party-game-ideas-for-3-year-olds.html
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/mothership/549656828874246682/#234871
We did a treasure hunt with Tommy and his friend. I took pictures of lots of things in our house and then taped those pictures around the house for them to navigate. So, for example, they started with a picture of the kitchen chairs. When they went to the chairs, they found a picture of the fridge. When they got to the fridge, they found a picture of the couch, etc. Eventually they got to a pile of stuffed animals marked with an X-marks-the-spot. They dug through the animals until they found two treasure chests filled with Mardi Gras beads and fake gold coins.
You could probably have the kids follow the course in small groups if you have too many kids to do it all at once. I'm pretty sure you could do it all in one room if you used small pictures on small items (or people) throughout the room. It doesn't matter if they can see where the final X is. Following the path seemed to be the fun part.
Safari hunt
from the comments on this post: http://momm-eh.blogspot.com/2007/01/party-game-ideas-for-3-year-olds.html
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/mothership/549656828874246682/#234860
One that worked at my son's party was using some of the gazillion stuffed animals that seem to multiply exponentially in my home, jungle themed and put them in various places around the house, take digital photos of the animals print them on a sheet table style with big squares beside them, give the kids bingo dabbers and have them look for the animals. We also made binoculars out of toilet paper rolls and yarn (taped together, punch holes & attach yarn)and marked the kids names on them and had them decorate them with stickers before starting the search.
Another option is buying inexpensive bugs at the dollar store, and do the same hide & seek kind of thing, we were going to use those giant bug puppets from Price Club and then have little containers of the dollar store bugs near them for the kids to collect 1 each and put it their dollar store bugbox (and party favor!)
Action games
from the comments on this post: http://momm-eh.blogspot.com/2007/01/party-game-ideas-for-3-year-olds.html
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/mothership/549656828874246682/#234859
Simon says. Follow the leader. Duck Duck Goose...Hard to do inside but it is fun. Or just turn on some music and show them how to dance
Fishing Pool
from http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tomama/message/3018
It is called "FishingPool". You just hang a sheet or a tablecloth at waist height (we draped ours ontwo kitchenchairs in a corner). One parent is behind the cloth and another is with thechildren on theother side of the tablecloth. You also need a "fishing pole" (we used a lightbamboo doweland attached a ribbon with a clothes pin tied to the end). Ask the children totake turnsfishing and hand them the rod. When they hang the "rod" over the cloth, theadult behindthe cloth attaches a small gift that they can reel in. The kids really seemed to like the game and it helped take the edge off the gift unwrapping part of the partybecause eachguest received a little gift. Easiest is to have gifts that girls and boys wouldlike--stickers,crayons, small books and a few extra.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Is your mama a llama?
Is Your Mama a Llama? by Deborah Guarino (Author), Steven Kellogg (Illustrator), Amy Madigan (Narrator)
"Is your mama a llama?" I asked my friend Dave..."
Fun rhymes and introduction to animals (bat, swan, cow, llama)
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Hand, hand, fingers, thumb
Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins (Author), Eric Gurney (Illustrator)
"Hand Hand Fingers Thumb One thumb One thumb Drumming on a drum..."
Fun rhymes and wonderful illustrations.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
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