about inviting children's preschool class to 3rd birthday party

[schmee]

Does anyone know what's the etiquette for whether to invite the whole class to a party. We haven't invited anyone from nursery school yet as we've only been there six weeks and haven't necessarily made "friends" although play nicely with others and a few names of other children are coming up more frequently.

There are nearly 20 other children in the class and we have already invited about 8 children that we play with out of school.

I've booked a playcentre where we can have as many or as little as we like and we've just received a little bit of surprise money which we've put aside for the party so we're not too worried about cost.

Worries are that if I just invite a few children we might offend others - and it would be a bit of a gamble as none of the children are particular friends yet. If we have too many though it might get a bit too hectic (although the playcentre should manage) and also I don't want to feel like we're showing off or trying to set a precedent for big parties.

We haven't been invited to any other birthday parties yet - I think perhaps because the majority of the other children did a playgroup together and have just been inviting people from that circle.

Honestly?
I wouldn't invite any of them.
Far too young at three to pick out just friends after a few weeks, and far too young to have that many kids. 30 three yr olds? No way.

No one at nursery needs to know you've had a party.
Keep it to those you know well for this year and do nursery friends next year.

Also, at that age you will end up with siblings and parents tagging along. That's a whole lot of people.

mmm - that's true. I think I'm just even considering it because I felt sad that they (it's twins) weren't being invited to the parties of the children who had been to the playgroup and was trying to think of a way to break the cycle.

Also felt a bit wierd to be inviting lots of children that they see once a week or fortnight or so, rather than the ones they are seeing three times a week.

Can you ask whether there are some children your dc plays with more than others ? This is what happened at dd's pre-school. DD's birthday is January so we invited before christmas so hadn't had much longer but she had already talked about a few children and I asked her keyworker if there was anyone she really played with. I don't think you need to invite the whole lot.

I'd really stay away from the madness that is whole class parties. It just gets out of control.
If other parents want to do it (and they will), let them, your DTs will go and have fun, but don't feel the need to do it yourself.

sorry - x-posted. If you're doing it to get to know the class a bit more then there is no harm inviting them all (and I think would be a nice thing to do if you want to do it). There was one party in the first term of pre-school where the mother invited the whole group which was kind of nice as we got to meet the mothers (ok some of them I wish we hadn't 2 years later but...)

Have never invited a whole class.

At such a young age they had three or four friends and we played "traditional" games and a runaround/treasure hunt outside-weather permitting!