To invite nursery babies to my daughter's first birthday

[PTTG]

hi all,

My daughter will soon be turning one and I wanted to arrange a nice baby sensory party for her. Since I don't know too many people with babies in that age group do you think it will be a good idea to invite other babies from her nursery?even though we don't know the parents personally. We would like to invite the parents as well to get to know each other...should I hand out invitation to the nursery staff mentioning the plan for the baby sensory party and snacks and drinks for the parents? What do you think the invite should surely highlight?....appreciate any help and advice

Thanks Ghostship!

Otchayaniye ... There are no statistics to show what effects these classes have but it is definitely a much more useful and entertaining way for babies. And for just £5 per class it doesn't seem such a bad idea !

It's a great idea!

And as for the benefits of sensory stimulation: a) any parent child interaction has to be a positive thing and b) teens and children with development problems return to these sensory techniques to encourage their development. There is a lot of research into it. Have a google.

It sounds like a lovely idea. Be prepared though as you will be entering the peculiar world of party invites whereby lots of parents forget to reply / reply too late / turn up unexpectedly with multiple siblings in tow. Hopefully it will be fine but if you discover the other parents displaying odd party etiquette don't take it personally!

Thank you both!

Otchayiniye, what a horrible, snidey comment! Sneering at other people's choices is a horrible trait. I wonder if you're a nice person in real life?

agree with abbierhodes

who cares if they grow up better at touching and seeing? the point is that the babies love it and are mesmorised.... anyone who has ever been will no how much babies get from it, how happy it makes them at the time, and then mummies get a nice break afterwards when they sleep.

whats the problem with that Otchay...?

Well I would have said family only for a one year old. But I can see the point of having photos of friends as babies to look back on. But I myself would just go for family only.

Otchayaniye, sensory play is not about developing the senses, funnily enough.
Research into brain development has shown that sensory experiences at an early age help to develop self-confidence and self-esteem, essential if children are to be competent learners. Sensory experiences help our limbic brain to develop.
The limbic brain responds to the five senses. Sensory experiences are vital as children's long term memory is more effective when an experience has been linked to one of their senses or an emotion.
This in turn helps the neo-cortex to develop, where learning and thinking take part.
So it is pretty important really.

OP thank you so much for this post- I have googled and found a class near me- I'm going to text my friend to see if she'll take her DS baby with me to go to it as it would be perfect for her!

Just brilliant! My sister (who is doing an MA in play therapy and works with SEN children) also thought it looked brilliant.

It isn't the norm at our nursery, so you may not get lots of invitations back. But obviously that isn't why you are doing it, so go for it.

Thanks again guys! Am glad this post helps in understanding the sensory class importance. Kudos to lots of intelligent ladies here who explained it so well.

On a side note, reason why I can't do just family is because UK isn't my home country so I don't have a huge family here. We are well settled here but no aunts, uncles, etc. in huge numbers for my DD just close friends.

Me and my husband wants to make more friends and give the best to our daughter so this idea came to my mind! Thanks to all for the encouragement... I will go for it

Hey all... With all confidence that I received on this post... I sent 15 invites via nursery 4 days back and haven't had any but 1 RSVP. That too a no...

Is it unreasonable to fear I may have 0 acceptance or no responses as I don't know the parents? The last date for RSVP is 7 days away! I am literally losing my sleep on this...

I would say that it's a No from everyone at nursery; I am intuiting that the party is soon after the festive break and that those invited are off on hols, or otherwise busy, which is a shame. A sensory party sounds amazing.

I would be thinking about having a day out, just the immediate family, say the Zoo, or a little jaunt on a steam train, something local to you that's not too much £££ because you've got YEARS of spenny birthday parties to look forward to

Thanks for the reply... I will invite friends over just in case but the party is actually three weeks after the holidays get over so plenty of time... Or so I hope...

Hey guys ... If anyone remembers my post and to all the wonderful people who replied and gave me confidence... Just wanted to say the party was a Superhit! We made so many friends and overall had 18 babies who had the time of their lives!

Aw, that's good to hear, glad they and you enjoyed it.