Would a DIY ceramic painting party be a bad idea for 3yr olds?

[sammysam]

It's DD's birthday at the end of July and I'm starting to think about her party.
Have looked into Jo Jingles etc and it looks expensive.
I want to do something a bit more organised now that they are older and hopefully it'll take the pressure off me as i'll be 8months pregnant. I was thinking that something organised would mean that maybe I could get away with doing it after lunch and avoid having to sort out food-just have cake and maybe crisps and dips?
All will have their mums with them.....so will this be a bad idea?
There will only be 8 children and we can be in the garden (even if it rains we can put the gazebo up)-surley you can get cheap stuff online?

Is this a VERY bad idea? What else could we do instead?

I want to get organised and not leave it til the last min!!!

my DD went to a cooking party which was fab. Mum had done gingerbread people, pizza bases and cup cakes for them to decorate and then eat.

All done outside with some music and pass the parcel etc and all over and done with in a couple of hours.

Just asked them to bring aprons with them and the rest was bought or made (icing).

Have fun.

Just before we moved to France I had a ceramics party for DS1 and his little friends who were all aged 3. They all decorated plates for us to bring to France with us to remember them by and as I recall every child had a fab time, but all were helped by their mums.

Mine wasn't exactly a DIY party a local woman in the area was setting herself up in business so she brought us all the stuff we needed. I think it cost about £10.00 per child. We use those plates every day it was such a great party. So I say go for it 3 isn't too little.

Don't you have to bake the ceramics in a kiln though - how would you do that yourself?

I think that 3 year olds might be a little bit young for ceramic painting.

I think the basic idea (of having party in garden, minimal food etc) sounds good.

Is your garden big enough to take a bouncy castle?

Too young

i think it will just be stressful and not relaxing for the mums
there are other crafts you can do that won't have the same mess / breakages factor and be more enjoyable for everyone

eg fabric painting - you can get fabric paints that are like felt tips, and a load of cheap t-shirts?

Why not have some stickers and crowns to decorate, some playdah, an easel with paint, some water in a bucket with a brush to "paint" your patio and your garden toys...

in my experience 3 year olds don't want a formal activity - let them choose. They'll do it for 3 mintues and then be on to the next thing...

We did it for dd aged 3 at a studio which offers parties for painting pots - it worked really well but hasten to add all children supervised by an adult. some of the children were even younger had some one and two year olds there. Just a bit hairy when they started running past shelves of finished pots and they shook a bit!!

Whats the worst that could happen...

wow-some very mixed responses!
Will have a good think.......
Thanks for all the suggestions!