Birthday Parties

[Scout19075]

It's that time of year when SmallBoy starts talking about his birthday in earnest (he'll be six in October). He had his (first ever) birthday party last year and it was a mix of home ed and school using friends. This year, if we were to have a party again (and we are considering it) it would be mostly home educated friends with only a couple of school friends (it's just the way it's working out though he mixes with both school using and home educated children). Last year's party was in a small village hall with games, crafts, a picnic and a play on the playground. Great fun for all but looking back is very similar to how a lot of our home ed meets have gone in the last few months.

So my question is this -- how do you keep a birthday party from feeling like every other home ed meet-up/play day?

TBH for this age I don't think it takes much to transform any gathering into a birthday party. Add lashings of junk food, bunting and balloons. Sing Happy Birthday while a blazing cake is brought in. Send home gift bags. Who knows, cards and presents may even arrive.

You could do the traditional birthday party games such as pass the parcel. Play some music?

Did your little guy enjoy his party last year?

He loved it last year -- he had a LEGO Spaceman theme (that outs me to a couple of RL friends I know are on here ) and we did building games, pin the head on Benny (the Retro 80s spaceman from The LEGO Movie), played musical chairs, pass the parcel, etc. all with a LEGO/Space/Spaceman theme. I made picnic bags for everyone then we went out to play on the playground. I had cupcakes in LEGO colors but we totally forgot about them! (D'oh!) Party bags went home, presents were received and Thank You cards written in an exercise of "politeness and manners and practicing writing DS's name and those of his friends."

I guess at (nearly) six those are the best types of parties, even if they are similar to some of meet-ups/get together with (HE) friends.

(Sometimes I wish I was five/six again so I could have a fun birthday party with games and crafts and cake.)

Well there ya go. Huge success. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

But do you think the others will be bored since it's very similar to what we do normally (craft, games, lunch/picnic, play in the park)?

Maybe if you hose party games they wouldn't normally have at a H.ed group and if you go to town on a theme, even hold the party at home? Not sure if this is possible.
What about hiring a children's entertainer for an hour, there again not sure of where you are or the cost these days.
It will also be very different from their normal activities because you'll have a cake and party bags, music?

do all that, but maybe hire a bouncy castle/inflatable obstacle course if you didn't want an entertainer?

Minecraft charades, where the children were given a mob to act out worked really well (the non minecrafty ones were all given things like pigs and sheep and dogs).

Non-competitive musical chairs is hilarious (each time a chair is removed, everyone just has to pile on the lap of someone who did get a chair).

Several children we know have had a roller disco this year. Combined with non competitive musical chairs is a potent mix.

In a way it is hard to differentiate from usual home ed group meets, because every week is a bit of a party, but there it is