6 year old 'DIY' party ideas please!

[Helpaladyoutplease]

Hi all

My son is turning 6 in Summer and i'm looking for ideas for a cheaper bday party idea for a group of mainly boys that was a hit with your kids (For example, i helped my sister do a mad scientist party for my niece where we made slime, mentos in coke etc.) It's ideas that reflect this 'DIY' aspect I'm after rather than a 'just do hotdogs and football in the park' ideas - i've been to one of those and would prefer something beyond what we normally might do on a Sunday afternoon IYSWIM! I don't mind acting silly, spending money on equipment etc but all official party prices round here are now through the roof! Thanks for any ideas you have!

Honestly a bouncy castle, some footballs, balloons and maybe a bubble machine will be all you need. If the weather is nice most kids of that age won't want to stop playing to do an activity.

I remember my DS went to a party at around tha5 age. The parents hired a hall, and did a few challenges. They split the kids into teams of 5 or 6 and they did an assault course - under a cargo net, get a ball/bean bag in a bucket, maybe a dress up section, hit a balloon at the end, do all in reverse and next person go type of thing. Then a few other challenges like that - think the types of activities kids might do at cubs. The kids were happy. Think they parents had a few of their adult friends / family roped in to help! That might work if you have the right kind of energy!

We did a build your own party bag party. We lived in a long street of terraced houses and 8x neighbours let us use their front gardens. So we set up a different type of treasure hunt in each garden. Need to consider some kids are faster finders than others, so the ‘red’ or ‘blue’ items can be hidden less obviously. Then afterwards it was a painters’ trestle table of fairy cakes and old fashioned style sandwiches and party food. To tire the kids out the treasure hunts zigzagged up street in crazy order so they took up more time.

Or the fire engine party. There was an old fire engine that was hired out for parties at £100 / hr for six kids. We had a double party with a friend in same class, so 30 kids. We hired the local hall for two hours and did games and food there. Everyone got a 12 min ride in the fire engine across the party time.

Treasure hunts always worked for us too best one was when I bought old keys off ebay (you know, those big ones) and split them into teams; they had to do challenges (run somewhere, grab a banana out of a bucket of water and ice, bring it back without using their hands or other random stuff) and every challenge they won they got a key. Take home bags were a key and some chocolate coins. They might have been a bit older than 6, though. Agree with PPs challenges of various kinds are good. Bouncing on a balloon until it burst was another one. You need to be super organised and think through how to manage a group of wired 6 years olds, though.

When my son was younger one of his favourite birthday parties was a "pool party". It involved a large paddling pool in our back garden, sprinklers and inflatable toys. Invitations stated that they should bring swimwear and a towel.

We got lots of drinks/snacks and pizza in. His friends loved it - didn't want to go home!

Despite living in the UK we got glorious weather that day which helped!

Or the commando party. Everyone was told to wear all one colour old clothes.
On arrival they each got a camouflage scarf that they could wear as a headband or neck tie. They could colour their faces with dark powder if they wanted.
Then it was down to the local playing fields where we did a sports day list of events like egg and spoon and three legged. For the finale we had bought a strawberry net on eBay and used it for everyone to crawl under. We also had bought proper hessian sacks and skipping ropes. Was a whole lot of fun. They walked back to ours for the party tea.

What sort of things does he like (sport, animals, cars etc)? I'd pick a theme based on something he's interested in and see if that lends itself to certain games or activities.

Team building challenges like build the tallest tower out of spaghetti and marshmallows or the strongest bridge out of lego.

Old fashioned sports day type races e.g 3 legged race, sack race, egg and spoon etc.

Craft type activities e.g. Decorate a biscuit, make a bird feeder etc.

I have a polaroid camera that goes down well with children. You could provide some dress up items and take the pictures (you can probably borrow one).

Some old fashioned ply ground games, hop scotch that type of things.

I did a Lego party for DS. I got a bag of Lego off of EBay for £100. We had 7 friends over. Everyone got a sandwich bag with 100 pieces of Lego. We wrote theme cards which DS picked randomly from, as the birthday boy. Eg, a building, an animal, a toy, a vehicle, a superhero’s home. We gave them an hour of Lego play and then ordered pizzas in and pop. All the boys got to take their bag of Lego home with them and some cake.

scavenger hunt type parties always go down a treat. Depending on where you live / are hosting the party you can spread it over a large or small area. My top tip is to get AI to write the riddles / clues, if you’re not super creative. I did this for an Easter egg hunt last year and Chat GPT produced clues that were waaaaayyyy better than I could have come up with.

Surely do what you know - aka the science party

If you have space, build an obstacle course in your garden with play tunnels, climbing frame etc.

Thanks all, so creative! Unfortunately our tiny back garden is out but we do live near a park. He likes tennis and harry potter so i wonder if a potter themed party would work...

A Harry Potter theme would Definitely work. There’s so many props available to buy and I’m sure lots of ideas online.

Off the top of my head, you could make a weird coloured drink to serve. Have some white chocolate mice in party bags, everyone has a plastic wand or you could do wand decorating with wooden dowels. Do an obstacle course in the park but everyone has to do it in teams and ‘flying’ on a broomstick. Maybe set something like those gummy sweets in jelly, put out a bowl of Bertie Bots Every Flavour Jelly Beans (just normal Jelly Beans) and extend the idea to the new line that Bertie Bot is selling - Bertie Bot crisps. Grab different flavours of crisps and mix the
all together in a big bowl. You could play a version of pin the tale on the donkey but make it pin the wand on a picture of Harry or pin the beard on Hagrid. Make or buy a piñata and use broomsticks to crack it open. I once made witches and wizard cloaks out of bin bags but that might be a bargain basement idea too far 😄