4 year olds party at home

[dippydaydream]

DD will be 4 next month. Have looked at having a party in hall with entertainer but the cost would £135 without food or prizes which I just can't justify. Thinking of inviting 7 of her closest friends for a lunch time party at home but worry that they would be bored. I gave heard of parents complaining of Unimaginative parties ! I thought I would buy some craft crowns from yellow moon and jewels and pens to decorate. Playing pass the parcel and doing some sort of treasure hunt. Can anyone think of some more ideas please. Most of the children will be 3.5 years old.

I had 4 year old daughters party at home: it was hard work but good fun and cheap. As well as what you are suggesting, I did a version of pin tail on the donkey (repunzel's hair), mini disco with musical statues and bumps added in and a dancing competition and I did face paints. It was summer, so we had it outside. Get the wine ready for when the little "princesses" go home.

I think 3/4 year old girls will love anything crafty, the more glitter the better pass the parcel and musical statues all go down well with the pre-school children I work with.
Your party sounds perfect IMO.

I've done my son's 4th, 6th and 7th party at home so it can't be that bad! We normally have a theme and dressing up. Get labelled but empty party bags and fill them during the party with their craft items/prizes. I 'd go for 90 mins long with that age group and hope/ specify that parents will stay with them. Start off with a craft activity laid out so they can start that as they arrive, then games - pass the parcel ( obligatory to rig it at that age so everyone gets a prize) musical statues/bumps/chairs , action songs ( a princess lived in a big high tower?) have more games up your sleeve than you think you need, they always take less time than you think. We did a helium balloon for each child (cost about £3 each) when they were 4 and they were a massive hit and they were quite happy to just dance and play with the balloons for a bit.

Then party tea, as far as possible all Pre-prepared because you don't want to be trying to cook stuff at the party. Birthday cake, happy birthday, hand out party bags, break open the gin!

We did do a treasure hunt for that age group and what worked well was a photo or drawing of the site of the next clue.

Cupcake decorating always goes down well!

honestly i think halls/entertainers etc are overkill at that age!

Include a party lunch (of a child's variety, crisps, little pizza, little sausages, little sarnies, cakes, biscuits, grapes, tomatoes and cucumber with squash/squash with tonic water for those that find fizzy exciting)

Personally i hate the minefield of pass the parcel but i think it has to be done, i'd go for one wrap layer per child with a small sweet in each layer then shut your eyes so whoever gets the main present is just luck. musical statues/bumps/cushions is a real winner. a game of sardines should work at that age. pinata's go down quite well but you need the space to do them. i definitely second the dancing competition too, that's been a real winner before. and a few balloons to knock about.

Like a previous poster said have prizes for each game that can be popped in their party bags (I love doing party bags!!) get a bag of 'treat size' sweets and use those. Just make sure everyone wins some, give them out for all kinds of silly things as they enjoy that.

Finish with a game of sleeping tigers and like a previous poster said, have the wine ready!

I had my DS's 4th birthday party at home. I had craft (making and decorating crowns) at one end of the kitchen table and icing / decorating cupcakes at the other end. Also had toys out as some children just wanted to play. Chocolate coin hunt in the garden. Pass the parcel and dancing to music. Party tea - I was able to borrow small tables and chairs from the local toddler group for a small donation. It was fab. Don't worry about parents making silly comments - the kids loved it and that's the important thing!

Playing freeze tag around the house is a major hit at our parties. Fix it to the theme (snow queen uses her wand to freeze, etc) and the children run wild. The other fave is picture bingo at the end. Personally I hate bingo but the children adore it! And it calms them down a bit.

Surprises miss: pin the tail on the whatever.

We often do a piñata and that is hugely popular and way more fun than pass the bloody parcel.

What's the time Mr Wolf always goes down well too. tbh for me an unimaginative party is bunging 20 kids into a soft play area and waiting for them to emerge. We have a mixture of home and hall parties, our next one (older children) is a spy party with lots of clues and challenges to solve. I think that it is good for children to go to a variety of parties. If there were 7 soft play parties it would get boring, just as they got bored when they saw the same magician at three parties in as many months. I also think it is a good way to assess the sort of friends your dc are making. Those who turn their noses up are the ones I am less keen for my child to play with.

Thanks so much for some fab ideas. I love the photo treasure hunt and the other game suggestion are really helpful. I feel a bit more confident now. It is how my parties were as a child but everyone in our local area has such sophisticated parties these days that I worry that it would seem to tame.

One last question please. Should I do food for mums too? I am planning on 11:30 - 13:00. What do you think?

If mums are staying, maybe offer tea/coffee and sandwiches in return for them helping out

Personally I'd stick a couple of pizzas in the oven for the mums.

Right, this is all magic, thank you for the ideas!