Who wants my top tip for the holy grail of parties - an inexpensive idea that keeps large numbers of children very quiet and involved for a long time...?

[Anchovy]

OK, well it wasn't exactly my idea but that of my fantastic nanny.

DS had some boys round for a small tea party yesterday as one of his classmates was leaving - so 7 x 5 year old boys to entertain for a couple of hours. My nanny found an old roll of lining paper which was lying around at home (but apparently if you buy them they are really cheapo - less than a fiver). She unrolled a long section - about 15 feet long - and stuck it to a wall in the garden and put lots of crayons and pencils in plastic beakers for them. Seven boys then stood there like junior Banksys and drew rockets and aliens for over an hour with little or no intervention (and a couple of those boys are not renowned for their attention spans!)

When they were finished they each wrote their name alongside their bit and she took a quick photo of each of them against their bit, which they loved and I will either print up for them or email to their parents. (You could also cut up the picture into sections and let them take their section home, I guess).

I think this is going to be a mainstay of parties chez Anchovy over the next few years

my mother often did this with a spare roll of wall paper - it is indeed a fab idea

Awww thats sound really good.

Just need good weather or be really brave to do it indoors!

Well done Anchovy's fantastic nanny

However.... it wouldn't work on a brick wall would it, you would just end up with brick rubbings. You need a flat surface behind it.

That was called thinking aloud, or raining on your fireworks aloud.

Fabbo idea - I'm going to try it out on DD2 who is 9 but still loves that kind of thing.

roffle at junior Banksys

so avant garde, dahling

My h did this at one of our parties and the children loved it. It really does work.

SW - you are right - this was on a rendered wall. I think it would work on a brick wall with a slightly thicker roll of wall paper rather than lining paper. As you would be using the back of the wall paper, you could pick up v cheap any old roll of hideous monstrosity that was nice and thick.

We would have done it inside if it had been raining - I think we would put a double height of paper up to make sure it did not go over onto the walls, and used blu-tack to stick it on.

The boys absolutely adored it - they all look really proud in the little photos.

DD is 3 and I think for her 4th party we might do some outlines for colouring in and also give them some sparkly stickers...

I did roll out a very large roll of white paper on the floor outside once - pasted glue all over it and tore up magazine pages. Ds spent 45 mins taking the paper pieces off me and sticking then on with intense concentration. I did have to be involved (ds was only 20 months old) but it was very relaxing.

From that day to this ds (2.5 years old) has a maximum concentration span of 5 mins on most craft stuff unless it is on an extremely large piece of paper on the wall or floor. And whan I say large I mean a big roll of paper rolled out to cover a large expanse of area (A3 size doesn't cut it) - not very eay to do on a regular basis in a small flat

Must be something about boys!!

Love it. My friend did it on the floor, with a large roll of paper , for 6/7 yr olds. Just saying that a floor would be o.k. if wall not available. Worked a treat.

the dds are getting a wooden house thing for the garden and we are letting htem and their mates paint whatever they like inside

they are champign at the bit to do it

fab idea anchovy's nanny

Lazycow - x posted - same as her.

Interesting re doing it on the floor - I thought that one of the reasons it work well was because it was at arm/eye level and they could jiggle around a bit without being too rooted to the spot (they were occasionally wandering off to have a sip of their drink or a go at "Pin the flames on the Thunderbird 1").

We were lucky that we had a very convenient piece of wall but I can see that it could also work on the floor. Would deffo be a good idea if you rented a hall or something for a party.

yep, we've done floor (in house). Issue with floor is unavoidable (hmmm deliberate) contact with feet & consequences of such.

Leading to a bit of scrubbing. Garden wall on nearly sunny day clearly easier.

It works on the floor but mostly because ds like to use feet and hands and to really make big messes and walk over the paper etc.

As Bink says the issue is definitely the mess - so better by far outside else or a zen calmlike acceptance of chaos and lots of cleaning up afterwards.

I personally use the wall more often as the opportunities for mess are less and certainly with more children I'd be worried about going the floor route

Big roll, on the floor of a hall, would work. Thats what I meant, - what my BF did.

It is so fantastically low tech and cheap!

My nanny also (on her own): organised the whole thing; decorated the table and kitchen with funny things on the boys' names; invited a friend for DD as well; cooked a (very nutritious, from scratch) full meal to very high anti-allergenic standards (one child is very highly nut and seed allergic, plus soy and a few others); made and decorated a large cake plus 2 other types of cake; planned and played 3 other games with the boys plus bubbles and music; cleared up afterwards.

When I asked her how it went she said it was FUN (eeek: I had to have a lie down just thinking about it!)

Love the idea!
We don't have a wall in the garden though and not much space inside the house...would the paper be strong enough if I just roll it out on our lawn? If not, what could I use as backing?

michaelad I think it would work fine on the ground, you just would need thicker wallpaper than the lining paper we used.

Am not a wallpaper expert but isn't there stuff with a vinyl-y covering - bet that is quite tear-resistant? Doesn't matter what pattern etc is like as you only need the back of it.

Another good one using lining paper (but more for a rainy day with one or two kids than a party) is to get the child to lie on the lining paper, draw round them, then they can spend ages recreating themselves, adding hair/face/clothes etc, either with crayons or sticking things on if you've got them/can stand the mess!

fab idea

like lilo's idea with doing the outline, might do this for dd's birthday, thanks

what games did yoiur wonderful nanny do anchovy?

i dont spose it works wiht 9 9 year olds tomorrow in the rain?

sop did it rain?

another idea, you probably already know this one but hear me out

Print out clipart, two of each of any number of pictures. Hide one copy of each picture in house/garden outside preferably (we have laminated ours so doesn't matter if it is raining) Hiding places are as hard or as easy as you make them.

Then give child one picture to find at a time, they have to return to you with pairs and then get another picture, winner is the one who finds most.

Well it keeps my kids entertained for longer than most other things I can think of

Alternatively just ignore this post

Message withdrawn

My big bro and sis used to do that too, I alwasy had to lay down on the paper so they could draw around me