Swimming party vs garden /bouncy castle

[LIZS]

dd announced a while back she wanted a swimming party. Had hoped to join up with another girl who shares same bd'ay(and split cost 1) but they each have different ideas !

Swimming party would cost £100 minimum plus food but it would mean no tidying up and minimal hassle with 2 hours entertainemnt laid on (can choose games, bouncy castle etc for after tea).

Alternative is a bouncy castle in our garden plus games /activities. How much is a bouncy csatle to hire roughly? This would be weather dependent and space for a contingency indoors is fairly limited. Still would have to do food plus provide entertainment ourselves.

oh and she'll be turning 6.

Swimming party and bouncy castle after tea?

We hired a bouncy castle for about £50 2 years ago. Think we had it about 4 hours. You can get them with rain covers over IIRC

Yes, that would be the first option all at same venue The basic price includes so many children then you pay per head on top but I'm waiting for them to ring me to know how much and how many.

Bouncy Castle parties are generally more popular with parents, as swimming parties with this age you'll probably have to rope in quite a lot of adults to be in the water with the children.

I would go for the bouncy castle - at 6 a lot of the guests probably won't be reliable swimmers and would need a lot of supervision.

True, although they do lay on staff to supervise and vast majority of the kids are good swimmers.

My cousin hired a bouncy castle for the older kids to use at her dd's first birthday party yesterday and it was fantastic.

They paid £45 to have it for the whole day and the kids were on it non stop.

well if they can all swim then I would go for the swimming - my 6 year old would love the novelty of that.

Quick look at a few site shows that bouncy castles start at around 50 upwards plsu delivery.

most of the kids will be nearer 7 than 6

At our swimming pool they do a supervised (no adults) session in the hols.
If 6-8 yr olds in leisure pool - must be able to swim 10m, if 8+ in big pool.

But when ds2 was 7 and most of his friends were good swimmers - 50m+ we enquired about a pool party in the leisure pool: only up to 1m deep, but there is a wave machine. And we were told we would have to ensure 1 adult in the pool for every 2 children U9, irrespective of how well they could swim.

Will ask about the ratios when/if I get a call back. It is a school pool , would that make a difference I wonder.

School pool should make a big difference as to what legislation and bureaucracy applies!

I always take water risks very seriously at sea, lakes, rivers, and pools. But 1:2 adult supervision of very competent swimmers in water that is within their depth is just ridiculous IMO.

FWIW I recall going to a big mixed party in s/one's garden for a 6yo and they basically had a bouncy castle and a few toys out.

After a bit some of the other 6yo girls said they were bored and wanted sthg else to do.

I personally think the age of bouncy castle heaven is somewhat younger, say 3-4. For 6-7yos I would either do a lot of party games in garden or hall, or something like bowling, or yes, swimming.

Would the ratios be that high? DD went to a 6yo swim party this year the parents had just themselves plus 2-3 other parents they roped in to help, so maybe 5 adults/15-20? children. It was fine.

I've had a few swimming parties for my boys from a very young age and they always went down well. Lots of adults were willing to go into the pool. Quite a few adults and children had swimming parties after ours as they were such fun.

Pool booked for the weekend we wanted Help with Plan B please ?!

Well do you mean to do the bouncy castle in garden? If so as I say I would advise sthg else as well - but this could just be some craft (is it mainly girls? If so this will go down well).

At DD's Rainbow themed party (sigh - as in Rainbow Fairies...) the kids decorated a rainbow (I drew and photocopied them) with stickers, bits of paper, crayons etc. Most spent at least 15-20 mins doing them. I gave prizes for the best (did it at end so as to give prizes to people who hadn't won musical chairs etc!)

Then party games are good to have, this age respond well I find. Treasure hunt in garden a good idea. Team games like Flap a fish went surprisingly well (I picked teams to save squabbles) and of course musical chairs, pass parcel.

Good ideas , yes it will be a bouncy castle (if we can get one at fairly short notice)plus games and maybe an activity. Kids have picked a princess/knight theme so will have to rename game to suit that !

Oh yes am familiar with renaming of games.

Musical thrones.
Hunt the king's treasure.
Dress up as a princess (or knight) and eat chocolate.

Trying to recall what else we did for DD's 5th party (on princess/knight theme) but it descended into chaos (two very badly behaved girls) and my mind has wiped it!

BTW it's the devil's own job to find knight related party bag gifts, ie cheap (I try to set limit of £1 or below) which is worrying as DS2 is obsessed and this may well be next year's theme....Playmobil figures £2 Papo knights £3 too dear (IMO)

Princesses easier as long as you don't mind Disney.

oh another top tip (don't know how big yr party will be) is a colouring table (v easy to find knights/princesses) - several children spent most of the party at this last year and this.

It's a good alternative for those who don't like games (and I find some don't, esp if it's a big party like 20+ guests)

Well we did it and survived , just !. One got a bit squashed on the bouncy castle, 2 pinata stick related injuries, dd has a sore knee. Genral mayhem and noise but fortunately the sun shone and even had a decent take up of the craft .

And they all showed up at school in one piece and said they'd had a good time Phew