6 yr old's party. Activities on arrival - ideas??

[EKP]

Hi there

I am new to Mumsnet so HELLO! It is good to join you all.

I was wondering whether anyone could help me...It is my son's 6th party on Saturday. We will have 9 kids here at home (including 8 boys and my 4 yr old daughter). We have booked a magician/entertainer for an hour who will arrive 10 minutes after the party begins (to make an entrance and be exciting!). This is all fine except that I am wondering what I do to keep 9 young kids (inc. some boisterous boys) entertained for the first 10 mins as people arrive and until the entertainer arrives. I was thinking probably not a game as people will be arriving at different times and some may be a little shy etc. Also, I don't really have time for a craft activity. 10 minutes may not sound much but it can seem a long time! I don't really want them bouncing around too much in the house as it would be nice for them to be together when the guy arrives.
If anyone has ideas I would be really grateful. Have wracked my brains but haven't had any bright ideas yet!!
Thank you in advance.
Ex

Hi there

I am new to Mumsnet so HELLO! It is good to join you all.

I was wondering whether anyone could help me...It is my son's 6th party on Saturday. We will have 9 kids here at home (including 8 boys and my 4 yr old daughter). We have booked a magician/entertainer for an hour who will arrive 10 minutes after the party begins (to make an entrance and be exciting!). This is all fine except that I am wondering what I do to keep 9 young kids (inc. some boisterous boys) entertained for the first 10 mins as people arrive and until the entertainer arrives. I was thinking probably not a game as people will be arriving at different times and some may be a little shy etc. Also, I don't really have time for a craft activity. 10 minutes may not sound much but it can seem a long time! I don't really want them bouncing around too much in the house as it would be nice for them to be together when the guy arrives.
If anyone has ideas I would be really grateful. Have wracked my brains but haven't had any bright ideas yet!!
Thank you in advance.
Ex

Do you have a theme - only I think a short craft activity is what you need - for example, decorating party hats of some sort? Works better if you can tie it in with the 'theme' of the party somehow?

Or spot the difference / spotting things (a la Where's Wally) activity sheets?

Or just a big picture for them to colour? I drew a big castle for pin-the-princess-on-the-castle for DD's party, and just chucked a load of felt tips on a table - anyone who was bored/not otherwise engaged spent spare minutes decorating the castle.

Hi there,

Thank you for your message.

There is no theme as such. I do have some spare party hats that I could use for them to decorate. That could be something they could do before or after the entertainer. I think that may work.

Thank you!

Ex

You're so right to have a wee gathering activity. For ds's 6th we had Ben 10 tattoos, colouring, pin the omnitrix on Ben 10 and icing biscuits (in this case to make an omnitrix). Other ideas would be to plant a bulb in a pot and decorate with stickers or I have a cracking christmas craft to make tealight holders with air drying clay but that'd probably take too long.

I like to have a few "stations" set up in different rooms and have an adult man each station and let kids potter.

If you have a laminator (or could borrow) you could decorate placemats and laminate while magician's on...

You are right to think of this. I have had much practice of boys parties and my approach is to organise them every minute or else anarchy will rule.
Sorry to say that in my experience 8 x 6 year old boys are seldom interested in craft/colouring type activities.
An ice breaker i have used is this.
Collect 25 to 30 small objects of a similar theme. Could be lego men, top trump cards or anything recognisable. Hide them around the rooms you are using and send off each new arrival to hunt for 2 or 3 each. When they find one they bring it to you in exchange for a small sweet or chocolate.

inthesticks - I was about to suggest something very similar!

I've used old birthday or christmas cards, cut them in half, and hidden half round the rooms using. give each child one half, and get them to fid the matching half.

or, print off a picture onto different coloured card - cut into a jigsaw. hide the pieces, get pairs of children to find their colour and then make up the jigsaw

Wow, thank you so much for all your ideas PandaG, inthesticks, stealthsqiggle and tassissss. This is all brilliant and has given me much food for thought.
Thank you. Ex