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Kids Party At Home

Make the Most of Your At-Home Birthday Party

Birthday parties can be expensive, and they can also get out of control very easily! Should you let them play freely? Or should you organise kids’ birthday party games? Should you book a play centre? Or do it at home? Well, with our experience we recommend that if you are having a party at home, you either hire an entertainer and forget about it or provide half an hour of free play, half an hour of food, half an hour of games and the last half an hour of cake and more free play, it usually works!

Here are our top 9 party-at-home birthday game ideas that might be useful!

Race to Fun with Exciting Water Games for Kids

Fill a big bucket with water (just enough to cover the base). Use small toys that float (one for each child) and straws to race! Each child picks one item (our safari toobs are great for this) and a straw. They place the items on one side of the bucket and, at the count of three, start blowing with their straws to move them to the other end of the bucket. The first item that reaches the end wins! If there are too many kids, you can have a few kids on each side of the bucket, and they all have to reach the opposite end. You could add obstacles in the water to make it more complicated and fun!

Check out our water toys here

And our Safari boats here perfect for water races

 

 

Inspire Creativity with a Children's DIY Makeup Station

Set up a table or a tuff tray with a mirror, face painting markers, kids-safe makeup if you can find any, and safe nail varnish (we have a fun collection for kids that washes off when they wash their hands!). Getting professional face painting is fun, but painting their own faces or painting each other is just on another level! They will absolutely love this. Make sure you have wipes nearby, too; some might enjoy painting their faces but might not want to spend the rest of the party looking like a pirate (or something like that).

Check out our Face Painting essentials, tattoos and glitter!

 

 

Revive Tradition with a Classic Pass the Parcel Game

A classic! Get all the kids to sit down in a circle. Use a teddy so they can pass it around like a hot potato. Only one rule: NO THROWING! Just give it to the person beside you. Whenever the music stops, the person with the teddy will have to stand up. We don’t use the word “eliminated”; they just have to stand up so the teddy will skip anyone standing up until only one person is sitting down, then this person stands up too, and everyone is the winner. They can then play again standing up and have to sit down when the music stops if they are holding the teddy.

Embark on a Thrilling Treasure Hunt Birthday Party Adventure

Oh no, someone took all the items and kids’ toys we needed for this party! Kids will be so excited to hunt for these items to save the party. Before they come in, gather some items (as many as kids come to the party or double). Put them all on the floor and take a picture. Print out that picture (large enough) and cut out each item. When kids come to the party, they can have some free play, and then, suddenly, you call them to play some birthday games and tell them they need to find those items so we can actually have a party.

Give a picture to each child and tell them they can ONLY take the item/items from their picture, so everyone finds something. This activity will keep them busy for a while, and they can then play with all the items they find. Things you can hide: candles for the cake, party hats, face-painting markers, markers, stickers, skipping rope, bubble machine

 

 

Enjoy the Ultimate Musical Gaming Experience

Musial statues, floor is lava, action songs, musical bums, play with balloons, bubbles… Just play music and let them dance, move, shake, crawl, jump and go crazy!

Check out our hand and foot marks, perfect for musical games and indoor/outdoor fun.

Engage in Endless Fun with Tuff Tray Activities

Prepare some simple setups on the tuff tray so kids can play when they arrive during their free play time. Some ideas: dolls house with characters and items in a box so they can set it up. Connetix magnetic tiles and some figures. Lego. Paper and crayons with stickers or stencils. Playdough or mad mattr (better as it can be left out and it doesn’t dry out!). Kids love setting up the tuff tray even more than playing with it, so why not have all the items in a box beside an empty tuff tray and challenge them to set up something with it? They will have great fun discovering what’s in the box and creating something with it together.

Do you already have a tuff tray? Check them out here if you don’t!

 

 

Conquer Obstacles with Obstacle Course Games

3, 2, 1… GO! You can use the laundry basket to throw teddies in it or a blanket with a teddy on it so they can all shake it and make the teddy jump up in the air. You can use chairs to go under as a tunnel, masking tape on the floor to create a plank to walk over it, or crosses so they can jump on them, etc.; time to get creative! Space can be challenging here, but always a way to make it work.

Check out some of our favourite Kids’ toys for movement birthday party games.

Organise Circus-Themed Party Games

Knock the cups: build a tower with cups and knock it down with a ball. You can use paper cups, plant pots or plastic bowls for this.

Blow up some balloons: play some music and ask kids to keep them in the air for as long as possible. Can you touch it with your elbow/nose/bum/knee...?

Spoon races: kids run holding a spoon with their hand with something on it, maybe a small balloon filled with water (if it’s just a small bit of water, it shouldn’t break even if it falls, but it will make it extra exciting!).

 

Bring On Blind Challenge Birthday Party Games

Cover a child’s eyes and ask them to do something. The other kids will have to call out COLD when the “blind child” is not getting close to what he’s supposed to do or WARM if he’s going the right way. Some of the things you can ask them to do are: Sit down on that pillow, put a hat on that teddy, stick this picture on the door, grab a cookie from that table…

Next article Bridging the Gap Between Boredom and Creativity in Child Development

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