Tag: entertainment

Parties on a budget

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Kids parties can be hugely expensive. With growing pressures to keep up with the Jone’s, kid’s parties can be a big stress if you’re on a budget. 

The good news is that you don’t have to spend a fortune to give the kids a good time. In fact, we’d even say the kids will quite possibly have more fun if you don’t!

When it comes to parties, kids love simplicity! They don’t need loads of different things to have a good time. It’s amusing to see, that often the more lavish a party is, the less the children enjoy it. Quite simply because there are too many activities competing for the kids’ attention: a bouncy castle in one corner, entertainer in the other, then a face painter, a mascot thrown in for good measure and why not a popcorn machine? Sounds amazing but it’s too much!

Kids will become frantic and not be able to concentrate on very much for very long and it’s usually a big stress and panic to squeeze it all in to the 2 hrs.

But having less does not mean doing away with the fun. Far from it. 

The first thing is to decide what you want to do for your kid’s party. Give your child a few options and ask what they think they might like.

Themed children’s parties have loads of mileage and give you a lot of room for creativity at very low cost.

Costumes- You can have a lot of fun making your kids costume and it will cost you nothing. e.g. a pirate costume -get out the scissors and snip away at an old white shirt and tatty old pair of school shirts/ trousers, and a nice red scarf around the head.

Or what about fairy wings cut out from card board and covered in pink wrapping paper and sprinkled with a bit of glue and glitter. These give just a few ideas of how to make costumes from very little. 

Party Invites – if you are computer savvy and have a bit of creative flair you could do your own cool invites on the computer, of just do an Internet search for party invites and download free templates available. 

Make your own Cake – the sky is the limit when it comes to cake ideas.

Decorations – balloons are very cheap and usually all you need to create a super party atmosphere. Just have lots of them!!! You could also make your own colourful paper chains, or get some reasonably priced party decorations from any online party store.

Entertainment – every party needs some sort of entertainment. You could of course do the entertainment yourself but you’d need to be confident you could lead a group of kids through sufficiently fun activities for 2 hours. If you can’t then this is something you might want to budget for. if you are hiring a Children’s entertainer then this is likely to be where most of the cost of your party will go, but you needn’t spend a fortune – if you went for a week day after school, then entertainers are far more likely to give better deals as weekdays are not as busy as weekends. or a morning slot like 11 am – 1 pm. 

Food – parents can work tirelessly in the kitchen to create the most amazing party food but you’ll be surprised how little kids can eat at parties so do remember this before buying loads or going to loads of trouble. If you want to keep it cheap and simple, sandwiches and crisps and a few finger foods like sweets and small fruit like strawberries, grapes etc. is perfect. Finger food is always best. But if the creative guru in you can’t resist to try and dazzle and amaze, then you can be super creative and theme your food in so many different ways whilst still sticking to your budget. 

Party bags often go in the bin or get left lying around the minute kids get home if they’re just cheap toys, so you might want to settle for a piece of cake and a small but decent quality toy. Or maybe give kids a small pocket sized children’s story book. This has become increasingly popular and kids are far more likely to keep them. You can pick them up in shops for about 50p – £1 each.

A little something different

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Children’s Birthday Parties can be a really fun and exciting time. Kids go wild at the thought of kid’s party entertainers being there and when the time comes to plan your own children’s party entertainment, you’ll probably find your child wants the same entertainer to come along to their party too. But parents often get to a point where they have seen so many kids party entertainers and wouldn’t mind a change. Loads of kids in the class have had the same type of children’s party entertainment or the same entertainer and it’s sometimes nice to spice things up a bit!

The problem is of course – what other options are out there? When you think children’s magicians or kids party entertainers, you often think of a silly man or woman in an outfit doing magic, games, dancing, balloons, etc. This is a classic formula for children’s birthday parties and it works very, very well indeed so you definitely shouldn’t necessarily overlook this. For years’ children’s birthday parties have consisted of this and kids still love it today. These are probably the most popular mix of activities for a children’s birthday party so if you haven’t tried that already then that’s probably a good bet to go for as the variety of the activities makes it a hugely fun and safe option.

But nowadays there is a lot of other choice available and if you’ve already seen lots of kid’s party entertainers doing this mix of children’s party activities already it might be nice to try something new.

Science Parties are becoming bigger and bigger at the moment. Think science is boring? Think again! Science parties are barrels of fun! They use really engaging science experiments and demonstrations that are absolutely visually stunning and get the kids involved and are a great way to give kids a brand new and exciting experience. Science Parties are becoming increasingly popular as a form of children’s party entertainment and they tend to be suitable for any age from about 4 all the way to teens. The kids get to see loads of amazing and visually stunning science demonstrations as well as trying out their own super cool science party experiments, where they learn just how much fun science can be! 

Bubble parties are another great idea for children’s birthday parties. Ever seen a kids get wrapped inside a giant bubble? Kids love it! Why not give it a try? 

Other great options are activity parties for kids, drama, clowns, discos, the fact is that when it comes to kid’s party entertainers or children’s party entertainment, the sky is the limit.

Of course you do have to think about budget. Often going bigger with kid’s parties will mean costing more. But then if you’re on a tighter budget, you needn’t be limited by choice. There are lots of themed parties that you could go for that can help inject fun and creativity into children’s birthday parties. Why not try a cool spy party or an around the world party where you play games that are linked to the theme? 

One other helpful tip is to not get too carried away with organising your little one’s special day. It is easily done with all the exciting choices out there. So do remember to talk through what your child wants and that what you are organising is what they’d like to have and not what you think they’d like to have or what you rather like the sound of. After all it is their day and they may still be happy with the original mix of activities that they have seen before.

Making happy memories

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Most people can look back on their childhood and recall a few magical memories from a children’s party that was either thrown in their honour or that they attended in order to celebrate someone else. These occasions often live long in the memory and as a parent, it can be just as exciting to throw your own child a party and give them tonnes of wonderful memories to look back on.
Although kids’ parties can be stressful and slightly challenging to plan; your child is sure to get so much out of it and have such a good time as they celebrate their special day.

Interaction

Let’s face it, kid’s parties are all about having fun but there are real benefits that go with having a party too, that parents probably don’t’ even think about like.

The interaction that children experience with other kids of a similar age is vital in their early development. Their interaction and social skills will be developed as they have heaps of fun, constantly interacting with their friends.

Most of the interacting kids do with their friends is at school, so it’s really nice for them to be able to do this in an environment that is completely different. Not to mention the fact that they gain new experiences like seeing an exciting magic show and puppet shows, etc. Children’s parties can give kids real benefits as it opens up a world of imagination and excitement. Getting to help with the magic tricks can really help your child build their confidence too, especially for those children that tend to be quite shy. Children are always more likely to build confidence whilst doing something fun, new and exciting.

Imagination

One of the most important parts of any kids’ party is the children’s party entertainer and not just because they hold the focus of the children whilst you can take a break. A great children’s entertainer will be able to really amaze the children and open their eyes to host of really exciting activities, invigorate their imaginations. The first time a child sees a seemingly impossible magic trick, or their made to feel really special will provide an unforgettable memory and teach them something really new and intriguing.

A Lasting Smile and a Story to Tell

As a child, there’s nothing more exciting than your birthday party. But as a parent, one of the best parts of throwing a party for your child is the priceless look on their face as they enjoy their special day and the delightful way in which they tell you all things they loved about it.

Less is more

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Ask any parent and they will tell you of the increasing pressure they feel when planning a child’s birthday party. The growing competitive element of hosting a children’s birthday party that has recently emerged now means that many parents end up overspending and creating a party that is filled to the brim with far too many activities.

Here at Kiddy Zone, we are well aware of the pressures facing parents, and would like to tell you that those looking to create a memorable birthday celebration for their little one should focus on simplicity and fun and try to ignore, where possible, the feeling that they have to compete with other parents as this can actually result in having an adverse effect on your children’s party!

Do remember that children love simplicity. Not to say the entertainment shouldn’t be good or varied. It should definitely be good and varied. It needs to be engaging, fun and imaginative too. But parents should avoid the temptation to overload their kid’s party with too many activities at the same time as this will end up being over stimulating and confusing. We’ve seen it time and time again where parent book an entertainer, bouncy castle, popcorn machine, mascot, face painter, etc. all in one party that last just 2 hours.

Parents feeling the need to plan a party filled with different activities can actually leave birthday boys and girls so overwhelmed with far too much to take in that they don’t focus properly on any one thing and are unable to really enjoy their special day properly. Instead, parents should choose no more than a handful of activities for the children and to make sure that there is plenty of time for the kids to enjoy all of it.

In the same way, parents that don’t plan enough activities or have any form of entertainment at all, can often find that their children are completely underwhelmed, bored or worse become very restless and start running around and be difficult for parents to control. If there is no structure to the entertainment planned this can happen a lot, which is something all parents want to avoid.

A perfect party has a few fun activities planned for different times, but parents should be prepared for their party ‘timetable’ to change slightly during the celebration so it can be adapted to suit the kid’s energy levels on the day and to accommodate any unforeseen events e.g. food running late.

Science Parties

Science Parties are a relatively new but very exciting kind of children’s entertainment and something extremely varied and engaging for the kids and suitable for ages 4- 12. They are perfect if you are looking to mix fun and excitement with learning all about just how fantastic and fun science can be.

Kids get to watch really colourful and visual science demonstrations as well as fun experiments. Plus, science related games. This is another great option for parents as it’s very different from what you see at most parties. But we’d only recommend this if you know your kids are into science.

The Puppeteer

Puppet shows are great for children of all ages and have been part of our culture for thousands of years. They’re normally aimed at 3-7 year olds but can work for 2 years too. Even if the younger children don’t fully understand the storyline or the jokes, they can still enjoy the visual aspects and get involved with audience participation, which usually includes shouting things to the puppets and doing loads of funny actions.

Puppet shows can be the main event or form part of a huge mix of party activities. Either way, it goes down a treat and is often one of the things kids remember best.

The Circus Performer

Circus performers or clowns are great for children’s parties where the guests are a little bit older (maybe 4 and up) any younger and the kids can get a bit scared of clowns as they don’t like the make up on the face or the red nose and clown wig. Our clowns do loads of fun clown gags and jokes. The parties are very interactive for children. A clown is not something kids see every day so it really adds a brilliant wow factor when your child sees a clown coming to their party for their birthday.

Apart from general clowning around, a clown can be a magician, he can hold a puppet show, do games, juggling, etc. Clowns can be balloon moddlers or, face painters; their versatility really is endless.

Double up

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Admittedly, children’s party entertainers and children’s magicians can be quite pricy, and that’s only half the cost. With the credit crunch still looming, a great way to save money can be to have a joint children’s birthday party with another parent. That way you don’t lose out on the fun of having a children’s entertainer at half the cost. Aside from the cost benefits, you can also share the organisation and work load that goes with planning a children’s birthday party. That said, does sharing a children’s birthday party with another parent create a headache in itself?

Common problems can be found amongst parents trying to jointly organise kids birthday parties, like not being able to decide on what type of party to have. Children’s party entertainers alone can be a tricky thing to decide on. Do you have a themed children’s party or children’s magician, clown, etc.? Kids party entertainers can be one of the trickiest things to decide on when having to liaise with another parent. As your child might want something entirely different to what the other parent’s child wants.

Additionally, many parents can find that they have to compromise more than they bargained for, or workload is not shared out equally, and then after having spent a great deal of time and effort organising most of the children’s birthday party, the parent they’re sharing it with isn’t entirely happy with what has been arranged and in the end you’re left wondering if it would have been better to spend a bit extra and be left to organise your own children’s birthday party.

If you’re planning on sharing a children’s birthday party with another parent, it’s best to do it with someone who has the same ideas as you and who is in the same class as your child so the numbers of children don’t instantly double, otherwise your costs go up and you’re saving is far less.

When organising kid’s birthday parties together, the key thing is to have a clear idea of what you both want right from the start. Have a budget set and decide who is going to do what. Look at different types of children’s party entertainment packages that are on offer. 

You’ll also need to figure out who you’re inviting to the party, will it be at home or in a hall, who will organise the food, or if you’re sharing it who will do what. Once you’ve set a clear outline for what you’re going to have and who will do what, that should help prevent there being disagreements along the way.

It can be a great thing for kid’s birthday parties to be organised together. The initial liaising with another parent can definitely be worth the saving, as kid’s birthday parties are not always cheap. Kids party entertainers alone are usually a large part of the cost, so halving that cost can be very helpful. If the workload is shared equally that helps a great deal too. You might also find you can benefit from the expertise of another parent who has organised kid’s parties before. Just make sure you both know if you want similar things before you get too far down the planning stage.

Every Child Included

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Those who are well-experienced in planning children’s parties will understand how difficult it can often be to get all of the younger guests feeling included in the celebrations and enjoying the party. With a room full of children with different personalities and levels of confidence, the task of coming up with ways to keep all guests involved and entertained throughout the day, can be a tricky one.

If you are doing the children’s party entertainment yourself, when planning the party, think about how you can encourage your child and their friends to play and have fun as a group, and make sure that you organise special ways for all children to partake in the party fun so that everyone leaves having had a great time. With almost endless possibilities, here are a few ways that you can make sure that all children feel included at your child’s birthday party.

Organised Party Games

Rather than simply leaving the children to make their own fun, split the party into sections and spend part of it playing some organised party games. Games like Musical Statues and Pass the Parcel are great at getting all guests involved and having fun together. They are familiar favourites for a good reason – because they are easy to do and kids love them! If you are doing the entertainment yourself, with children that are particularly shy and reluctant to get involved, why not ask them to help you be the game master, or even put them in charge of stopping and starting the music?

If you do decide to play Pass the Parcel, include a small prize, such as a fun size bag of sweets or a small toy between each layer of wrapping paper. Also, be selective of when the music stops so that every child gets a prize, and perhaps have the main prize be won by someone who is not the birthday girl or boy, so that no one feels left out.

Interactive Entertainment

Of course, if going down the route of doing the entertainment yourself, is not for you, then that’s where we come in. Having a children’s entertainer at your son or daughter’s birthday party is a great way of guaranteeing that all of the young guests are entertained and included in the fun of the day as this is something we do all the time. A sit-down show or an interactive entertainment experience instantly includes all of the children. Regardless of what theme, or type of party that you and your child choose, one of our great entertainers will get all children involved with their incredible balloon modelling, amazing magic tricks, and hilarious puppet shows, comedy, and other brilliant party activities.

Party Bags

Making sure that every child leaves with a party bag is a great final way to include all the guests at your child’s birthday. Saying thank you and goodbye to all of the guests at the party is important as it not only makes children feel that they were a part of the day, but also helps guests remember how much fun they had during the party.

Easy Fancy Dress

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Having a children’s party in fancy dress is unbelievable amounts of fun!! Nowadays we’re spoilt for choice with online party costume shops. You could go and buy some costumes, but then why do that when you could have the fun of making them? It’s great fun and a great activity to do with your kids and gets them even more excited about the big day!

Find Materials

There are lots of cheap materials you can find around the house to make some great costumes. The greatest of all is cardboard! You can make anything out of cardboard when you’re armed with lots of masking tape, a pair of scissors and some string. It’s very easy to pick up some free cardboard boxes if you go and ask around at some shops. Supermarkets in particular get through a lot of boxes and should have some spare banana boxes that they’ll be happy to give you. Otherwise cereal boxes are a good alternative and can be easier to manipulate for things like a quick rolled wizards hat!

Oversized Glasses

No children’s science party would be complete without a few nutty professors and all you need is one of Dad’s old white shirts and then make an oversized pair of glasses and a funny bow tie!

For the glasses all you need is cardboard, masking tape and a pair of scissors or craft knife. Just draw the shape for the front and sides of the glasses in one line, just like the old paper 3D glasses, and make sure you have the curve to fit over the nose and the curly bits to go round your ears. A responsible adult needs to cut around the outline, taking extra care when cutting out the middle of the frames. Do this by making a hole in the middle so you can poke the scissors through and cut.

Then paint your glasses. Black is traditional, but you could always get the glitter out and make some Elton John style glasses! After you’ve finished your jazzy painting just fold the sides to a form a right angle with the front and complete your glasses shape. To reinforce the fold and to make the nutty professor look all the more convincing, you can wrap the masking tape around the corners to give a broken glasses look.

Big Funny Bow Tie

The bow tie is a similar process. Just draw out a big bow tie shape, cut it out and paint it any colour you like. Now make two sets of two holes either side of the knot in the centre of the bow tie. Then take a long piece of string and thread it up and down the holes, so that you don’t have to make a knot on the painted side of the bow tie. Then put on the bow tie and tie a double knot.

Pretty Fairy Wings

Every little girl feels special in set of fairy wings and they’ll enjoy them even more if they made them themselves! The easiest way to make them is to cut out the two wings as one shape, so that the two wings join together with a strip of cardboard at least 10 cm long. This should make it easier for them to stay upright. When you’ve cut them out it’s time to get painting. You could draw out some pattern to paint with lots of swirly lines and stars and then whilst the paint is still wet, sprinkle on some glitter!

Cut four holes in the centre of the wings by poking your scissors through with blue tack the other side to lean on. You can use elastic to finish the wings, or if you don’t have any elastic just use string. Just thread the elastic up and down through the left set of holes and take another piece for the right set. Then tie a knot to make a circle for the fairy’s arm to fit through. It is easier to do this if you tie them directly onto the fairy and then she’s all set to flutter away!

Outdoor Children’s Party

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Providing the weather holds, there is nothing more exciting for children than an outdoor party. Rather than being cooped up inside, the fresh air and additional space will do your guests good and give them new terrain to explore. Here are a few top tips if you’re thinking about hosting a children’s party in the garden or a hired outdoor space:

Plenty of food

An array of party foods will go down a treat. Try to ensure that you:

• Balance healthy and sugary snacks.

• Keep fluid levels up with regular drinks, particularly on hot days
• Provide shaded seating while children are eating

Games

No party is complete without games, and being outdoors will give you plenty of scope. Depending on the size of your garden and the age of the kids attending you could also arrange a:

• Treasure hunt
• Water balloon battle (best to advise for kids to have a change of clothes with them though)
• Messy flour and water game – where you have 2 tubs (one filled with water and the other with flour.) The kids have to use only their mouth to ‘fish’ out a sweet in a tub full of water and then they have to do the same in a tub of flour. Only once they do it with flour, they will end up with their faces covered in it- loads of fun!!! They must keep their hands behind their back at all times!
• Relay race
• Talent show – get the kids into groups and give them ideas of what they could do e.g. sing, do a funk dance they make up for themselves, a mini play, a mini x factor style competition, or whatever they like.
• Obstacle course – another fun idea is to set up some pegs either side of the garden with string either side and tell the kids that the string are laser beams that they have to crawl under, like a spy or just a cool obstacle course game. If you have garden toys, e.g. a slide (where they have to slide down the slide before coming back through the ‘laser beam maze’ or paddling pool (where they have to fish something out of the pool full of water and bring it back through.

With a bit of imagination – a lot of fun can be had!!!

Entertainment

Professional children’s entertainers can really take the pressure off you as a host as well as making the birthday boy or girl feel really special.

Have a look on our directory of children’s entertainers bring so much fun to any party and can include some great activities such as:

• Magic tricks
• Puppet shows
• Comedy
• Musical or dance-based activities
• Balloon modelling
• Exciting themes
• Science parties
• Clowns
• Discos and more

Themes

Introducing a theme can pull all of the above elements together. For example, if your children’s entertainers will be doing magic tricks, a magician or wizard theme goes down well. The children can dress up as their favourite character and the food and games could have a magical theme incorporated too. If you’re planning an outdoor treasure hunt, guests could come dressed as pirates and your children’s entertainers can include a cool pirate theme throughout.

Plan a Treasure Hunt

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Give your child an adventure from your own home with an exciting treasure hunt! It’s a great way to get them exploring and using their imagination, with lots of treats and games thrown in! They require a little preparation to plan the perfect clues, but they’re a great addition to any children’s birthday party and it will all be worth it when you see their little faces light up every time they find a clue or prize!

Planning the Clues

You could just have a free-for-all like a traditional Easter egg hunt, where there are no clues and the kids just explore the house and garden for small hidden sweets or prizes, but we think it’s more fun when the kids get together in teams to work together and solve a puzzle. Then the excitement can really build whilst they work their way to the grand finale!

You can make riddles and rhymes to point them in the right direction of the next clue, and you can vary the difficulty of the clues depending on the age group of the party. Perhaps you could try a word game where each location has a riddle with the first letter of each answer spelling the location of the final treasure.

Themes

Basing your treasure hunt around a theme all adds to the fun and gives the adult planners some inspiration for coming up with the clues and prizes! Here are some examples of how you can incorporate a theme, or take a look at the themes of our children’s parties here for more ideas.

Pirates

A pirate theme is a classic where the kids have to find clues to take them to the final treasure chest, which is full of treats, party food, and more games to play. You could try making a map on tea stained paper of all of the clue locations and then they have to work out the final location from the clues.

Fairies

Make a list of clues to find lots of fairy friendly items and whoever collects all of the items first wins a prize, with runner up prizes for the rest of the kiddies. Some things they could look for are little toy fairies, flowers, fairy dust, leap frogs and magic bracelets.

Magic

Have the magician conjure the first clue to unveil the treasure hunt and then get the kids to find the pieces of their own magician outfits. They could find magic wands, top hats, capes and toy rabbits. The winner is the first person to get dressed!

Science

Split the kids up and get them to look for different ingredients and when they’re all found they can form part of a science experiment! Or you could use food ingredients which get stirred together to bake a cake or make some cookies which the kids can eat later on in the party!

Family days out around Hawes

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1. Wensleydale Creamery

By far the best known attraction in Hawes is the Wensleydale Creamery, home of Wensleydale cheese. The centre offers cheese making demonstrations, a small museum and viewing gallery, cafes and shops. The creamery has a lot to thank Wallace and Gromit for; the animated duo helped increase production at a time when sales were slowing. Nowadays the creamery sells a cheese named after them, I bet it’s a popular choice for visitors.

The best part, for a family day out, is the cheese shop. It’s full of samples, even for those people who don’t like Wensleydale cheese.

 

You can visit the cheese shop for free; a family ticket (2 adults and 2 kids) to the museum and cheese making area costs £7.50.

2. Hardraw Force waterfall

Hardraw Force is England’s highest above ground single drop waterfall, with a plunge of 100 foot. It’s a short easy walk to the waterfall through the grounds of the Green Dragon Inn. We visited during a dry spell; I’d imagine it’s even more impressive after heavy rain.

 

The waterfall is open daily from 10am. A family ticket (2 adults, 2 children) costs £7.50.

3. Hawes Ropemakers (Outhwaites)

Located in the town this traditional ropemaker is worth popping into for 20 minutes or so. It’s mesmerising standing in front of the machines watching rope being made. There are machines making braids of all thicknesses and lengths from church bell ropes to skipping ropes. And if you’ve got a dog, their leads are available to buy and very popular.

 

Entrance is free.

4. Sheepdog demonstration

Countryfile have resurrected “One man and his dog” over the last couple of years which may account for the popularity of this evening out.

 

Run by a local farmer, Richard Fawcett holds weekly demonstrations in a field just outside Hawes throughout the summer season.

 

Visitors are introduced to the dogs and watch them working the sheep. They make it look easy even if the sheep don’t always behave according to plan!

 

Tickets cost £5 for adults, £1 for children.