Homeschooling Birthday Parties: Making the Plan
Birthdays can be the best homeschool experience - if you plan for it. Literally. Let the planning be the lesson. Get your child involved in planning his own birthday party! This is a great way to start developing his event planning skills using an event that is of high interest to him. It may also build his appreciation of events he attends and for the people who planned them.
To discuss a myriad of considerations and ideas, your child can use a simple checklist for a special moment of planning together.
Date Considerations
Picking a date that is available for your child may work for everyone and everything, but could also end up being an unattended disappointment if you aren’t careful.
Preferred Attendees: Make sure the date is one that the hopeful invitees can attend. Sometimes we text our preferred date to our preferred guests to make sure it will work for them.
Schedule: Clear the Calendar! Ask your child to check the family calendar and school calendar to ensure he and his favorite friends do not have other big events close to the party date. You want plenty of room in the schedule for stress-free and happy preparation lead time.
Weather: Is it likely to be cold? Rainy? A bounce house company will not inflate in the rain, and a beach party on a windy day will make the birthday cake a real sandbox. So your child may want to research weather patterns and averages to help him determine if the party he has in mind will work for the potential weather.
Budget the Essentials First
Budget basically determines most of the other decisions, so make a reasonable budget with your child. Sometimes a child might opt to have more presents instead of a “friend” birthday party…or visa-versa. Let your child decide! Budget also determines the following:
Time of Day: Are you serving a meal? A dessert? What kind of meal fits within budget? The menu can determine the time of day and visa-versa. If dinner is out of budget, try a time between lunch and dinner, so that only dessert is expected.
Location: If you need to rent a space, that will eat up a big part of the budget. A trampoline park, arcade, or restaurant? Make sure your child knows his parameters when picking a location. Sometimes my kids choose a place where everyone they invite has an annual pass - so the location is free!
Menu: What do you have the budget for? What would your guests enjoy eating and drinking? What will you want for dessert or for blowing out your candles? You can research cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and other fun ways to enjoy the birthday song and candles.
Activities: Usually when people attend a birthday party, most of the activities are paid for by the birthday family. Budget also effects the choice of bounce house, craft, special guest, etc. in a major way. You can help your child research these costs and share in the phone conversations as needed to obtain bids. Also, your child can research Pinterest to find some really fun ways to engage his guests.
Number of guests/Invite List: You can use this time to teach your child that the higher the number of guests, the less freedom in choosing the time of day, type of food, activities, and etc. But, it might mean more presents! Also, there needs to be enough supplies and seating for your guests.
Budget basically affects most of the “Extra Fun” decisions as well, and it is something to keep reminding your child throughout the process. You can keep track of estimated costs as you help them work through their decisions.
Plan for Extra Fun
These are the details your child might really want to dive into with researching ideas and options on amazon, Pinterest, and birthday theme blogs. It may be helpful to let your child pick his top preference first and focus budget and his time on what he wants for that, and then go down the list in descending preferential order.
Theme: This can affect the activities, decorations, goody bags, and even the menu.
Attire: If there is a theme, does your child want everyone to dress up in costume to match it? My son had a sports theme party so asked everyone to dress in their favorite sports team or sport. My daughter had a fairytale theme and asked everyone to come dressed as a fairytale character and then made it a party activity.
Decorations: A bunch of balloons can make a big bang on the atmosphere, but also on your wallet! Pinterest is a treasure chest for your crafty kid. Set up a plan for designing and making the crafts your child chooses
Goody Bags: If your child is a gift-giver, they will love creating a goody bag of their dreams.
Fun Food: The menu for the meal may already be determined, but maybe there’s a themed food or experience that would make the party more memorable (i.e. decorating themed sugar cookies).
Gift List: If your child has certain presents in mind, allow him to make his own Amazon Wish List. My six-year-old daughter had a blast making hers! And, for the attendees, this practice truly allows the invited children to learn to pick out gifts that the receiver would enjoy, instead of making it something the giver would enjoy.
Implement the Plan
Now it’s time to look through your check-list and get ordering, reserving, and more. I recommend doing this about a month prior to the event. The longer you wait, the more stressful and less freedom you have to make sure your child’s plans can come to life. This is a great time to teach your child the blessings of planning ahead instead of the detriment of procrastination. You can save that disappointment for another day…a non-birthday day.
Enjoy the Moment
Birthday parties with themes and goody bags are short lived and just a fleeting stage of life, so enjoy these few years helping your child build the birthday party of his dreams within his means.
For more about homeschooling birthday parties, including setting up a planning schedule and theme ideas, check out our podcast episode 52.