It’s all too easy to go overboard on children’s birthday parties. A few hours of fun can cost the family’s food budget for a week! But you can make birthday dreams come true without cutting any corners that actually matter to your child.

by Karen Doyle

Birthdays are so special to children, and there’s always the temptation to try to make every wish come true on your child’s special day.

But economic reality rears its ugly head, and we look for ways to create a memorable celebration without breaking the bank. Fortunately, that’s easy to do!

Home is where the savings are

A home birthday party will usually be less expensive than having a party at an outside venue. Having the party at home also gives you more flexibility, as most birthday party venues will have one or two party “packages” that may include features you could do without.

If your home won’t accommodate all those active party guests, hold the party at a local playground or park. Just be sure not to leave any evidence of your party behind when you leave, and have enough adults for adequate supervision.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that because you’re having the party at home, you can splurge on everything else. It’s easy to get carried away at the party store, so keep an eye on the bottom line.

Limit the guest list

Too many children at a birthday party can be overwhelming as well as expensive. For preschool children, a good rule of thumb is to invite the birthday child’s age plus one. So a 3-year-old’s party would have four guests, plus the birthday child.

Once your child is in school, it becomes more difficult. There is a lot of pressure to invite the whole class to avoid excluding anyone. You have two options here. You can invite a select number of guests, emailing or calling the parents (don’t send the invitations to school unless you’re inviting the whole class), and instructing your child to keep it on the Q.T. Or you can invite the whole class and cut back on food and/or decorations.

Timing is everything

A birthday party at noon or 5 p.m. can be assumed to include something akin to a meal, such as pizza or sandwiches. Hold your party in the middle of the afternoon and you can just serve cake and ice cream. If you start an older child’s sleepover party at 7:30 or 8, the guests will already have had dinner, so snacks and birthday cake should tide them over.

Tone down the theme

If your child has her heart set on a Princess and the Frog party, you can still make her dream come true without busting your budget.

Instead of buying themed cups, plates, balloons, invitations, and tableware, try buying just one item with the theme, and color-coordinate everything else. If the cake has the Princess and the Frog on it, you can use purple or green paper products. The solid color tableware is always less expensive than the character supplies.

Old-fashioned entertainment

Instead of hiring a magician or renting ponies for your child’s party, reach back into your own childhood for some old-fashioned entertainment. Party games like “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” and “Musical Chairs” are probably new to your child’s friends. You can adapt these games for your party’s theme—for a princess party, they could become “Pin the Crown on the Princess” and “Musical Thrones.”

Consider entertainment ideas that tie into the party theme. At a pirate-themed party, try a treasure hunt with clues hidden around the house. The treasure at the end of the hunt can be the goody bags. At a dinosaur bash, you can hide “bones” in sand piles in the backyard for your little archeologists to dig up.

There are lots of websites and articles on parenting with party game ideas, like Party Game Central, which has a page where you can create a custom list of party games by entering variables such as the ages of the guests and the amount of space they’ll have to play in. Check your local library, especially for older books that will have the classic games of your childhood and your parents’ childhoods.

Double duty

Some features of the birthday party can serve more than one function. Having a craft project for party guests to do is a great activity, and the resulting creation can double as the party favor. The dinosaur “bones” can be puzzle pieces from small wooden dinosaur puzzles that you’ve purchased for each guest. The kids put their puzzles together as part of the entertainment, and the puzzle goes home with each child as a party favor.

Using cardboard crowns, paint, glitter, and “jewels” from the craft store, princess party guests can make their own royal crown to take home as a party favor.

Oriental Trading Company has a huge selection of inexpensive kits for almost any party theme. Dollar stores, whether in your area or online like the 99 Cents Dollar Store, are a great resource for craft supplies and party favors.

A piñata can be the entertainment, and the candy that rains down becomes each child’s party favor. You can even make your own piñata to go with any party theme.

For a pirate party, you could get a treasure-chest shaped piñata and fill it with candy and small pirate-themed items, like red bandanas and hoop earrings from the dollar store. Make up clues that will lead the party-goers to the treasure chest. (If there are a lot of guests, use two sets of clues and divide the kids into teams.) When they find it, they can break it open, and the contents can go in their goody bags.

With careful planning and some imagination, you can create wonderful birthday memories for your child without breaking the bank.

 

Karen Doyle is a freelance writer who lives with her husband and three children in Scituate, Massachusetts. She writes on parenting topics and personal finance issues, as well as writing what she hopes is humor.

© Photo by Karin Lau | Dreamstime.com

Inspire Your Kids to Cook

 

by Christina DiMartino

 

Your kids—boys and girls alike—express a desire to cook from a very early age, likely without your even realizing it. They make mud pies in the sandbox, play with child-sized cooking sets, and organize kitchens in doll houses or play areas, and they probably inquire about what you’re cooking from the time they begin to communicate.

 

Kids Cooking Activities offers up reasons why you should encourage cooking activities with your kids. (Set up link at underlining to http://www.kids-cooking-activities.com)

 

* Cooking with your children helps them to learn about nutrition and healthy eating. 

* Cooking in the kitchen will give children a boost of self confidence. They are accomplishing a task, learning something important, and contributing to the family.

* Taking time to cook with your kids will give them lasting memories. They will pass the traditions on when they are grown and have their own families.

* In the enthusiasm of creating something themselves, your children will be more likely to eat what they had a hand in making.

* Kids learn real lessons in science, language, math, and creativity in the kitchen. Cooking will help reinforce all these subjects.

* Cooking is a great way to learn life skills. This is especially helpful when children are older and more independent. They won't have to rely on fast food and junk food to sustain them.

* Working together in the kitchen teaches your child teamwork.

* Cooking teaches children planning and making choices skills.

* Kids practice creativity and imagination in the kitchen. Cooking activities are a great way for kids to express themselves and enjoy their creations.  

 

It may take longer to get the meal or snack done, but the moments with your children will be priceless. Remember to have patience. Don't worry about flour on the floor or spilled milk.

 

A role model for cooking with kids

 

Cooking With Kids, a series of 90-second videos, is hosted by James Beard Award-winning chef John Sarich. Development of the program was inspired by the reality of childhood obesity, anorexia and other eating disorders, Type II Diabetes, and low bone density, which have all become national issues. Cooking With Kids encourages parents and children to spend time in the kitchen together preparing healthy meals in ways that improve communication and help children develop healthy nutritional habits. (Set up link at underlining to http://www.cookingwithkids.org/fact.html)

 

The program shows how easy it is for kids to prepare snacks and meals that taste good and that are good for them. It uses the five food groups as a platform for nutrition messages. You can watch the videos with your children through the website, then print out the recipe and go try it yourselves.

 

The recipes that Sarich prepares with kids on the segments teach them which categories on the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Pyramid are included in the recipe. He explains how vegetable burritos, for example, include foods that have protein, fiber and dairy, and that the burritos are low in fat.

 

Good cooking habits

 

Spatulatta provides 350 step-by-step videos that teach kids good cooking habits, and offers advice for moms, dads and kids on numerous issues related to cooking with kids. It emphasizes topics like teaching kids to wash their hands properly before handling food.  (Set up link at underlining to http://www.spatulatta.com)

 

When it comes to working in the kitchen, you know your children. You know what abilities they have and how fine their motor skills are. Some children are ready to handle a certain kitchen utensil or work at the stove earlier than others. It’s up to you to make that determination.

 

You set the rules in your kitchen, such as you will always light the burners and oven for your children.

 

Go over the workings of every electrical appliance with your child. Explain that the beaters, for example, should be inserted into a hand mixer before the mixer is plugged in.

 

Safety and courtesy are behaviors that need to be re-enforced and modeled.

 

Once you've explained how to handle an item safely, try asking your child to tell you how to do it the next time the task is required when making a recipe. We all learn best when we try to teach.

 

 

CREDIT:

Christina DiMartino has been a freelance and assignment writer since 1985. She is a researcher, interviewer, writer, editor, and manuscript collaborator with a repertoire of clients from around the world.

 

 

PHOTO / ILLUSTRATION RECOMMENDATIONS:

Go to http://www.cookingwithkids.org

 

 

TEASER: 

Cooking with your kids does much more than produce tasty treats! It teaches teamwork, safety, courtesy, math, science, and more, and encourages creativity and imagination. And there are some terrific online videos that will help you get started.