My Gym: Pacing a Kid's Birthday Party

Often hosting a kid's birthday party will be the first experience a person gets of managing large groups of children. It can be an exhausting experience, ans trickier than you might imagine. Whilst individual children tend to know when they're had enough of something and are comparatively easy to distract, children in groups will push their limits in an attempt to impress one another.

They'll overtire themselves and end up bursting into tears, collapsing with exhaustion or behaving aggressively under all that extra social pressure. For this reason, knowing how to pace activities is one of the most important aspects of running a successful kids' birthday party.

When guests arrive at your kid's birthday party they'll be full of excitement and bursting with energy, so it's a good idea to burn off some of that energy by kicking off with active games. Make sure that these have an open format (i.e.: they don't require particular numbers of children or need everyone involved to have been there all the way through) so that latecomers can join in.

Two or three games like this can be played until the children are showing signs of tiredness; then switch to a quieter game like pas the parcel.

Never bring out the cake at a kids' birthday party whilst the guests are still in a wild, excitable state. At that stage, sugar is the last thing they need! Food should be served about halfway through, after they've calmed down a bit. Run a quiet game immediately afterwards so that they don't upset their digestive systems, then return to more active games to help them burn off some of the sugar they've consumed.

This will help to prevent them from becoming irritable. Finally, return to quieter games. If they're reluctant to behave during these, a great option is to play a game where success depends on being quiet and still. Hide and seek can work well, as can 'dead fishes', where the children lie on the floor and try not to move, the last one to successfully keep still being the winner.

Careful pacing will ensure that guests leave your kid's birthday party feeling tired but happy, with no tantrums and no fights.

Labels: activities, birthday, kids, parties, party