Terri Ramsey Beavers So what do you do when it’s time for your kid’s birthday in today’s socially distant COVID-19 world?
The soft play centre is out. Having all your kid’s friends round for a party, blowing out candles and signing is probably not a good idea either. So what else can you do?
It’s a shame not to have some kind of party. Denying children any access to their friends has got to be bad for their mental health. And what about all those extra presents the guests bring!
Here’s a selection of ideas for your next child’s birthday party that will allow you the ability (with a little planning) to keep your guests a little distant from one another. One of these is sure to please come birthday time.
1 – Make A Puzzle Trail
Here’s exactly what we did this year for my son’s 6th birthday. In a local park with lots of locations and things to visit. It involved creating a list of child-friendly puzzles for which the answer was a location to go to in the park. Each place they visited had an activity to perform that gave you a letter in the solution to the puzzle. Ours was secret agent themed and the solution was the name of a rogue agent’s name.
The prize was a party bag and all the kids loved it. It was easy to keep them separate from each other by starting them off at different locations and at different times!
Everyone had some fun, had a walk, and even practiced their reading and writing without complaining!
If you’d like to try this yourself here’s how check out this post on our 5 year old kids puzzle trail.
2 – Party Soccer Games
If you have a bunch of young children and a wide-open space just get some soccer balls and you can have lots of fun making up passing, goal scoring, and dribbling games.
Without fouling the opposition soccer is a non-contact sport. You can’t help getting close to the opposition when trying to steal the ball. But if you make up games and drills instead they don’t need to get too close.
Also, why not buy a bag full of soccer balls and give them as party favors afterward? They’re often pretty cheap at sports retailers.
3 – A Spaced Out Picnic Party
If you can safely predict some good weather and have a large outdoor space that isn’t too far away it’s a great idea to just invite everyone for a picnic. Get them to bring their own drinks, food, and a picnic rug and that’s pretty much it!
You can keep everyone as separate as you like.
4 – Make A Birthday Video Montage
What about asking friends and family to record a video message for your birthday boy or girl? You can make a playlist of all of them or make a movie montage by editing them all together.
Time spent in organising and making this isn’t lost after the birthday either. Things like this make great keepsake stored in your photo cloud for years to come.
5 – Get Visitors Chalking
How about arranging for party guests to pass by the house during the birthday day. They can come whenever they like. Put out a bucket of sidewalk chalk and let them chalk a birthday message on your driveway or sidewalk. Kids love to draw on things they shouldn’t! But remember to take pics and watch out for rain, a little will wash everything away.
If you leave the chalk out long enough you might get some surprise messages too.
6 – Hire The Ice Cream Truck!
Who doesn’t love ice-cream?
It’s a great idea to hire an ice cream truck for your party. All the guests can gather outside (or whatever space you find) and when the truck arrives, the ice creams are on you! The kids get to say hello, exchange gifts and spend a little time outside at a safe distance.
7 – Obstacle or Assault Course
If you’ve got a lot of ‘stuff’ lying about. Boxes, logs, cardboard, hoops, you name it. Use it. Make an obstacle course. It doesn’t take all that much to make an obstacle for a smaller body to use!
Depending on how much ‘stuff’ you have, you might want to do this in your own backyard or close by your house.
Kids can take turns to keep them apart. Take a stopwatch and time them to see how long they take.
If you bring enough obstacles another great challenge is to get kids to make their own course. Get each child that wants to (or pairs of children) and take a vote on who’s was the most fun, the quickest, the slowest. You get the idea!!
Take a look here for more ideas.