Parties are fun, and are a great way to have a social gathering as well as to meet new people, and stay in touch with friends. However, parties can be expensive, but they don’t have to be. Follow these tips for having a terrific Back to School party for your child and his or her friends.
Before you do anything you need to figure out if you will be inviting your child’s new classmates in their current homeroom, or will they be inviting friends from other classes. I would definitely put a limit on how many guests or you could have a lot more people than you first thought. I recommend providing the party for the new classmates. It will help your child to socialize with the students they might never have been in class with before.
Now, let’s get started – choose your location. Obviously your house would probably be the cheapest, but if you don’t have a lot of room, there are other options. You might wish to consider a local park. Arrive earlier in the day to secure a good location for the party. Sometimes churches will allow you to use their basement for nothing, or a very small fee.
After you have chosen your location, it’s time to start thinking about food. Depending on number of guests, I would recommend hot dogs and hamburgers or have the party at an off time, not during a lunch or dinner period. You can then just purchase a big cake, or make one. This can be food enough for children. Have chips and snacks available too, just in case a child or two does not want cake. Kool-aid is an inexpensive alternative to the more expensive counterparts.
Decorations can be as simple as balloons, paper chains, and child drawn art. If you are having it at a park, balloons are cheap and brightly colored; the perfect decoration.
Find out what games are appropriate for children this age. You can get them to work as teams, rather than individually, allowing them some time to get to know each other and to work together, as they will in the classroom.
If you choose to do goody bags, you might wish to consider filling them with pencils, erasers, rulers, glue bottles and glue sticks, a box of crayons and any other fun and creative school supplies you can find. If you have a school supply list for your child’s class, you might wish to purchase a few items on that. Be sure to purchase them early in the season to get the best deal. You can often get packs for 4-6 glue sticks for only .50.
To get other great deals on items, check out the deals section here on families.com or check out our deals blog.