Do you feel like booking entertainment for your children’s party is a science? Because it is! Children at different age groups think very differently. If you are inviting children of the same age group, it makes your task a little simpler. If you are inviting relatives, schoolmates, neighbours who have children of different age groups, this will make your job doubly more difficult. Fret not! Here are some simple guideline to follow from Wee Kien Meng, a psychologist by training and of course the founder of Mr Bottle’s Kids Party.
Baby shower and 1 year old
Children at this age may be too young to do anything or understand any entertainment. Hence it depends on the age group of the children who are coming and keeping them occupied throughout the party.
If there are not a lot of children, I suggest that parents focus on having decorations like balloons, candy buffet, toys rental or even entertainment for adults, if you mostly have an all-adult group.
2-3 years old
Children at this age can walk around but attention span is rather short still. I recommend entertainment like:
- Bouncy castle / playground / balls pools– value for money entertainment which can be there throughout the party. Do consider the space available before booking.
- Fringe Activities – Facepainting and balloon sculpting doesn’t require any attention of very young children.
- Mascot – Mr Bottle’s Kids Party‘s mascot programme not only include meet and greet, it also include music and movement which is perfect for younger children. However, some children may be scared when their larger than life cartoon character like Barney or Chase from Paw Patrol suddenly coming to their party. Our team has the knowledge on how to approached these situations.
For instance, we went to a party in which a 2-year-old was afraid of the mascot and she was the only child at the party! We decided to take a early rest. The child realising that the mascot was gone suddenly became very interested in it. Immediately, we decided to play the game of hide and seek. Later, obviously, we had the happy ending of child hugging, singing and kissing the mascot.
- Magic Show – Mr Bottle’s birthday magic show is recommended if the child is 3 years old AND there are also older children at the party. For 3-year-olds, everything is magical around them so even if Mr Bottle makes a train appear in front of them, it is nothing to them. However, because of the interaction and comedy in his show, children 3 and above (and even parents) will enjoy and participate in it. For a purely 2-3 years old group, we will recommend the parents sit down and watch with them.
4-6 years old
This is the perfect age for parties! They have began to understand the world around them. They have friends from kindergarten. There are things which they like, for instance Superhero, princess and dinosaurs. Create a theme party and get them to part of the planning:
- Magic Show – Magic show is perfect for this age; keep the total showtime within 60mins.
- Fringe Activities – Caricature, Balloon Sculpting and facepainting are great fringe activities and easy to theme.
- Workshops – They are at an age which can learn a lot of things really fast! Design a workshop which is age suitable and doesn’t take more than 45min.
7-8 years old
Children are going to primary school, making new friends. Like the 4-6 years old, a lot of entertainment like magic show, balloon sculpting and facepainting are suitable. This is probably the most versatile age for parties because there are so many things which you can choose to do! So how do you narrow down what to do? Find a theme, like art or science which they love to narrow down the suitable items. Some of the items which you can organise yourself:
- Interactive Games – They enjoy playing and receiving prizes. There are many theme games which you can find on the internet.
- Treasure Hunt – Children at this age love to run around, if you have a garden or space around, hide things around for them to find. Make it challenging for them by creating smaller obstacles.
9-12 years old
They are getting smarter, but more importantly, they want to show their peers that they are better. Although magic shows are still great for this group, you may get a lot of children saying, “I know how it’s done.” or “so easy.”. Actually, most of the time, they DO NOT know the secret but just need to show their peers their superiority. I would treat them like small adults. Hence I would recommend:
- science show and workshop – this gives them the perfect chance to show off their knowledge and still get a very entertaining magical show.
- A minute to win it games – Children at this age are competitive so games like this will work great. The game master can create an interesting dynamic of 2 groups, which makes it fun and exciting to compete.
- Trendy things – There is always something which is currently popular for this age group. If it is football, organise a simple tornament with medals as prizes. How about a fidget spinner competition? Karaoke and singing competition because talents shows on TV are all the rage.
- Thinking and challenging activities – Activities like Who Stole the Birthday Cake, laser tag and fossil digging are fun yet challenging for children for this age group.
Do look out for our next article on entertainment which you can book which are suitable for adults as well as children!