How2Day: Fun Kid Birthday Ideas

Tap into your child's preferences and passions to plan a memorable party. birthday cake image by Cherry-Merry from Fotolia.com
Celebrating a birthday is a festive, much-anticipated occasion for children. According to The Penny Whistle Birthday Party Book, most kids prefer parties that take place at home, so collaborate and brainstorm with your child plus employ a little ingenuity and creativity to turn your house into the ideal backdrop for almost any theme.

Animal themes are easy and popular for the youngest set. A puppy party lets your child and her guests dress up a little--hairband ears, safety-pinned tails and a black nose thanks to an eyebrow pencil--and pretend big. Make dog houses from large cardboard boxes and play games like pin the tail on the puppy, the puppy pokey (instead of the hokey pokey) or Fido says. Try a barking contest and make a cake shaped like a dog bone or paw-print cupcakes. Party animals also enjoy jungle or zoo themes because traditional party games and foods are so easily adapted. The cake can represent a favorite animal or a whole zoo of cupcakes can be created. Decorate your party room like a jungle with artificial plants and greenery and play a few rounds of animal charades using pictures of animals glued to index cards so that everyone can pick a card and act out that animal. While the little monkeys eat cake, read a story like "Rumble in the Jungle" by Giles Andreae.

Party picks for kindergartners and first and second graders are more sophisticated, but still rely heavily on their imaginations. Get their feedback and then transform your living room or perhaps your carport or porch into a dinosaur habitat. Use toys your child may have that relate to his party theme as props and decorations. Plastic dinosaurs can occupy your young dinosaur hunters until everyone arrives. This age group also needs active games, so challenge your dinosaur lovers with a dinosaur egg hunt (plastic eggs filled with candy and painted with rock-hued spray paint).

By middle elementary, your daughter will prefer girls-only parties and your son will want to invite only boys. Girls at this age love slumber parties, but if you are not quite ready for the real thing, host a faux sleepover that begins at 7 p.m. and ends by 10 p.m. Invite the girls to come in their pajamas, decorate solid pillowcases with fabric markers, polish nails, and then serve pancakes topped with candles to blow out. Settle in for a movie until parents arrive. A backyard camp out suits adventurous 10-year-old boys. If possible, build a campfire to cook hot dogs and roast marshmallows. The night will fly with ghost stories, constellation watching and perhaps a nature or neighborhood scavenger hunt. Dirty, tired campers can go home the next morning with a new flashlight as a party favor.

How2Day