So you have found your perfect party location, but now you need to know how to keep the costs down in relation to entertainment for your precious little one’s party.

I conducted some actual research on this by asking Ivy and a group of her friends about parties they have attended while supervising them. I guess school holidays do have a purpose after all.

From their answers I gathered some facts about what made a party great for them, and you would be suprised that most of the parties they had the most fun at had one thing in common. The entertainment wasn’t expensive.

The top ranking party was that of a friend of theirs, who had a pool party and sleepover. Apparently the miserable rain did not have any effect on this, so I make the assumption that perhaps that highlight was not looking at the pool and being too scared to venture in, but rather the sleepover aspect. The cost of this party was not that high due to the fact that the children invited were just the close circle of friends, just the cost of pizza, coke and renting a couple of DVDs.

Another high ranking party was a beading party, where the mother of the child involved sat down with them and they all came away with a necklace.

The other thing I learnt from talking to them about parties was that what was popular are parties where they are actually allowed to talk and play without constant parental/entertainer interruption.

The most popular games were the chocolate game, where there is a dice and a block of chocolate, and you have to eat the chocolate with a knife and fork, until the dice going around the circle comes up with a 6. Then you get to stop, and the person that rolled the six has to take over. I wouldn’t recommend this for larger groups though.

Another game that they spoke highly over involved stringing doughnuts up on a string at about head height, and the goal is to eat it without touching it, the first person to finish is the winner.

Parties where the parents set up a treasure hunt can work really well, as long as you keep the children’s age in mind. For smaller children just scatter the treasure around an area, let them all start at the same time, and watch them race around like crazy picking up treasure. For older children you might want to create a treasure map, to ensure the group of children stay together I would suggest only making one copy of the map for them, and keeping a spare for yourself, this should prevent them all splitting up and them getting competitive.

The overwhelming result of my research however was that more guests are not better. Infact, I was informed that the best parties are when the guests are all part of the same circle of friends, because they know how to have fun together, how to play together, you do not need to hire a magician for a group of children who manage to have fun at lunchtime at school each day.

Coming up next, What makes a good theme party.