The summer holidays are coming again and the children are in an uproar. They have a month and a half off before the new school year starts again. Do you want to end the holiday or the end of it on a nice note? Then organize one or more children’s afternoons for your children together with the other parents in the neighborhood or square where they can do crafts, have their faces painted and much more. If you use the evening for the parents, it becomes a party for young and old.
Initiative
Like everywhere and always, someone will have to pull the proverbial cart. If you live in a neighborhood where everyone knows each other and all the children play together, it is easier to make contact with the other neighbors than if you live somewhere new. Yet this is the way to get to know everyone in your neighborhood a little better. Visit the other neighbors and see what they think of the idea. This is a handy way to find out how much enthusiasm there is for a neighborhood party. But you can also ask which parents or neighbors would like to volunteer to help on the day itself and in organizing the party, because there is more to it than you think, so you can use all the help you can get. But remember: the sun rises for nothing, everything else we have to pay for. Consider how you will share the costs or whether you will, for example, ask for a small contribution for the day itself. But you can do a lot with what you have at home, everyone around has a hidden talent. Take advantage of that.
Decoration
If you have a lot of people with party tents in the area, you can of course place them all around each other with the sides open. You can then place tables and chairs, the make-up area, etc. underneath, so that if it starts to rain, you will at least be dry with that mountain of children. Make the stalls or party tents as colorful as possible with flags and balloons, basically anything that has color makes children happy.
Refreshments
Create a place where children can get orange juice or other drinks in plastic cups. When it is hot and children are busy playing, they need a lot of water. If you give them all a bag of chips, they will also have the necessary salt on an already busy day, and it is simply delicious. A little snacking is part of it.
Points list
Fill the afternoon with games where children can earn points, either as an individual or as a team if there are many very small children. Make a points list on the PC where they can put their name and where they can have the points written down after each game. Cut square cards from colored cardboard and stick the points list on them. If you make a hole in the cards and make a long ribbon, the children can wear the points lists around their necks and no one will lose them. Come up with a prize for the first three winners or make a trophy if you can. But remember, it’s all about fun so all the other kids get a little consolation prize.
Prizes and consolation prizes
If you know people in the business community and tell them that you have a neighborhood party for which you need prizes, they will often arrive with some business gifts. If not, you are welcome to ask questions, so be bold and ask if they have any nice promotional gifts left for a voluntary neighborhood party. Start collecting things in time, so you will eventually come across a lot of useful things. From balloons to decorate your square and stalls to fun small children’s toys. If you can’t collect anything nice, visit one of the following stores to find small prizes cheaply.
- Wibra
- Sailor
- Blocker
- Kruidvat
- Giraffe
- Action
- Also look at the sale racks of the toy store
You can often find very cheap, very nice things there that will make the little ones very happy, such as glow in the dark stickers, pencils and markers or one of the many other things that can be found in such shops. Just look around, in every city there are a number of budget stores where they have nice children’s toys.
Children’s activities
- Sack race: Take a number of jute bags and let two or more children compete in them to see who can reach the finish line fastest by jumping up and down in the bag. Fun guaranteed.
- Viewing box: Cut a circle in the side of a number of shoe boxes, so that a viewing hole is created. Place different things in those boxes and let each child look into a box through the peephole for, for example, 5 seconds. Then they can guess twice what it is, if they are correct they have earned another point.
- Egg-spoon walking: The word says it all, make two or more teams and give each team a spoon and a boiled egg. Place half of each team on one side and the other half further away from them on the other side. By putting the spoon in their mouth and placing the egg on the spoon, they must walk to bring the egg across to the next team member, walking back and forth until everyone has gone. Each team member who brings the egg to the other side without dropping it gets a point.
- Orange hugging: Give two or more children a large orange to clasp between their chin and chest. You are not allowed to help with your hands to keep it from falling. Pass the orange to the next person without dropping it, each time the person who passes it succeeds gets 1 point.
- Goal shooting: Create a goal where the children can shoot balls and a goalkeeper (who doesn’t try too hard of course) tries to stop the ball for effect. If there are handy dads around, you can also saw some large holes in a wooden plate for older children so that they have multiple goals to shoot at. Of course, each goal counts for 1 point.
- Nail passes: Line up empty plastic bottles and tie a long string around each child’s waist with a large nail at the end so they can see it clearly. Now let them try to get the nail into the bottle by standing over the bottle, squatting, etc. If they succeed, they get two points for the difficulty.
- Shuffleboard: if you have a shuffleboard and tiles you can also use them as a game. Stick points above the holes and let them all slide three stones. Add up the number of points achieved and write them back on the points list.
- Clothing race: Place two short routes of clothing next to each other, one after the other, with a hoop or skipping rope at the end. Items of clothing you can use are a sweater and jacket, scarf and cap or hat. You can add a pair of large gloves if necessary. Create two teams that you place at the start of the short routes. Each child must put on the clothes as quickly as possible and then wear those clothes, for example, hula hoop twice or jump rope twice. The child who finishes first gets two points. Put the clothes back and continue with the next two children until everyone has finished.
- Tug of war: Take a thick rope and tie a colorful thick ribbon to the middle of the rope so that the middle is clearly visible. Draw a center line on the ground with chalk and a starting line for each team about one meter away on both sides. Divide the children into two teams and place each team on one side of the rope facing each other. They may start drawing when the starting signal has been given, but if anyone crosses the center line that team is out and the winning team gets 5 points.
Have them hand in their point lists at the last game so that the points can be counted for the awards ceremony.
Other activities
Music makes the rest of the day extra fun and since not everyone has access to live music, it is just as nice to just play nice music in the background. Create a dance floor so that the little ones but also older people can jump and dance to their heart’s content. After the games afternoon for the children has ended, you can push a number of tables together so that they can color, make building plates and recover a bit from the busy afternoon. It will take a while before the points are counted. In the meantime, the parents (who have also been busy all day) can also relax while enjoying a drink and a snack.
Face painting: Children in general, but especially the little ones, love having their faces painted as their favorite object or person at that moment, such as a fairy, pirate or ladybug. If you have a number of volunteers who can do face painting, put them after the games afternoon in one of the party tents at some tables with some chairs for the little ones to sit on. With small children it is easy, just shout once ,who wants to have their face painted, and they will automatically wait in line.
Award ceremony
Call everyone together so that everyone is present for the ,important, moment. Write down in advance who the children with the highest score are and what the score was. Make it a big moment when you announce the winners and present them with the prizes. But remember, this afternoon is for children and we don’t want to see anyone sad. Everyone did their best, so the rest of the children who participated will also receive a consolation prize. This could be a bag of candy or a nice little something you found in one of the stores mentioned above.
After the awards ceremony it will most likely be dinner time, so there are two things you can do. You can have everyone eat at home or all get fries or barbecue together. In any case, after dinner when the kids go to bed, you as parents can enjoy the evening ahead under the party tents. Have a drink or two or three together and possibly dance on the dance floor with your neighbor.
Cleaning up mess
Don’t forget that there is still a lot to clean up after the games afternoon and in the evening. Try to do it all together so that there is no resentment next time.