In the course of one snowy afternoon I attended two very different birthday parties with very different types of activity attended by roughly the same age groups (3-6 years). Through observation I was able to see which activity was ultimately the most successful for the children, the most efficient for the parents, and most enjoyable overall.
Party #1 was held at a church playspace; a very large room with children's table and chairs at one end, a rug with a train table and loose toys in the middle, and a small stage with ride on toys, small indoor slide, and teeter totter at the far end. The activity was a girl teaching hula for the tropical theme and the small tables were set up to make and decorate shakers. Besides this it was basically comprised of free play on the hundreds of toys there. However, the space acts as a playspace for preschoolers, toddlers and infants during the week so %90 of the toys were not meant for six year olds. The girls all gravitated to the hula dancer when the music came on, waving their arms and pointing their toes in unison. They lined up in orderly fashion and really enjoyed the show aspect. A small group of children, mostly girls, also enjoyed creating their shakers, covering them with sparkles and feathers and filling them with coffee beans to create noise. This was a free activity with no guidance or assistance from adults unless a parent chose to help. This activity created a huge amount of mess for the relatively small amount of enjoyment the kids got out of it. The majority of the time was spent with children pretty much running willy-nilly throughout the space or crashing the ride on toys into each other. One of the problems, in my opinion, is when you only give children toys that are developmentally below their skill level they will create new (and dangerous) ways to play with them. For instance, a plastic toddler teeter totter had close to seven children sitting on it, crazily tipping this way and that, making each other fall off on purpose. Other children were driving the toddler cars while kids sat on top of the roof of the cars, precariously holding on with their legs like riding ponies!
Party #2 was at a children's gymnastic studio called The Little Gym. Little Gym is a huge airy space with glass windows looking in from a lobby area. The sparkling equipment and pads were evenly spaced with plenty of room in between each piece and a large gym floor mat to the right. The party began with free play on the gymnastic equipment. Even though the children were essentially the same ages as Party #1 the equipment was not changed to accommodate different ages, instead the party helpers spotted the littler children on the balance beam and uneven bars to ensure their safety. The younger children (2-3's) were ecstatic rolling down the slanted mats on their sides. The older children (4-5) were excitedly jumping from the parallel bars assisted by the helper. Even the younger children wanted to try the parallel bars after seeing how they could do the activity with assistance. Intermittently one of the helpers would bring the children back to the large mat for an activity, for example, running like animals. Even though much of the activity involved just running frenetically around in a giant circle on the mat the children were incredibly excited to be following each other and having a helper lead them. Then they would be allowed to go back and have free play again. For the finale, they inflated a huge 10"x 20" trampoline and let the kids run, jump, or tumble the length of it. The cautious children felt the excitement of joining their friends in this activity and the bolder ones relished the opportunity to bound up and down, throwing themselves down the length of it. To finish up the party the helpers allowed the children to jump on the trampoline as hard as they liked, helping to deflate it in the process. The kids loved the feeling of jumping and feeling the trampoline crush under their strength. Getting the children to follow them into the 'pizza/cake' room was as simple as having the helper walk around the room with a bubble machine while encouraging the children, Pied Piper style, to follow the bubbles to the party room. In a truly ingenious move the children naturally follow them straight into the room with no yelling or protests at leaving the gym area.
In conclusion Party #2 was ultimately much more successful for a number of different reasons. One of the key reasons was the organized format of the party, the children orderly went from one activity to the next as there was a logical pattern. This avoided the overheated, sweaty chaos of the first party. Children never knew where to go next as there was no apparent progression to the party, everything was just laid out for the entire time of the party. Party #2 had two helpers who helped the kids try everything they wanted to, instead of giving them age inappropriate activity with no guidance. The children really seemed to enjoy both parties but the second one seemed to have more of an arch allowing the kids to have an activity peak and a wind down with the food, letting the children get a full experience in a short span of time.
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