My son will be turning 5 in a few months, and will be in FT pre-k. We have always just done immediate family and my sister/BIL and their kids. We'd like to have a bigger party this time, and he does have some friends from school, but we are in no position to be hosting all 30 of the kids in the pre-K program.
Who do we invite? Just the kids whose parents I know? None of them? Just a few of his closest friends? I get the feeling that not all the kids he talks about all the time necessarily feel the same affection for him (he is a VERY busy boy). This is a few months out, but I am just trying to get an idea of what to plan & how much to budget.
Edited to Add: I just say kids whose parents I know because i know that i would never send my kid to someone's party if I didn't know the parents. Which brings me to the point--at this age, do the parents stay with the kid, or just drop off/pick up? Can you tell we didn't do many birthday parties when I was a kid? ;-)
By five, it's about inviting their friends, not yours. So, just invite kids at school he wants to invite. I always just ask my kids for the names.
ETA: Started dropping off at parties at five. Between two kids and a party just about every other weekend, it's a relief when I can do that!
Hes going to be 5 so you invite 5 of his friends. His choices. You might ask a couple parents to hang around.
At my son's school (he'll be 5 in a couple months also).. I ask the teacher to give me a list of the friends he plays with there... Once I get the list, I write out the invitation, give it back to the teacher and SHE puts the invitations in the kids lunch boxes to take home.. That way it's not a big scene talking to parents in front of other parents, etc... Easiest way to do it :0)
PS at this age parents still stay with their children at the party.. My son just went to a friend of his that turned "7" and at that age some of the parents stayed and some of them dropped them off.. 5 is still to early to leave them (in my opinion)
most schools have a rule that if your having a party and sending out the invites during school then you invite all the girls or all the boys or in some cases the whole class. a good rule of thumb for these types of parties is to invite only as many kids as the age of the child. so if your son will be 5 on his birthday then 5 guests good luck
I invited the boys that he got along best with. Not everyone responded/showed up but we had a good turn out.
Invite his really good friends and the ones with parents you know. That way everyone is having a good time
We didn't start inviting kids to a home party until MY kids were older. We just did this last year (they are 11 and 8). We have a family party during the week and then the kids can pick a day on the bday weekend to do a fun activity with 2-3 friends they choose. They usually pick something like bowling, a fun zone, bounce house, movie, lazer tag place, etc. And as far as the classmates go, we have always taken cupcakes to the class on their exact bday so that is their *party* with their school friends. My kids have never questioned it or had a problem with it. Good luck.
