6 Yr Olds Bday Help!!

Pick a theme, and invite the class. Not everyone will be able to come. And usually Parents will stay when there kids are this age.

Cake, balloons, games, etc.

It depends on your budget.
You can just bring something for his whole class at school, as an alternative. Speak to his Teacher about it, first.

You don't 'have to' invite the whole entire class. And yes, most kids are just kids and they do tell their "friends" to come over to their house. They are just friendly. But that does not mean you have to literally invite every single "friend" that he tells at school. You just explain to him that he needs to ask you first. You cannot just invite everyone over, and you have to see if your "calendar" is busy or not etc.

I would go according to your budget. And, IF you can actually accommodate EVERYONE from his class. But this is not expected. AND, if giving out "invitations".... you give it to the TEACHER first. Do NOT let "him" give it out... or the children not invited will feel left out. So, MOST Teachers, tell the parents to give invitations to them, first. THEN, the Teacher will disperse it, appropriately, and discreetly. Teachers are used to this.

Gradually, yes, you can have play-dates with his friends from school. The friends he has and plays with and regularly. AND, with friends who you "know" the parents or feel they are appropriate friends and parents. You as a Mom, always has to gauge friends/parents, and decide.

At this age, friends changes all the time too, and they may not have "regular" friends all the time. Kids at this age change their minds all the time. BUT, if there is a couple of good kids he hangs out with, you can invite them and his non-school friends too. It is up to you.

You either have a b-day party with everyone from his class or not. Or, not and just have a "family" b-day party. Then bring treats for his class at school. Or, have a b-day party with only a few of his classmates. But again, trying to figure out which friends from school can be tricky... if he does not consistently play with certain kids at school, regularly.

All the best,
Susan

Our school specifically asked that if you aren't inviting the whole class, then please don't send the invitations to school as there will be hurt feelings. I too feel it's ridiculous to invite an entire classroom full of kids that your child isn't friends with.

I once heard the rule of thumb for kids parties is invite no more kids than your child is old...so that would be 6 kids for your son. The logic is that they really can't focus on more kids.

My kids have enjoyed Build A Bear parties, a personalized "Dora" party with homemade backpacks filled with adventure items, camping and a pool party. We have tried hard to give good give away items that kids would really like instead of "goodie bags" with junk in them.

Besides I would rather have a "better" party for a few kids, than a big chaotic bash with candy giveaway bags. But that's just me.

It's nice for them to have a few close friends, and to be able to spend a little more per child and ensure everyone really has a good time.

Also, you might want to note on the invitation if parents are expected to stay...I found parents surprised me when they wanted to drop their kid off and come back in two hours without even leaving a phone number! So, make sure you have enough "help" in case that happens too.

Whatever you decide, just make sure you put any expectations on your invitation...so there are no surprises.

Have fun!

Many schools require you to invite the entire class if you want to hand out invitiaions at school. Before making your decision you may want to chech with his teacher about this. My preschool daughter invited everyone is her preschool (about 30 kids) 4 RSVPed. I was so upset I didn't know what to do, I didn't know if they were gonna show up or not (they didn't) so I had way too many plates, cups, mickey ears (Mickey/minnie mouse party) etc. The same time my middle daughter invited all the girls in her class and a few from the other 1st grade class..... almost everyone came. I was hoping for 8 -10 of them and there was 16!
I've never had a kindergartener party but I assume it is closer to what you would experience from a preschool party. Must parents would probably want to stay with their children, etc so it really would depend on if they have anything else going on. If you are looking for a big party- I say event everyone...boys and girls. If you are looking for a smaller party but still want a good number only invite the boys. Or ask you son to pick X number of "best friends" from class. There are sure to be certain kids he always plays with, etc this far into the year.
Hope this helps :)

Most of the parties that we have thrown or attended have either been the entire class or at least all of the kids of the birthday child's gender. My daughter (also in kindegarten) is having all of the girls in her class over for a dress-up party. Usually not all of the kids will come especially if your son is not really close with many of them. I would guess you might be able to count on 75% coming at the most but of course then you'll have some parents stay and you might have siblings come too, so a house can fill up pretty quickly.

Good Luck,
K.

I agree that it really depends on your budget. We have rented the local elementary school gym and just had my son invite as many as he wanted, because it was a.... gym. I bought chips, 2 liters of pop and a crockpot full of hot dogs. It was fairly inexpensive and my son was in 4th grade. If you were planning to spend at least $100, probably renting a place to have it where you can invite a large amount of people would be an option.-- might be an inside pool, roller rink, etc.
We did have a whole class party here, once, but it was a month before we were getting new carpet, so we just shoved all the living room furniture to the outside walls and played games in the middle. It was a madhouse, yes. Most of the time, with any party, the kids kind of pair off and find stuff to do on thier own.
Now, if he CAN think of more like, 6-8 people to invite, that would be more ideal. The biggest problem with parties is that you could invite 12 kids, 5 will RSVP and 10 will show up. That's just normal. It makes it a nightmare to plan party bags, etc., but unless you want to call the parents, you might end up with extra stuff if you plan for everyone. Once he finds more of a core group of kids he likes to hang out with and you start recognizing their names, it's hard to know who to invite, unless he has a definite list in his head. You could explain to him that your house just can't fit that many kids. See if he can pick out 6-10 kids he REALLY wants to invite. And, maybe from there it could get narrowed down even more. For example, if there's only one girl on that list, explain that she might feel uncomfortable if she's the only girl, so maybe she could be taken off the list.
Definitely send out the invitations, rather than send them to school. Even if you have the teacher hand them out, the kids might get into them in their folders, etc.
Also, when it comes to planning, you'll probably find less is more. I have planned many parties where I had all these games, activities, etc. planned and all the kids wanted to do was play amongst themselves. Basically, if you think about it, it's like going to a new toy store....all the toys they see that aren't theirs - they have a blast. Plus, by the time you do the cake/ice cream, open gifts, plus waiting for everyone to show up, the two hours will go by fast. *(I would recommend only 2 hours)
What about parties that your son has been invited to? Any of the kids who have invited your son to their party are probably some of his closer friends. My guess is that most of the other kids aren't inviting the whole class to their birthdays, so he won't be the only one if you don't go that route.
*By the way, I didn't ask how many kids are in his class. If it's a class of 22, it would be a different story than, say 15- still a lot, but if you had a basement with a lot of room.......more do-able.
Good luck!!

Have him select a few he would like to invite. Arrange with the teacher to bring cupcakes or fruit bars for the whole class. This way he is celebrating with the whole class and you aren't overwhelmed.

In my household, we only have big birthday parties for the big birthdays. We have done 5 and 10. We have family parties in between or small celebrations with 1 or 2 friends.

My kids realize that other kids have large parties every year but have accepted that we do not. They have not complained about it and enjoy their own celebrations small as they may be. It is not the size of the celebration that matters it is the joyfulness of it.

Set the ground rules now because if you go large this year he will expect the same each year to come.

Good luck.

We invite all of the boys. The boys think the girls have cooties anyway!

Most won't be able to make it anyway. parents working, parents forget, visitation etc. I agree with just the boys that cuts it in half and most won't show up so that eliminates about half or more of the boy. When I did my oldest sons hes 20 you'll be lucky if 6 show up. I did several with him.

My son (3rd grade) has only had 1 all class party, and that was last year. He was taking Tae Kwon Do. I got the dojang for an amazing price and they said that I could invite as many kids as I wanted.

This year, and other past years, I've just sent in cupcakes or cookies for him to celebrate at school. Only the neighbor kids came to the house for cake.