Looking to throw your baby or toddler a birthday party? Need ideas for decorations and activities? Read our tips for throwing parties for our youngest guests.
Fun Activities for Little Ones
We recently started adding music therapy as an add-on to our birthday parties. Music therapy is the skillful use of music and musical elements by an accredited music therapist to promote, maintain, and restore mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health. Music has nonverbal, creative, structural, and emotional qualities. Our music therapists include music and movement, sensory props, ASL, finger puppets, and of course, playing instruments!
We also have done sensory storytimes as part of our parties. This is the reading of a story with added sensory items to enhance the story. Parents and little ones can both participate and take part in this activity. An example can be found here.
Sensory activities have also been a hit at parties! This can include making play-doh, finger painting, and sand/water play, to name a few options. Kids love getting to touch, create, and build things with their hands.
We have also found that having access to age-appropriate toys is a critical part of every party. We are huge fans of wooden toys at This World's Ours Centre and enjoy creating play spaces for little ones at our parties.
Decorations
We have recently made a transition to sustainable and environmentally friendly decorations. What does this mean? We have opted to forgo single-use items in favor of party decorations that are reusable. This allows us to get multiple uses out of an item and to keep it from hitting the landfill. There are some beautiful options available now, but here are a few we have decided to use:
There are so many beautiful banner options out there.
My favorite is this simple tweed one, but a quick search of Pinterest or Etsy will bring up a ton of different options.
We have also added pom-poms to our repertoire of decorations and are using them to replace balloons. Not only are balloons not good for the environment, but there is a helium shortage. This is making helium hard to find and expensive to purchase. We have also found that kids with sensory needs can find the sound of balloons popping to be overstimulating. The pom poms may be an upfront cost but will save you money, and an earache, in the long run.
And, if you want to throw a party without all of the work, allow This World's Ours Centre to host your party. Our event coordinator, Jessie, will confirm all of the details with you and take care of the setup, running the event, and cleaning up when the party is finished. Email her at events@thisworldsours.com to discuss your options.
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