Trying to decide what theme to have for your kids birthday party?

Here are some birthday party theme ideas suitable for babies, toddlers and preschoolers.

Complete your ideas with a wide range of party ware, invitations, party decorations and themed food and fancy dress costumes.

Colour is an important part of any room decoration. You may decide to choose a couple of colours as your scheme, or go with all bright or all pastel colours. 

Themed parties are fun to organise yourself, but if time is short, why not hire a party planner to plan and set up the perfect themed birthday party. Party planners have specially designed and affordable themed party packages to suit your needs, or work with them to create your own themed birthday party.

Kids birthday party themes include:

Little Boys Themes

• Aliens
• Building/construction
• Cars
• Dinosaurs
• Farmyard
• Firemen
• Heavy vehicles
• Musketeers
• Pirates
• Race cars
• Rugby
• Soccer
• Space
• Super heroes
• Trains

 

Little Girls Themes

• Ballerinas
• Fairies
• Glitter ponies
• Handbags and heels
• Mermaids
• Paddock ponies
• Princess's Ball
• Tea Parties
• Unicorn adventures

 

Themes For Babies & Toddlers

• Boots, brollies and bubbles
• Butterflies and bees
• Farmyard friends
• Ladybug picnic
• Rainbows
• The Hungry Caterpillar
• The Three Bears
• Zoo Party

 

Themes For Everyone

• Bowling
• Circus
• Crazy Bananas
• Disco Parties
• Funky Disco Party
• Glamour Dance Party
• Jungle Animals
• Under the Sea

Have a look at our other birthday party tips and ideas and birthday party suppliers to make it a day to remember.

This article was written by the team at Under 5s.

Image source: amazingkidsbirthdaypartyideas.com

Don't be put off by the pressure of having to create a birthday cake for your kids that looks just like something out of a book! 

Children have very good imaginations, so even if your cake doesn't look perfect, they will still know what it is supposed to be and generally are just delighted to have a cake made especially for them. No matter how satisfied (or not) you are with the cakes you’ve made, kids will always been wowed and excited by them.

The joy your child gets from their birthday cake is not related to the time and effort you put into making it - nor to how perfect the end result is. Just remember that the birthday cake will be special, no matter what!

Decorating the cake

If you have never used a piping bag to decorate a cake before, give it a go! It can take a little while to place blobs of icing all over the cake but it is actually really easy and the end result is generally far more satisfying than spreading the icing over the cake with a knife.

Or if you’re feeling a little more adventurous, why not use one of our themed cake templates to help you to create a simple iced cake for your party. If you are looking for something a bit fancier, there are plenty of good cake decorating books available, as well as websites with lots of designs to choose from.

If your child wants to decorate their own cake, foster their creativity and let them!

Display it or keep it?

You can use the cake to create a centrepiece in the middle of your food table or you can leave it out of sight and away from little fingers until you are ready to blow out the candles and serve it up - the choice is yours.

'Doing the cake'

Don't leave cutting the cake until too late in the party as you may have guests who need to leave early. It is also especially important for parties of littlies to cut the cake before they get too tired.

Blowing out the candles

Children love to blow out candles and while this can be regarded as a special event reserved for the birthday child, you can also consider giving all the children the opportunity to do this.

One option is to relight the candles on the cake as many times as necessary for each child to take a turn blowing them out. This is quite time consuming and does mean that your cake gets huffed and puffed all over by many children - a good way to spread germs!

An alternative then, is to allow each child the opportunity to blow out one candle on an individual portion. This could be their serving of the main cake, or it could be a small cupcake or lamington square. If you have enough adults, several children can have their candles lit at the same time, making the process quicker so that the other children do not have to wait as long for their turn.

Check out our other articles about kids birthday parties too!





 

Source: This article was written by Ginger Wishes - for the best range of party games and kid friendly themes!


_{Image source: glutafin.co.uk}

Ideas to encourage kids to read and write

Check out our ideas to help encourage kids to learn to read and write.

Look for activities that are based around your child’s interests and current areas of play. You will be surprised at how easy it is to bring literacy skills into all kinds of play and to incorporate different learning styles. Ideas include:

• Sand - Trace letters with a stick or a finger. Mould and shape with your hands the first letter of their name and encourage them to do the same. You could also hide magnetic letters in the sand.
• Car play - Use masking tape on the floor and mark out some letters. Driving the car around the taped letters will create a memory for the brain of the shape of the letter for future recognition.
• Make signs together for the road e.g. stop and give way signs.
• Play dough - Roll out snakes and then make letters such as ‘C’ or ‘S’ and then chop to make ‘E’, ‘M’ and ‘L’ etc. You could mould out the letters in your child’s name and then bake them in a low oven until hard.
• Art - There are many arts and crafts that you can do to encourage literacy:
  • Cut out paper into the first letter of their name for painting.
  • Cut up old sponges into letters.
  • Have all the letters in their name cut out for them to put in order and paste.
  • Many children who feel reluctant to try writing their name will draw over a dotted version or go over your version in a highlighter or light coloured felt. Remember to only use a capital for the first letter. So write names as Jack, not JACK. This means that children don’t have to relearn the correct way when they go to school.
  • Use a hole punch to mark holes in a card in the shape of a letter/s and get your child to thread wool or a shoelace in and out to form the letter.
• Pipe Cleaners - Twist into letters and words.
• Cooking - Alphabet biscuits, yummy! Reading a recipe together gives meaning to reading.
• Blocks - Be creative. How can you arrange the blocks to make a letter?
• Games - Have treasure hunts where you have to find a letter, name or word.
  • Play card games like snap where you have to match letters.
  • Listen to songs and poems that highlight letters and their sounds such as tongue twisters or B.i.n.g.o was his name.
  • Listen to audio versions of stories while looking at a book or e-book versions.
• Join the library - it’s free! Then your child can choose their own books.
• Make your own book together with photos, drawings or by cutting out pictures from magazines.
• Have a letter of the day - Play a game where the child shout’s out when they see the letter of the day. This could be on a street sign, magazine or coming up on the television screen.
• Have writing tasks that show the meaning of writing, as for some children it ‘clicks’ when they see literacy in everyday tasks that are relevant. This could include writing in a card, addressing an email, writing on gift tags, writing a shopping list or leaving a note out for Dad or Grandma.
• Children like to have choice so have writing tools available and easy to access. This could include setting up a little writing table and chair with paper, rulers, stencils, erasers, pens and pencils.
• Have paper and pens in areas they like to play. There is no reason you can’t have some paper and pens in a box near the blocks or the sand pit. Your child may like to draw plans about what they are going to build.
• Set up your own letter box with a decorated box made to look like a post box and then write and post letters to each other including family and visitors. Ask family or friends to post a letter to your home as this is so exciting for a child to get their own mail.
• Writing requires hand eye coordination and dexterity in the hands, so any play that enhances these such as threading activities, building with small blocks, puzzles, using paint brushes, using clay or dough or playing ti rakau (Maori stick games) will all develop the skills the brain and body needs for writing.

As a parent or a caregiver of a child in home based childcare, these ‘learning through play’ ideas will help get your child’s body and brain ready for lots of learning fun. Hopefully with some of these activities your child will feel confident in their abilities and begin to enjoy writing or exploring play which will lead to writing skills.


 Don't forget to check out our other articles on childhood development over at www.under5s.co.nz.

Tips on making your house child-safe

You may have bought child-safe products to help protect your little ones, but you will still need to supervise them at all times to avoid any potential hazards around your home.

Check out the list of potentially hazardous products for babies and toddlers from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs. 

Take a look at some of our other articles on child-safety including:

• Making your home poison-proof
• Kids gear – cleanliness & hygiene
• Car seat safety

 For more information about us visit www.under5s.co.nz.

 

Need new photos of the kids?

Need some new photos of the kids?  Then check out the great New Zealand photographers we have on board the Under 5s website.

We also share useful photography tips:

• Children’s birthday party photo tips
• Hints and tips for your family photo sessions

Don’t forget to enter this month’s photo competitions too from Anja Gallas & The Creative Force Photography.

Written by the team at Under 5s - NZ products & services for babies and kids under 5 years old. 

Is your home poison-proof?

Children around New Zealand are exposed to poisons or accidently poisoned in their own home every year. 

The poisons are often substances found around the house or kids are unintentionally poisoned from therapeutic or prescription drugs.

 

The most common household poisons include: 

• Air freshener
• Dishwashing powder
• Essential oils
• Fly spray
• Household cleaners
• Liquid inside glowsticks
• Mulit-vitamins
• Oral contraceptives
• Painkillers such as Paracetamol and Ibruprofen
• Perfume
• Swimming pool chemicals

To keep your kids safe put some preventative measures in place immediately, including:

• Disposing of old, unused medicines, garden chemicals and cleaning fluids safely
• Ensuring that all bottles have child-safety caps on them where possible
• Following medicine dose instructions from your doctor or pharmacist
• Installing child safety catches on cupboard doors
• Keeping all medicines, chemicals and cleaning products out of sight and out of reach, preferably locked away
• Storing poisonous substances in their original containers – never in food, drink or unlabelled containers
• Supervising kids closely when visiting other homes, as poisons may not be stored as safely as in your own home

In an emergency

If you suspect your child has swallowed poison, do not try to make them vomit or give them anything to drink until you have obtained medical advice.

Phone the New Zealand National Poisons Centre on 0800 POISON (0800 764 766). This toll free number operates 24/7. For more information visit the New Zealand National Poisons Centre website.

Remember to check out our other articles on Health &Wellbeing.

_{Resource: NZ Poisons Centre}