Added: 11/27/2005 |
Keeping Kids Occupied For A Whole Sleepover PartyA sleepover party can be one of the most exciting social events a child can host. The novelty of spending the night together is exciting for children who are used to socializing primarily during the daytime hours, and surprising your child by offering to host a sleepover for his or her friends can be a great idea. A sleepover party can make for an epic birthday celebration, but sleepover fun doesn't require a birthday or other such occasion. A sleepover at the beginning of the school year can be a great way for children to re-establish social connections after summer break. Alternately, two full days of sleepover fun can be a great way for children to celebrate the end of the school year and strengthen the social relationships that they've built over the course of the year.
A sleepover is a lot of fun for any child, but hosting a successful sleepover can be quite a project for a parent. If your child is having some friends over for a sleepover party, it is a good idea to have enough sleepover ideas to keep everybody occupied for the duration of the party, although you probably won't use very many of them. Once the sleepover gets rolling the children will probably occupy each other completely and your child and his or her friends will want nothing more than to be left alone and occasionally fed. However, at the start of the party while things are still getting rolling, you can encourage sleepover fun by starting a game that will get everybody laughing and playing together. Once the ice is broken, most children won't need any more of your sleepover ideas, but it is a good idea to have some games planned just in case.
One fun and popular sleepover game is as much of a sort of impromptu scavenger hunt as it is a game. The game called Stuffed Animal Find is easy to play and helps get everybody laughing with each other right at the start of the party when things may be a bit awkward. The only preparation that you need to do to set up a game of Stuffed Animal Find is to ask every guest to bring a stuffed animal to the party. Then, gather everybody together into a room and put all of the animals into one big pile. Blindfold one of your guests and have them rummage through the pile and try to find their stuffed animal by feel alone. Each guest who finds his or her stuffed animal in the pile should receive a small prize, like a piece of candy.
Stuffed Animal Find is a popular sleepover game for a lot of reasons. However one reason which is not often considered but is perhaps the most important is that playing stuffed animal find encourages each child to bring their favorite stuffed animal to the sleepover. This allows children to bring their beloved teddy bears without feeling self-conscious.
Rather than bringing a stuffed animal to a sleepover and risk embarrassment or feeling like a "baby" many children will leave their teddy bear or other toy at home only to bitterly regret their decision in the middle of the night when they miss the stuffed companion and cannot sleep. Asking children to bring toys for the stuffed animal find game nips this problem in the bud.
Article comments:
No comments for this article yet. Post your comment now!
