My son is turning 8 and we are having a small birthday party for him with about 5 boys. We are wanting to have some fun outside games for them to play with little prizes at the end to the winners of each. Right now I have the spoon/egg race, musical chairs, bean bag toss, balloon stomp, and Simon says. What are some other fun games that they can do.
I think that's enough.
I would, also, have on hand some video games, a movie to put on in case
they all get restless.
How about a scavenger hunt in the backyard. Make maps, put in teams
of 2, have a primary prize then secondary little prizes for all the other
teams.
Edit: Football toss
Have some big balls (soccer balls, basektballs, mitts/baseballs) around
the yard for them to toss around if they so choose to do so.
I tend to favor unstructured activities - less work for the adults. An easy outdoor activity is to buy 10 giant balls - the ones you see in a big bin at the end of the aisles in Target and Walmart. Buy extra as 1 or 2 will always end up in a tree :-). Boys + Balls + outside = hours of fun.
You can write "Thanks for celebrating X's birthday!" On the balls with a sharpie, send a ball home with each boy and BAM! - your party thank yous are done too!
Have Fun!
T. Y
You have some good ideas - so happy to see you are doing the small at-home party instead of the mega-parties with 25 kids! Keep in mind that musical chairs gets kind of boring for the first few kids after they are out, so consider eliminating the game or giving the job of stopping the music to one of the "out" kids.
You can get some old pillowcases from the closet or the discount store, and have races outside. Also consider getting some plastic eggs and putting the prizes in those, hiding them outside, and letting the kids have a treasure hunt. Plastic eggs are available year round at the dollar store and the party/craft stores. You can give each kid a color and let them find their own color as well as help others if you want to really keep it even. We used the prizes instead of separate goody bags.
Since they are old enough to read, you can also hide prizes around the yard and give each kid (or groups of 2) a set of clues to direct them to the hiding places. Use eggs or little ziploc bags (you can put them out the night before and they'll be protected from rain or dew). Sometimes we did little rhymes (if we had enough time) and other times we just gave descriptions. Good hiding places are the notches in trees, rock walls, rain gutter down spouts, a coiled hose or hose caddy, clipped to a shrub with a clothespin, the mailbox, flower pots, between the screen door and regular door, in a fence, etc. Scout out some locations beforehand and write up clues. If you give each group of kids different clues, everyone gets something, and at the end they can help each other find the remaining treasures if some clues were harder.
I also think kids just like to run around and don't necessarily need endless activities with rules. They have structure all week in school and don't necessarily want to spend their weekends being directed from one activity to another. That's why we liked the treasure hunt thing - it was a game and a lot of running around all at the same time.
Unless you are looking for substitute ideas for some of the ones you already have, then I'd say you have enough already. 8 yr old boys don't need a lot of structure to have fun. Some structure is good... but you don't need the whole time to be filled with structured activities. I like the idea of the commenter who suggested big balls for them to kick around and take home after. I'm not big on "goodie bags" (actually, I hate them) and usually suggest balloons to take home after (helps dispense with clean up of the decorations, too)... but taking home a big bouncy ball like that would work just as well!
Enjoy!
Sounds fun!
Maybe do the egg toss if there is an even amount of kids.
You could give out little pumpkins as a thank you gift, too!
you've got plenty right there. 8 year olds don't need to be entertained every second. 5 8 year olds will love having some games, some food, and plenty of unstructured time to be wild things.
sounds like an uber-fun party already!
khairete
S.
Mommy,
How long is this party? Is there a theme?
To be honest, it seems like you have enough structured play time.
There was a question about this a few weeks ago with a Marvel Hero theme. It was suggested they do an obstacle course with hula hoops and knocking over bottles with the villains face on them.
Good luck! happy birthday to your son!
You have more than enough. Boys are not big on structured things.
Not really a game but seems all kids love a pinata and it can keep them entertained for 15-20 minutes.
When my son was that age we went camping with his friends. Took a nighttime hike etc. Very fun. Your games mentioned sound fun though. Sounds like plenty to do. Have fun!
I don't think they'll really want to play organized games. Most of the time when we've been to parties the kids avoid them and go play and have fun.
So don't be too disappointed if they jump ship and just run off to play.
