Celebrating a Birthday with Your Toddler (3 and under)

How did May escape me so quickly? Fleeting months have been the trend, but I couldn’t get on with June without letting you all know what has been happening in the homeschooling world in the Smith home–one word: celebrating

 

We knew May was going to be a month of celebrations for us, so hubby helped me to decide that it should be the homeschooling theme for the month. In May we celebrated my birthday, my sister’s upcoming wedding (in the form of a wedding shower of course), memorial day, my close friend’s birthday and my hubby’s Godson’s birthday with more celebrations to expect in the coming months. So it was only fitting.

 

homeschooling - books about celebrating and parties

Since Aaron loves books, this happened!

We talked about birthday parties, parades, the circus, weddings and celebrating just because you can.

 

The ways to spark those conversations with an almost 3 year old was to do arts and crafts (i.e. cutting and pasting animals and items you might see in a circus), pretending to play in a marching band and read books on each of these celebrations. We also created our own in home party with lots of ripped paper for confetti and balloons and of course partook of real live celebrations. At some points I had to get really creative and….

 

homeschooling with toy animals - celebrating

 

Have an animal party ofcourse with the works (colored water, mess, splashing water and well you guessed it, more mess).

 

It all set the tone for Aaron’s upcoming birthday in July. He is going to be 3 years old on July 1st and here are the top questions I had ask myself very late in the game (I mean really late in the game).

 

1. Is Aaron going to enjoy it?

 

Aaron’s mood is so touch and go these days (on top of all of the whining in the world), so I must admit that I was a bit nervous to have something for him.

 

2. Does he really need to have a party? Who the heck would I invite?

 

I questioned whether or not this was going to be something that he would remember years from now. Why? Because 1. I want to create lasting memories for him and 2. I want him to look back and say he had an amazing childhood because of his awesome parents. It’s just the nature of parenting: we want the best for our kids just because and we want them to be happy just because.

 

I then realized, Aaron hasn’t really accumulated many friends since he doesn’t have classmates (maybe thats a good thing for us…we don’t have to invite the whole world)

 

So then it came to,

 

3. How much money should I actually spend, how much am I comfortable with and how all out should I actually go?

 

 There’s a lot of potential things that can be done with what would have initially been the expense of a party (i.e. College fund, much needed vacation for the awesome parents…so many options).

 

celebrating great parenting

I wrestled for months on whether to do one at all because I wondered if he would be in a position to really appreciate a party (in my mind he’s still pretty young and the event could possibly escape his memory). But, after answering the above questions, I now know what to do.

 

But before I give that away, let’s explore for your own sake a few of the things you should consider before planning your toddler’s birthday celebration.

 

1. How much time do you have?

 

Do you have 6 months, 3 months, 1 month or 1 day? Its okay to freak out if you have anything short of 2 weeks. You might as well just settle for a simple cake cutting and and small intimate setting. If that’s what you really want, then you’re fine. The bigger your vision, the more time you should give yourself (especially if you’re the type to freak out under pressure).

 

2. How much money do you want to spend? 

 

Now, If what you want to spend is on the lower end of the vast spectrum of ($200-$5,000), ask yourself if you have the time to do a DIY project of a party (a party without decorations just isn’t a party). As you go higher, you can stray away from the DIY option more and more because you have wiggle room.

 

You also have to factor the number of invites, the length of the party (if your doing rentals), favors if you want, and the food and beverage into this decision. Figure out what you are completely comfortable with. 

 

3. Do you have the budget to outsource and hire entertainment? (Go back to number 2)

 

It turns out that hubby and I just couldn’t help ourselves and well, we decided to do a something for the little guy. Mostly because he is all about the cake and ice cream. Now that we have explored all of the types of celebrations, he is always super excited to go to some kind of party. So here we go, late in the game and everything. I will report back later.

 

Until then…

 

Happy Trails!

Wife to an amazing husband, mother to an exploring toddler and an MPA graduate aspiring to impact the world with encouragement in mothering and in social entrepreneurship.

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