Unique Goodie Bags For Your Mini Guests, for Red Tricycle
This year birthday party gave me a lot of headache. Fortunate, or not, my both children were born in September. Not lucky enough to have their birthday in early September and end of September, no, but they were both born in early September, only 10 days apart. On top of that, we have a boy and a girl. Originally, perfect picture was to have two birthday parties, but all calculations and planning made us do it together. Isabella is still so little and she wasn’t really picky about it. Alexander was the picky one. And we had it at Jump Zone, kids had a blast… To go back to my point. Because we were celebrating together, we were having decent number of kids. To be more specific, around 32 children all together, without Isabella and Alexander!! Yep!
Having 32 children, picking the right goodie bag, is not the easiest thing to do! Most of them are $4 per child and they are mostly stickers, plastic toys, that get lost, destroyed and forgotten. To me, totally pointless. So I was browsing, brainstorming, and more, about unique goodie bag ideas! And, we picked one of them. Here is the list with ideas:
SAVE THE EARTH BY PLANTING
What is better way than teaching your child about planting trees or any greens? Send your guests home with ‘DO IT YOURSELF’ project.
What you need:
1. Mini planters (Check them out at Party City)
2. Seeds (You can buy them at Home Depot or Walmart)
3. Soil (You can get one bag of soil at stores such is Home Depot)
Use a planter as a box, add soil and seeds packed in seperated bags. Your guests will enjoy connecting with nature and their parents white chatting about importance of having trees around us. Very educational and fun idea for all ages.
CRAFTS TO TAKE HOME
If you like stickers idea, than you can always gift mosaic stickers. Alex Toys is one of the brands that offer the cutest mosaic projects for ages 3 and up. Educational focus is on creative thinking, shapes and colors. In one Alex Toys package you get 5 separately packaged mosaics. It can take up to hour for them to finish that kind of a project. It’s fun and it’s educational! Mosaics and other ideas you can find here.
USED BOOKS
One of the best ideas for goodie bags are definitely books! There are books that have been replaced with tablets and it’s such a shame. Every time I see another Barnes & Nobles closing, it makes me sad. We totally prefer books over any tablets or online games, so I decided this year to give each child at our birthday party a book! You can gift new or old books. I really don’t see any difference when it comes to books. Someone read it in Barnes & Nobles or someone read it at their home. It has history and that’s what I love about it. Let’s not waste books, let’s give them a new home. I got over 30 books at Goodwill. So, not that you are just gifting a child a book, but also donating money so people will have jobs. What a jackpot!
LEGO
If you are already looking into goodie bag sets that your party location is offering, think twice before you choose to go with them. They usually offer goodies for $4 per child, and they are usually bubbles, stickers, maybe crayon. For the same amount, you can buy your guests Lego sets. They start as low as $3.99 at Target, and they have all kinds of collections (City, Friends, Creator, etc.). And why is Lego so good for your children? Skills Lego develop: Lego provides tools that develop lateral thinking in a fun environment; it teaches kids to think in three dimensions; it improves literacy as kids work with instructions; it develops problem-solving, organization, and planning by construction; it improves creativity; it enhances communication and critical thinking; it boosts kids motor development (source: Educational Technology and Mobile Learning).
SOMETHING FUN AND SOMETHING SWEET
You can always combine your goodies with different options. For example, you can always pick crayons and coloring book with organic raisins as snack. You can combine flash cards with dark chocolate. Have fun, buy different healthy and educational choices and combine them. Make every one of them different. Before purchasing, make sure you know children’s diets. Keep it simple and as healthy as possible.
YOGA AND BUDHA
It might not be (yet) fun for the kids, but Budha cards or Budha mini books are great way of saying thank you. We have Children’s Budha book and it teaches to be a good person, about mannors and kindness though wonderful fairytales. Yoga memory cards are another great way to play with kids. After every found pair you do yoga poses. Namaste.
Always make sure to make it personal. Be creative. Be different. Or instead of going over board with ideas, include ‘positive notes’. And make different notes. Write about love, positivity, honesty, being strong, brave, about all the positive things that you want to pass to other children. Or, if your child is in school, make him or her write it herself! Kids will love to read/hear those!
If you have any fun, healthy, inspirational and educational ideas for birthday favors, please leave your comments. I would love to hear them. There is going to be many more birthdays in our future.
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