How to entertain older children at a party or event is a common challenge faced by event organizers, party planners and parents. It’s much easier to provide for younger children. The little ones love bouncy castles, clowns, magicians, balloons, dancing, playing games and any number of the many children’s entertainment options out there. Older children can be much more difficult to please. Children grow up fast these days and once they get to eight years and over they are becoming more and more sophisticated. Bouncy castles and magic shows are no longer cool.
If the older children are over looked there is a good chance they will grumble or worse still get up to mischief. Making sure there are things for them to do is a very good idea. Of course you can’t make them join in but there are certain activities which always seem to work well.
We have always found circus skills workshops to be popular with all ages especially older children. When we put on a circus workshop we like to give plenty of variety. We bring a range of equipment covering juggling, plate spinning, diabolo, stilts, pedalgos, flower sticks, twirling ribbons and other similar props for people to have a go at. This nearly always works well.
Another activity which we find the older ones like is our bubble making workshop where they have a chance to make giant bubbles. We set this up in an area with six or eight buckets and about twenty bubble wands, give a demonstration of how to make a massive bubble and then let them try their hand. This also works well with the older kids but it is weather dependent and is impossible to do in windy conditions.
I’m also going to mention skipping. Did you know that skipping has had a revival and many primary schools have had skipping workshops to help promote exercise, health and fitness. The amazing Cirque De Soleil, the world’s top contemporary circus company also use skipping in some of their breath taking shows. Skipping in teams can be very competitive and great fun. It’s very easy to do and worth considering.
When we do parties for children of eight years and above we rarely do shows. I always recommend to parents that they have a circus party. It’s busy, well organised and there’s loads to do. It never fails!
Older children and teenagers like a challenge. They like hands on stuff. They like things they can do with their mates. They like to be occupied, they like variety, they like what they perceive to be “cool stuff”. Any of the above will fit the bill. Why not give it a try?
Have you got any good ideas for entertaining older children? Share your thoughts and experiences with us using the comment section below.
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How To Build A Beach At Your Event
The Seaside is a popular theme at events and galas these days. No Seaside event would be complete without sand. This is how the organisers of a Seaside Day in Ripon, North Yorkshire tackled the problem. A large plastic sheet was laid on the grass and planks were set up on three sides to create a boundary and to contain the sand which was tipped onto the sheet. There were also small inflatable paddling pools set out round this, also containing sand. I took this photo at the end of the afternoon just as the event was closing. Earlier on it would have been impossible to take a picture as it was crowded with children digging and building sand castles etc
Seaside Day Sand Pit
Seaside Day Sand
Have you held a Seaside Day? Share your ideas with us.
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Magician’s Lemon Cheescake Recipe Is Magic
Well it’s true, I do know a few magic tricks and some people call me a magician but a chef I am not. On the other hand I do know a good cheesecake when I taste one. The recipe I am sharing with you here is magic so give your taste buds a treat and try it.
How to make lemon cheesecake
Ingredients
Base :
6 oz digestive biscuits
3 oz butter
1 1/2oz demerara sugar
Filling :
397 gms condensed milk
1/2 pint double cream, whipped
2 lemons – juice and zest
Method
Base :
Line a dish with foil
Spread the biscuit mixture, place in fridge to set
Remove foil
Filling :
Bring to the boil slowly
When cool place on biscuit base
Yum Yum, we’re done !
Suitable for freezing
Hope you agree this would make great party food.
Do you like cheesecake? What’s your favourite? Have you tried this one?
How I Made My Twitter Background
Twitter is a growing phenomenon. There are already millions of people using Twitter and more joining every day. I read Joel Comm’s book Twitter Power which is full of great advice. Joel strongly recommends having a customised Twitter Background. Once you have signed up for Twitter it’s easy to change the background using the standard templates supplied. In the menu bar, top right, click on Settings then click on Design. Simply select the background you want, click save changes and your new background will appear. If you don’t see anything you fancy there are Web sites offering more exciting FREE or very cheap backgrounds, try Tweetygotback or Mytweetspace or freetwitterdesigner
How to make a Twitter Background
I made my own Background. Here’s how I did it :
- Using my web design software I created a blank page 1200px wide by 600px high because this works ok with most computer screens.
- I put my logo, some text and a small photo in a narrow column down the left hand side. I had been advised that the column should be 200px wide so I tried that first.
- I then put another picture, full height on the far right hand side also bearing in mind the 200px width. I added some text which I flipped to read vertically at the extreme right.
- I saved this as a png file in My Pictures.
- I went back to Twitter, signed in, went to Settings, then to Design. I scrolled down and clicked Change background image.
- I clicked the Browse button to locate my saved file which I had name twitback1, clicked open, then saved changes to install the image.
- I opened a new tab on my browser, went to my Twitter page and previewed my work.
- On previewing I found that the columns on both sides were too wide and quite a lot of my text and images were not visible. I viewed the my Twitter home page on my laptop and on a PC because the appearance changes depending on the screen size used to view the page.
- I went back to my original design and made corrections, reducing the width of the columns, moving the images etc. I then saved the changes and went back through the process of uploading the revised image.
- I previewed again on Laptop and PC and was still not happy. I returned to my design and changed it.
- I repeated this process several times until I got something I was happy with.
- I found that the images and text on the right hand side were more affected by the change in screen size when viewing. I therefore increased the width of the images on the right hand side to compensate or this.
- I also noticed that there is a gap between the box containing the main content and the menu bar on the Twitter template. I added a crowd scene across the top of the page on my original design. You can see the crowd scene in the space between the menu and main content. I was quite pleased with that.
- I also ended up saving my design in JPG format rather than PNG format. The resulting image seemed sharper.
- See my finished page by searching for ronwooduk on Twitter
Having a your own Twitter Background is a good idea and it’s not difficult to do. Yes, it is time consuming and requires a little time and patience. However it’s worth the effort.
I hope you found this article useful. Your comments / questions are most welcome.