Guest Blog - Jenna shares some how to's on Hosting a Home School Support Group Party!

I've got this good friend (Jenna Stoyko) who is a Home School Support Group Leader in Vegreville.  She recently shared some tips on an elist about Hosting a Home School Support Group Party and it was so good, I asked her to write something up to share here.  I hope you enjoy her tips!  (I esp. liked the tip for the big kids!  Sounds like it was a great party!)

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There comes a time as a support leader, you have to fight for the right to party.

This past Valentine’s Day, I threw together a shin dig for my local homeschool group.  It was the right thing to do. I have to say, it went pretty fabulous.

I sent out an email the week previous to Valentine’s Day and made sure everyone was indeed, in the mood to party.  Lucky for me, my group is full of phenomenal families that I love to see at every opportunity!! 

Once I received confirmation that almost everyone could attend, I booked a venue and sent out an official email detailing time, place and potluck information.

I spent the rest of the week mulling over what kind of activates and crafts would make this party fun for everyone. I have to admit that I was worried about planning activities for a group of homeschoolers that range from newborn to 17 years old.  However, Google, is a gal’s best friend and together we can accomplish anything!

I decided to plan a few games for the 10 and under category while having the 11 and up’s do an activity that took more planning and imagination. 

A website that I really like to utilize when planning parties is: Ultimate Camp Resource . I ended up picking “Mystery Bopper” and “Team Relay” races for the younger groups.

(As a support leader/event planner, I also like to shop around stores for clearance toys and little dollar store items for game prizes.  To recoup the cost of party supplies such as prizes, paper plates, utensils, ect. - you can add that to the venue cost that you split between families.)

For the older group I created 4 skit bags, each skit bag contained three unique props and a slip of paper prompting what the skit was to be about. (An example of one bag – Props included: sparing helmet, small satellite dish and a large stretch band with the prompt, “a strange thing happened to us on the way to the party!”)  I then divided the 11 and up’s into four groups, handing each group a bag with the instructions to fan out and that they had 25 minutes to come up with a skit to present using the contents of the bag.

They got to do this while we played the games with the younger group. I was very blessed to have another mom offer to organize parachute games and even luckier yet, I booked a venue large enough to play them indoors!! I cannot recommend parachute games enough.  They are so much fun.  Parachute Games 

Crafts are also a must for any party.  There are always kids among the group that feel the need to create!! I try to have a couple of crafts at parties.  I used this particular site for the Valentine’s Day party craft, Valentine Roses .  Crafts are always set up, ready to be done as everyone arrives. I like to do it that way, so that it is broken up into smaller groups as the families trickle in, making it easier to manage and also allowing the rest of the party time to “dry or set” the crafts for the ride home. 

Our party ended up being full of great food, games and company.  The older kids put on creative skits that entertained the younger ones.  The younger kids played games that burnt off all the energy from the sweets and most of the kids even went home with little prizes.  So, if you haven’t had any homeschool parties lately, go ahead and plan one soon!!{jcomments off}