It is so hard as a parent to come up with great party ideas when your children grow older.  When they are young you have themed parties buzz light year, Barbie or who ever is the favorite around the time of their birthday.

Though when they get to 8 it becomes hard to find different things to do. I love birthday parties, I love organizing them and I love attending them. I have made it a point to make every birthday party special.

What could you do, I know you are sitting there thinking well if I only had money I could do amazing things. Well your wrong, I was a single mother and I op shopped everything. It isn’t hard to source everything you need.

So what birthday parties could you have? Well what couldn’t you do…..you just need a little bit of inspiration. Tv themed parties are a lot of fun, like The Amazing Race or Survivor, My favorite party is the Survivor party. Best done in the warmer months. This can be done in the back yard or if your more adventurous you could camp out for the weekend. Doc has amazing camp grounds that are very basic, cold water showers, long drops, all helps in Survivor.

I got all my material from an op shop, cut down some bamboo for their tribal staffs. We had challenges and tribal council and they had to each make a shelter (though they slept in tents).  We even attempted to catch their own dinner, but if all else fails there is nothing like bake beans and damper for dinner!

The Amazing race we did locally and had the children in teams and had a parent driving them to their locations, each team had a digital camera and had to take photos of certain locations. This party I have had to recreate a hundred times with friends children, I tell you it gets better and better every time I do it.

Another great party is the Star Party. This one is a favorite with the girls. The girls get to have a photo shoot in a nearby park or beach with 2 to 3 changes of clothes. Then they get to  practice for a music video, they pick a song and then we video them lip-syncing. This party was a huge hit because it not only didn’t cost much to do but all the girls got a cd of their music video and their images. I actually saved money as I didn’t do a party bag.

As a parent it is hard to come up with great ideas. I have had a camping party at home in the middle of winter. We set up the tent in the lounge and they children camped out.

Other parties I have done is a fashion design party, where the girls made wearable art outfits and then they had a fashion show. Airplane party for a 4 year old, we made our own planes and then flew them around! (lots of parent help needed) Drama production party and a movie party.

There are no limits really, you just have to have the inspiration and go for it!

Don’t forget to let your child get involved with the organizing, as they learn so many skills in helping you.

I tell my Treehut children this every day “Knowledge is power” If they say they want to be a clothes designer then we do the research! We find out what skills you have to have, we talk to fashion designers, we go to their stores, we learn about material, we do it all!

One Treehut child wants to be a writer, so we researched what you had to do to be a writer, we had a writer come in and talk to the children which inspired us all and we all decided it would be cool to write  a book. So we set out designing and writing a book, which I might add is very artistic and makes no sense but it is beautiful!

Knowledge is power

I strive on giving the children the tools to achieve their goals, giving them opportunities that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to get.

It empowers me seeing a child feel inspired, they get a look about them, it’s like when homer see’s donuts, their eyes sparkle, their skin glows and they appear lighter. As crazy as that sounds, it is true.

This term we will be working more on our radio station, which is a blast as they come up with some amazing ideas! I even thought we could make our own tv show..... I cant wait!

  Day five of school holidays and I was blown away today to see a mother or care giver with 4 children running down the side walk. I watched with admiration, it was nice out, the children were laughing and having a ball. Mum or caregivers phone rang and they continued walking down the road. She had 2 young babies in the push chair and a three year old and maybe five year old walking alongside.

The two children walking alongside started to play tag while mum continued on the phone, I watched her approach the road and call the children in and then cross, but what happened next scared me to death. As she walked to the next lot of shops she stopped and looked into a shop window and got distracted, child five chased child three still and they ran all over the path. The path was 4 meters wide and I swear I could see it happening, in a moment I knew what was going to happen, sure enough child three headed to the road, bolted more like!

Screech of wheels and a large car came to a halt, from where I was I couldn’t tell if the child had been hurt but I bolted to the car and by then mum or caregiver had grabbed the child, screaming her lungs out swearing, screamed at the driver for being a f**king  idiot and then ......wait for it.........she smacked the child, and I mean smacked!

I suggested she settle down, in which I was told to “F**K OFF” she grabbed both children so  hard I was surprised their arms weren’t ripped out and she walked down the road screaming at the children telling them to “Shut the f**k up”!

By then four or five people were standing around me and we were all in utter shock, I was beside myself, the driver of the car was crying, she was  beside herself.

What do you do in one of those situations? One of the ladies let me know that they were all her children and that she had two older ones at home.

All I could think of was “what could I of done?”

I strongly believe you should treat your child/ren with respect; none of this foul language, there is no reason for anyone to use any sort of bad language on a child!

This mum was defiantly in the wrong and she over reacted to the extend (I Felt) of abuse!  

How dare anyone treat any child like that!