8Th Birthday Party Ideas Needed - Kind of a Unique Situation.....

What about an Astronaut party. Have it in the back yard. Get a bunch of refrigerator boxes from Sears or Home Depot, and some other cardboard boxes of different sizes. A few rolls of duct tape, aluminum foil, scotch tape, markers, paints and invite over the class to build a space shuttle or space suits or whatever they want. They will come because, after all, how many astronaut parties have you seen? They can all have fun playing and inventing, but at the same time, Tyler can just work on his part without having to be super social, but still be part of the party. Most of the kids will want to do their own thing with it anyway, who doesn't like to invent! If he crawls inside a box to be alone, you can give him a marker or two to decorate the inside. All space ships need knobs and buttons!
It's inexpensive, inventive, low key, most of the kids will be entertained just with the building of things, and if a lot of kids don't come, the boxes are still big enough for mom and dad to play too. After the party is over, he can keep the ship (provided it doesn't rain) for as long as it will last.

My kids LOVE this!

I ditto the "Battle of the Bands" idea or a video game play off. You could make it an Arcade theme. Have multiple TV's set up and rent multiple game systems so more than just a few kids can play at the same time. You could have another TV set-up in another area for movies if the kids need downtime or there aren't enough games to go around. Have a concessions area with nachos, popcorn, soda, etc.. If it is at night or you have a large room to do it inside you might even get some kind of strobe or black lights to set the atmosphere. If you are worried that not enough kids would come, you could always invite the girls to give it a better pool. Plus, girl's may be more sensitive and come.

We did a battle of the bands theme. We set up our gaming system in the garage. When the kids get to the party have them draw out a # then each group makes their band poster,chose their song,then rock out. Feel free to ask for more details. And for the cake we had cupcakes with guitar picks in them. Everyone had fun

I LOVE the battle of the bands idea! Kids at that age love video games and the ability to come and play might be of real interest to them. My friend found a "tour" bus on craigslist that is filled with different types of video games, parks in front of your house and charges by the hour. It was a big success. Good Luck!

my son is turning 7 in april and he asked for a football party so we are having a football pinata what kid doesn't like swing a bat and getting candy. I'm also going to make my own make a field goal (like pin the tail on the donkey but football style). I hope he has a great birthday!!

I think a pirate party can be a lot of fun. I found this website maybe it can help...dressupshows.com... they do everything for you.

Also I have seen anounced the big foam party at the kids directory. I have not tried it since my kids are too young for that but I'll try one day.

I would back up my party inviting also my friends and neighbors with kids of every age that way if the kids from school don't show up I am sure my friends will and there will be more people cheering up my son.

I really hope that your son will enjoy enormously his party, at the end of the story that's what is important.

Moon walks work at almost any age, along with pizza or hot dogs. And yes the girls will also be able to play if you do the moon walk be sure that everyone is wearing long pants.

We had a Mad Scientist party for my 5 year old. It was a HUGE success. I think had they been a little older, it would have been even more fun. There is an actual company who will do this for you. http://www.madscience.org/ourServices/parties.aspx. My mom is a science teacher so we did our own experiments. If you do this on your own, I highly recommend the Mentos and Diet Coke experiment. You can watch all of these on YouTube and look up directions on the internet. I purchased clear swim goggles in the dollar bin at Target and large, cheap white T-shirts as labcoats. You can roll up the invitations and put them in plastic test-tubes. You can find them online (cheap). You'll have to hand deliver them, of course. We made a volcano cake and put dry ice in the punch. The kids (and the parents!!) had a blast. I almost wish the kids had of been a little older because it would have been a little less chaotic. I think this party for 8 year olds is perfect! Also check out birthdaypartyideas.com. Good luck.

We saw Clint, The Snake Man at the library this summer and he was outstanding. Google Texas + Snakes. Other ideas: a balloon artist, set up a bike rodeo (obstacle course) -just did this for our Girl Scout Troop using cones and cut up tennis balls for rocks, an outdoor fiesta (setting up games such as ring toss, clothespin drop, tattos, and pinata, etc. At this age, usually it is just boys or just girls.

i had a carnival party = you set up stations.. where the kids go around.. one station would be to knock over the cans... another would be sand art, another would be a bean bag toss.... cotton candy station and or popcorn station.. each game the kids would get tokens.. and then at the end they can buy stuff... you can get a lot of little stuff at a party center or dollar store.. even candy.. and they buy stuff with the tokens... you can even serve little hotdogs... and mini pizza...

Do you have a game system? Most kids like that sort of thing, of course with the lasted games.

Or you could do a video and popcorn party. My boys were really into Start Wars and space at this age. What are some of his favorite things to do? Build on that.

I hope you have a good turn out!

I feel like my situation is so similar to yours! My son is 8, and has Aspergers. Last year, we invited 40 kids(because he switched teachers halfway through the year). I think we only had 4 that came. His birthday is in december, and we had a marshmallow-themed party at our house. The kids made several craft projects such as a catapult, marshmallow gun, and shapes with toothpicks. I really didn't mind having a smaller party, but I was so stressed out since I didn't know til the very last minute if anyone was coming. This year he has been invited to a couple of parties but he wasn't able to go. One was a sleepover with his cub scout pack, and another one was at a mini golf place with his 2nd grade class. He started talking in class about how he's going to have a party, but we decided not to have a one in december this year. We planned to wait a couple of months until people aren't so busy with the holidays. I'm thinking something simple like playing video games at home.

I think at this age it's okay to just do the boys, if that's what you'd rather do. My son is 7, so I'm just going on what I know his interests are, but here are just a few ideas: a movie and pizza party, star wars, sports (he wants to have a "hockey" party... you could run a little game of football or soccer or something, or have some water games if the weather is nice enough. Most of my son's friend's parties this year have been either pool parties or sports parties. There was one movie theater party that the kids loved, which could easily be recreated at home with a big screen tv and some treats.
Good luck - I hope he has fun!

My only thought was maybe they could make their own something....like banana splits? It will give them something to do and what kid doesn't like to build there own food, especially if it involves whip cream and sprinkles:)

The movie night sounds fun...you could get creative and find a cute way to dress up some drop cloths (to save your carpet) and let them eat their creation while watching a movie.

I wouldn't worry about kids showing up. I have found that at this age most kids go to any and all parties they are invited to...after all it is a thrill for the receiving child to be chosen to attend the party in the first place....and there is cake and usually goody bags!

You really only need to come up with one idea/activity because after that and food/cake/ice cream and opening presents, its done!

Happy Birthday Wishes!

We have also experienced inviting the entire class then only have 2-3 attend. I found myself as disappointed as my son. The next year he opted for the special family time rather than a party. I guess I could tell you more of what not to do. A Mad Scientist party did not motivate 1st graders to attend. The water slide is a great idea, weather permitting. I do think the suggestion to invite the entire class would give you the chance of more children attending.

K.
I don't have any ideas, except, maybe you should have both girls and boys invited (less chance of a few only showing up), plus might help him get more socially accepted.
I hope it works out.
L.

There is a company called Games2U that bring the video games to your party. It is all self-contained in their vehicle. They pull up, set up and the kids go out to the vehicle to play whatever video game they want. They have all the gaming platforms such as Xbox, Wii, Playstation, etc. They also have things like laser tag and giant hamster balls. We saw them at a bank opening event and the kids LOVED it. You can check them out at www.games2u.com.

I don't think it matters either way whether you invite boys and girls, or just boys. My daughter is 8 1/2 and she went to both boys' and girls' parties last year in 2nd grade. When she had her party she was limited to 8 invitees (was a pool party at our house, and I didn't want too many kids to manage safely) and she chose to invite mostly girls.
My son was in 5th grade last year, and there were a few girls at the boys' birthday parties he attended.

I don't really think it matters, unless the activity is really themed heavily toward boys... like football or army/military.

If it is warm enough when you have the party, the big blow up water slides are HUGE hits with the kids that age (and older ones too). We had one at my daughter's pool party, and my son has been to a couple of parties that had one. Always a big hit. Water slide, snacks/pizza and photos for the memories....

Dear K.,
I can only imagine how hard this is for you. My son is ADHD but I have been lucky so far he has had very little social issues. My son is 9 and for his 8th birthday (2nd grade) we did the mad science party and it worked out great. I to needed something that would entertain becasue of the opposite reason my son is extremely hyper and has a short attention span so I needed something so the boys wouldn't spend the time beating each other up the whole afternoon. The boys loved it. They also did a hands on project with the boys. This year we had a sleep over and i will tell you we won't be doing that again but having the boys make there own individual pizza's went over well and i had them decorate these wodden lizards i bought for 2 dollars at Micheals that went over very well also. I have been just inviting the boys the last 2 years but when i was worried about noone showing up when Logan was smaller i would invite everyone just to make sure we had someone. Usually his whole class and anyone from any activity he was participating in at the time. When he was 7 noone from his class came but at least his cubscout boys showed up. Good luck with what ever you choose.

What about some kind of video game/Wii party? That would be very popular with 8yo's and wouldn't require a great deal of host/social skills on your son's part.

I host build-your-own stuffed animal parties in your home. Much like the place in the mall but without the stuffing machine and no sewing. Each child gets an animal to stuff by hand. We do a wish star ceremony and place the star inside the animal. The animals are closed a with one way snap closure. You can also choose to provide outfits or t-shirts for the animals as well. We can even do a craft activity where the children get to decorate their animal's t-shirt with fabric markers. Each child will receive a take home bag and birth certificate for their animal.
This is a really fun activity for the kids that lasts about 45-60 minutes. After the animal stuffing portion is over the kids can play with their animals and introduce them to each other while you serve snacks and cake and do presents.
The entertainment and party favors are taken care of!

You can view the animals and more information at www.myhuggableparty.com.

Good luck planning your sons birthday. :)

Do a Mad Science party! Very cool! A scientist will come to the house and do a ton of cool experiments that 8 year olds will love! They get to make something to take home, too. Good luck!