How to Plan a Successful Playdate
“This post was sponsored by WaterWipes as part of an Ambassador Program for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own. I received complimentary products to facilitate my review.”
It’s your first child and you have a playdate coming up?
In this post, I’ll show you How to Plan a successful playdate that wows!
Planning successful playdates isn’t difficult. It does take a little bit of planning ahead but with these tips, you’ll be rocking your next play date like the rockstar mama or dad that you are.
Parenting is overwhelming as it is, these tips will let your breeze by these playdates.
I’ve noticed more and more how much my son craves interaction with other children. He truly loves being around other children and asks me to take him places to play with other kids. He says hi to every single child he sees, he’s so eager to play with them.
I invited a few children for a messy artsy play date and these are the steps I’ve followed. Not to brag or anything but the kids had to be dragged out crying cause they wanted to stay.
I’d say that makes for a very successful play date.
Tip 1: Decide on a few activities
Little ones get bored easily and will leave an activity as quickly as they picked it up, only to go back to it a few minutes later. Having multiple play options will hold their attention better/longer and make for more successful playdates.
For this playdate you’ll need:
- Watercolor Paints
- Regular Paints
- Play-doh or modeling clay
- Construction paper
- Scissors (I’m teaching my 2.5-year-old handle scissors early, but can be used with older children)
- WaterWipes (For easy & safe clean-up)
- Old or new plastic shower curtain
TIP 2: Pick up supplies and set up ahead of time.
Pick up supplies ahead of time, this includes any snacks you might be serving. I had a variety of snacks laid out, pão de queijo(Brazilian cheese bread) and juice.
I have to say snacks were overlooked with the cheese bread laid out. The kids were fed first and during playtime. Fed kids always behave better in my honest opinion.
TIP 3: Downtime & Clean-up
This goes back to my first tip. Toddlers have an attention span of a fish, so having something to divert their attention from the messy play and easing into closing credits is a must. I wipe all of their little hands, arms, legs, and faces with WaterWipes.
WaterWipes contains only two ingredients, 99.9% pure Irish water and 0.1% grapefruit seed extract. Safe and effective for cleaning up even the fun messes. Natural ingredients safe from harmful chemicals.
We then set them off to Water play. Kiddie pool and or Water table will work or even a pouring station (Large recipient and smaller recipients to transfer water to and fro)
** Extra tip: The shower curtain is to make your life even easier. Can be easily thrown if too much of a mess was made or can be washed and re-used for the next play date.
And Voila! You have just delivered a successful playdate mama! Congrats to you for rocking it.
Here’s to many more successful playdates in your near future. Thanks to WaterWipes for keeping the safety and well-being of our little ones in mind.
For more information on WaterWipes, visit their website! Also, follow them on Facebook and Pinterest for updates.
I’m a #WaterWipesMOm
Thanks for reading!!!
xo,
Ellen
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jehava says
What great ideas and tips here! As a stay at home mom who constantly has play dates, I am definitely inspired to step my game up lol
Ellen Oliveira says
Thanks!! I’m right there with you!
Krystal says
I am so type A that I would never let a group of children paint in my house! LOL. But I do let my own children paint occasionally. 🙂 We do love the water wipes for cleanup!
Ellen Oliveira says
Setting down a plastic shower curtain is the way to go, and washable paints! Nothing you can’t use a WaterWipes for clean up.
Mandy says
I love all of these ideas! What great tips 🙂 Most kids love to get messy with some paint so that is an excellent play date activity 🙂
CourtneyLynne says
What fun ideas!!!!! My daughter just loves to paint!!!!
Christine - The Choosy Mommy says
I love having activities ready to go when we have friends over. It makes it so nice because the kids have something to do together and then when we are done with clean up it is a good opportunity for the parent to say they are ready to leave (if they are) 🙂
Julia says
I loved the curtain idea!! Can def. buy at the dollar store and I won’t have to worry about spending too much money on something that will be “destroyed”. It’ll def. protect any surface the kids will be painting on 😉
Tessa says
I really do think the key to knocking off a lot of the playdate (or really any event) stress is setting up ahead of time. Great tips!
Jennifer Corter says
This is such a great post, thank you! My little guy will hopefully have his first playdate sometime this year, so I am totally bookmarking this to save it for then!