FOR KIDS
Photo credit: thedragonsfairytail.blogspot.com
Kids like having their pictures taken in their knight and maiden attire.
​
The castle at right is easy enough to make from Home Depot boxes. Tutorial here
​
You can dress your castle up just as I did mine in the adult Medieval Faire party section.
Boys and girls alike love the medieval thing, especially since Disney's Brave came out.
​
Unless you're going with a specific medieval thing like a Brave or Hogwart party, you can use the same staging and props that you would for the adult medieval party - the only difference being make your castle large enough for the kids to go into...because they WILL go into it to play.
​
I suggest making a castle that they can crawl through that can double as a photo op booth.
Photo credit: Instructables.com
There's a couple of other things you might want to include in your staging of a kids medieval party.
The kids at my party loved being put in the stocks and photographed.
I have no idea why...but they did.
Photo credit: Event Prop Hire
Although it takes some work, you might want to also consider having a catapult. A working catapult.
The boys especially loved this one...once I could tear the adult male kids away from playing with it long enough to let the kids at it. Instructions for building a catapult here.
Here's a simpler DIY catapult the kids can make themselves. Tutorial here.
Invitations
For the kids medieval party invitations I made the following up in my computer graphics program.
Photo credit: Labertinos
The finished size of my invitation was 5x7 after it had been folded in half.
You can use whatever 8-1/2 x 11"paper you like to print out the invitations but it must be able to be rolled. You want to position the graphics as shown at left on the paper if you're going to burn the paper edges and smudge it with distress ink to make it look more antique so you don't burn into the graphic itself.
​
Once I had them printed out and folded in half I rolled them up like seen at left, then tied the roll with a piece of twine.
Over the knot in the twine, I pasted a medieval wax seal sticker.
​
You can use these same stickers on the scroll on the inside of your invitation too if you wish.
Tablescape
You don't have to get fancy or elegant with the kids. They'll be so busy slaying dragons they won't care much what the table you set for them looks like! (At least that was my experience...)
I used my every day tablecloth that looks like wood planking, re-used the backdrop from my adult medieval party and set their table in front of the backdrop. I wasn't about to use my $200 Knights of the Round Table centerpiece with the kids, so I bought a knight garden gnome from Light in the Box ($16) and used that as their centerpiece.
Brighten the table up with some colorful medieval disposable dinnerware and some goblets.
You can buy these goblets or DIY them.
Don't forget the dragon when staging your party!
Food/Menu
You might want to try serving your kids authentic medieval fare or not. I discovered the secret to getting them to try it was telling them that back in the medieval days they didn't have silverware...so everyone ate with their hands. If they were going to be real knights they had to eat with their hands too!
(Invest heavily in Wet Wipes stock before taking this route and have a healthy Wet Wipes supply on hand.)
I'm kidding. About the stock - not about having a healthy Wet Wipes supply on hand.
If you tell them they have to eat with their hands, they'll eat about anything you put in front of them. *GRIN*
​
Some suggestions:
Slide #1 - The smoked turkey legs are an absolute MUST have, the kids will be in heaven.
Slide #2 - Make the same Medieval Times copycat potatoes as on the adult menu.
Slide #3 - Corn on the cob
Slide #4 - Bake up mini loaves of soda bread. I love this easy bread recipe. No yeast, no punching, no extra kneading required. Just mix it up and bake it.
Slide #5 - Dragon eyes. I'd add a piece of pimento to be a dragon tongue.
Slide #6 - Baked pears - a medieval treat. Recipe here
Slide #7 - Chessmen Shortbread Cookies Recipe here
Slide #8 - Snack cones
Activities
DIY KNIGHT HELMET
​
Help the kids make and decorate their own knight helmets out of popcorn containers.
​
Another version...
THE CASTLE TREASURE IS MISSING!
​
This is a scavenger hunt using candy gold coins. Tell the kids the castle has been robbed and all of its gold is missing. The kids must find and recover the castle gold.
Candy coins are expensive so you can cut coins from cardboard and spray paint them. Award a prize to the child that finds the most coins.
OBSTACLE COURSE ON HORSEBACK
​
You'll need to make felt stick horses for the kids but that's not as time consuming as you might think, I've made 8 of them in 2 nights time and they were just as cute as could be!
​
I made a DIY stable out of 3 corrugated refrigerator shipping boxes and leaned the stick horses so their heads were hanging over the half barn door. I added a hay bale and water bucket just for extra affect. The kids had to go to the stable to pick out their steed.
Set up an obstacle course the kids have to ride through.= between DIY cardboard barrels, over a "drawbridge" (a board over the top of a blue tarp or fabric river)...you get the idea.
​
MEDIEVAL LIFE GAME
​
I've never used this one but a grade school teacher friend of mine suggested it as her students loved it.
Grab the game here for $7.
Kids learn what living medieval life was actually like.
BARLEY BREAK
​
This is an actual game medieval kids played and it's played outdoors. The game starts by marking an area on the ground by drawing a circle or other shape. A child is appointed "It". “It” cannot leave this area. The players must try to run through the area without getting tagged. If a player is tagged, they must join hands with “It” and help to catch the other players. As more players get tagged, they join onto the end of the line. Only those at the ends of the line can tag a player. Those in the middle can however help to “net” the player as they try to run through. The last person caught is “It” for the next game.
CATAPULT GAME
If you didn't make the full sized working catapult, this easy DIY tabletop version is easy to make. Tutorial here
Cut up pieces of packing foam to fire from the catapults.
I made a mini foam castle as the target for kids to fire across the table at. Whoever hit the castle the most times won the game.
Photo credit: Storm the Castle
Tip: Rather than using masking tape to make the catapults, use duct tape.
