PARTY Line management

I have a gig tomorrow at a daycare center for their "carnival days" celebration (the kids are school-age, thank goodness). Anyway, when I get set up and they all crowd around me at once saying, "I'm first!!!" what do I do? As you can tell, I haven't been at this very long.
Thanks

Grab a chair, tell them, "This is the start of the line. First person is the one in the chair, the rest of you LINE UP behind them. No fighting or you don't get painted."

Or, tell an adult in charge to organize them as you are busy painting.

Either works for me.

I usually tell them to let the littlest ones go first since they aren't as patient as the really BIG kids are... if they still fuss about it, then set one of the oldest to sort them in line youngest to oldest (gives them a job and makes them feel important). The smaller ones tend to get antsy and cry in line if they have to wait too long and the older kids will change their minds five times before their turn anyway.

Perry Noia wrote:I usually tell them to let the littlest ones go first since they aren't as patient as the really BIG kids are... if they still fuss about it, then set one of the oldest to sort them in line youngest to oldest (gives them a job and makes them feel important).

LIKE!

I always set it up ahead of time with the person who hired me. They get the point real quick when I explain that a lot of my time is wasted on line management when it's better spent painting. I've never had a problem once I've suggested it to the organizer.

I say - birthday kid in the chair, line up by height behind the chair.

It only works some of the time - other times I let the birthday kid pick who is going to go next and usually the fidgety kids run off and the really interested ones stay so they get painted first.
Doesn't help with that one kid - usually a boy for some reason- keeps coming back and saying 'is it my turn yet?' over and over every time you have someone in the chair.... but when you finish he is nowhere to be seen just hiding and waiting to come back when you are half way through another kid.

Giving them numbers helps because they can run off and you can tell the kids watching to find the next number for you... if you can' find the next number I just skip over and slot them in when they stumble on back.

Another tactic I use, with older kids of course...is I make them firgure it out by alphabetical order LOL Keeps them busy for a few minutes.

I forgot to add... birthday child ALWAYS goes first.... then it's youngest to oldest.

At parties I don't have any problem, the birthday mom takes care of it. The 4th of July I had a 3 hours waiting line, and now everybody remembers me not because I am the talented face painter, but for the time they had to wait, I don't know if the like o hate me, but that day I learned to make numbers, I had a festival 2 weeks ago (with almost the same people) where I was hired for 3 hours, I printed numbers from 1-80 gave away 60 and tell them in about what time the supposed to come back. It was FANTASTIC!! it made me look very proffesional, I never had a long line, and I controled the number of the kids I supposed to serve, the only thing I was sad for the kids that didn't get a number. Next day my hubby bougth me from a flea market a 100 pieces of poker chips I was able to write them with a permanent ink marker. I am ready for my next festival next weekend.

this isn't a birthday party, but a small private event. Same difference, I guess. I don't have any poker chips for today (how do you give them out when all the kids are there at once?, do you put them in a bag and they pick one out?) I would feel horrible for the poor kid who picked #80, LOL. I am going to try the younger kids first idea. Maybe I'll try the poker chips in the future. Hubby talked me out of using numbers because he said the kids with the higher numbers would feel cheated. (what does he know?)
Thanks!

You can buy poker chips at W'mart, then number them with a Sharpie. If you are doing 50 kids, put the chips in five bags so you have 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, and so on. Then you hand out the chips in numerical order from the bags as needed. You can use a wipe-off board to write the current number you are serving and place it where people can easily see it. You can tell people to add up 5 minutes per number ahead of them for a general idea of when to return. Good luck and have fun today!

Poker chip idea sounds awesome...do some walk off and never get returned?

The paper bracelets ($5 for 100...cheaper online) saved my bacon at a large birthday party. I wished I'd used them today for a small party. Had pushy girls getting ahead in line. I had them sitting on the couch in order but party dad came in and started playing with them and then balloon twister came and all h*ll broke loose.

I should have let mom hand out bracelets.

D.

debranewmanart wrote:Poker chip idea sounds awesome...do some walk off and never get returned?

Yes but they are super cheap and easy to replace.

Denise, how do you use paper bracelets for line management? I use them to identify paid guests at public venue parties but not as part of a number/line system...do you number them?

I wrote numbers on them and had the hostess/mom hand them out to the guests. I had told her ahead of time (in my contract) that I don't paint under two and she was good about that (some mom tried to recycle one for her baby though ) It was nice too because I only numbered the amount that I had agreed to paint which was 20 so it reiterated what I was capable of. I did end up doing a few moms when the kids made it through.

So, this last gig I would have numbered 1-10 and given them to the mom and had her hand them out and called the number up. I thought since it was a small party it would be silly but those girls were jostling for position the whole time.

You could still line the kids up by age, etc. and then put the bands on. I'll be sure to use them Saturday. Have a 5 year old boy superhero party!

D.

Now why didn't I think of that?! THanks for the great info, I will be numbering my wristbands from now on!

Daycares are tricky because you don't have the birthday kid option, they are too young to recognize a lot of methods.

Like GriffinBlue, I set up ahead of time with the organizer that a teacher or a teacher's assistant will help. Works every time.

Just did my first day care gig, It was the end of the year party and their parents and teacher wanted them to go play and not all stand there and watch me paint (as did I) So I numbered there hand in relativly close order of when they got in line. Told them to go play and i 'd call there number. It worked really well. Sure there were some kids who wanted to stay and watch but it was 10 not 40! Plus then parents could get them to eat and play in the meantime. They kept checking back to see what # I was on, when it got close they'd hang close by.

I really wish there was a way to do this for bigger events! It would work for bday parties and like this event that was contained in one area.

Hope that helps, I heard several parents say how much they liked that Idea!

For a large event, I've been toying with the idea of having people write their cell phone number and e-mail down in a notebook. I'll call the next one as the current one is getting seated. After the event, I can use their email to send out periodic updates about events and services. Think I'll try it on the next event.

I do names in a hat. I ask the party host to have all the names of the attending children written. I put them in a hat/basket. I draw a name for the next as the current child sits down. Usually one of the spectators finds the child for me.. if not the painted does as they are done. It allows the party games to continue without all the kids waiting in the line. If the party games are done or non existent then they can all watch but I still draw the name. It keeps them from lying about who was in line next, it also keeps them from fightin about cutters and such

But now that I read all of your post, it seems numbers may be so much easier.

The teacher at the daycare usually just picks who gets to go next. Takes the heat off of me and they listen to her better than me anyways.

I did the hand numbering thing for this last birthday and it worked really well except for one girl that washed her's off but her mom remembered what it was. It was quick and the kids got into calling each other up to be "on deck" when it was their turn.

I think I will have them line up by age next time though...some of the higher numbers were the youngest kids and also kids that needed to go home early. So I'll probably ask the hostess to line them up (mention the early thing) and then number them.

D.