1. Pick a special theme

Kids love to have theme birthday parties for whatever they're interested in. It can be a princess birthday party, a pirate party, or even something like a train party if you kids likes trains. Think about what your kid's interests, and design a party around one of them. You can even make it educational. If your kid likes dinosaurs, make it a dinosaur party and include fun facts and trivia games. Once you've decided on a theme, search the web for party ideas for that specific theme. Many people have already done all the planning you.

2. Recognize their accomplishments

One thing you can do to make your birthday party more exciting, and to give your kids encouragement, is to have an "accomplishments of the past year" theme for the party. You can make it the central theme, or just have it as a part of the party. Take all of your child's accomplishments over the last year and highlight them. You can make a poster, scrapbook, and/or give a presentation. This is a great way to boost your child's self esteem and encourage him or her to continue with similar accomplishments.

3. Be creative with your wrapping paper

Instead of just using regular store bought wrapping paper, make your own! You can use newspaper, white paper, or grocery bags and decorate it with markers, stickers, ribbons, and anything else you can imagine. One year I wrapped Christmas presents for my nieces with newspaper, and the next year they still remembered the newspaper wrapping. One of them said it was her favorite wrapping! I also got a plain gift bag for my wife once and wrote all over it - she liked the bag better than the presents inside!

4. Make a poster with birthday wishes

You can make a poster with birthday wishes from friends, neighbors and family members. Decorate a poster, leaving plenty of room for people to write messages. Before your kid's birthday, get as many people as you can to write birthday wishes on the poster. Leave some space so that kids can write messages at the birthday party. You can also do a variation of this theme by having people writie positive things about your kid. This can help them to recognize their good qualities, and maybe bring them out even more.

These are just a few simple ideas to help make your kid's birthday special. You don't have to spend a fortune to make it great, just give a little extra attention.