Halloween: Fun Ways to Get Rid of the Green-eyed Monster at Home
What’s the scariest monster you can think of? How about the greedy little goblins and goblets running around your house during Halloween fighting over candy and yelling “mommy, that’s mine”! at the top of their lungs. That’s a sight that most parents don’t want to see and must correct while they are still young, before they grow into scarier and maybe even a danger-to-society young devils.
Here are a few ways you can teach the lil monsters at home about sharing, caring and practicing common good during this Halloween.
Trick or Treat for Charity What are your child’s interests? Whatever they are you can use them in your favor when teaching them about giving. The nature-loving kid might enjoy trick-or-treating to raise money for their local community gardens. The girls might enjoy trick-or-treating for nail polishes and then delivering them to a nursing home so that the ladies can get treated to a nice polish. You might even consider taking a sturdy bag or wagon and collect can goods for the local community food bank. Whatever the cause is, you might want to give your neighbors a heads-up that your kids will be trick-or-treating for charity. At the end of the day I’m sure that the kids will still receive plenty of candy and rewards for their efforts.
Go Trick-or-Treating for UNICEF UNICEF has some great Trick-or Treat donation boxes and raise funds in a unique way and lets kids be creative as well. The money you raise will help UNICEF provide clean water, nutrition, education and more to millions of kids in need around the world.
This fall they introduced a new cast of characters to be featured on Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF collection boxes. You’re invited to design and submit your own Halloween character for a chance to be part of Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF’s 2013 limited edition collection contest. The contest will run from September 1 through October 26.
The Service Ghost
This is a fun and easy way to overcome sibling rivalry, bickering and fighting; a way to have your kids practice being nice to one another while keeping them on their ghostly toes! Draw or print out a picture of a ghost and write on it: “Boo! You’ve been visited by the service ghost! Now it’s your turn to serve someone else!” Have your children do secret acts of kindness for each other, leaving the ghost behind when they do. Encourage your kids to practice this with other kids at school and see how far the kindness of the service ghost goes.
13 Days of Halloween A spooky take to The Twelve Days of Christmas! Gather 13 gifts and number them 1-13 and secretly leave them on someone’s doorstep one a day until Halloween. Consider giving your neighbor heads-up about your kids being spooky ways so they are not hesitant about the gifts they find daily. You can leave all kinds of fun stuff, from a caramel apple kit, a spooky orange soda or little jars filled with candy, the sky is the limit, let your kids think of some ideas.
Reverse Trick or Treating
This one is an easy activity that can promote family bonding and friendship. Have your children help you make some sweet Halloween treats such Halloween Caramel Apples from Presley’s Pantry and deliver them to friends and family. Make sure that you dress up the kids when you deliver these treats, might as well get as much usage as possible from those costumes.
What about leftovers? Too much candy collected by your kids or left over trick-o-treat candy? There are a few centers you can share your remanding candy such as women’s shelter where there are some children who don’t have the luxury of trick-or-treating. Donating candy is a great way to make sure they experience the fun too in a safe environment.
Look for community and church events and activities If you are concerned about the trick-or-treating environment in your neighborhood or you might have a stand against trick-or-treating, then you can offer parties and events at your home as alternatives. Remember to check out your Church or community bulletin boards to see what your town has going on Wednesday, October 31.
Don’t force any of these activities on your kids, lead them by being excited about helping other and simply invite them to join you – you are their best role model. And during this Halloween just remember to have fun, be safe and most importantly put on your spookiest SMILE!
