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apples and bananas
09-18-2012, 09:31 AM
Who celebrates it with their kiddies?

Who gives their kiddies a treat bag and do you fill it with candy or do you have other ideas?

What crafts are you planning?

Am I too early to be discussing this? ;)

Bookworm
09-18-2012, 10:26 AM
I don't think it's too early... I already bought my kids' halloween costumes since they were on sale at Old Navy this past weekend (they picked them out).
I'm not sure what I will be doing for halloween craft wise, but I am going to put a little treat bag together for them.

kidlove
09-18-2012, 10:32 AM
We always have a halloween party, the day of (sometimes the day before also/to include all kids) they come dressed in costumes and I always give them a "starter" to their nights "trick or treating" we play little games or watch a halloween movie. Always have "spooky" snacks. I love love love halloween. that and valentines, they are just made up holidays for nothing more than "fun". :) I also have them carve or paint, depending on ages their own pumpkin. (on good years, I have quite a few little ones left over from the garden.....this year lots, had a great summer!)

ladyjbug
09-18-2012, 11:14 AM
We're going to have a Halloween Party! Everyone is encouraged to dress up that day and we'll take a group picture. We also go to the library on Wednesdays, so they can show off tehre if they like. :) I have a lot of younger kids so I don't give out candy, but we'll have a decorate-a-cupcake/cookie afternoon snack and a craft. Thinking of giving them those reusable tote bags to decorate to carry when they are trick or treating! We may watch "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" too and make pumpkin tealights with with older kids, if there's time!

Big Hearts
09-18-2012, 11:26 AM
I plan on taking the kids to a pumpkin patch and have them pick out pumpkins in a few weeks. then for a craft i plan on doing this craft from parent mag, i just picket up the decor and will bake cookies and treats to send home in a trick or treat bag they would have painted.

playfelt
09-18-2012, 01:27 PM
I have quite a few halloween cookie cutters so we make cookies and decorate, read halloween stories and I have some games for matching and sorting etc but with a halloween theme we play with. Add halloween puppets and a few stuffies collected over the years to the bin. I have one of the fake pumpkins you flick the switch to turn on. At first they are usually scared but then it becomes a game where they count and I turn it on and off. We start with a book about Joey a sad pumpkin who wasn't scary and by the end of the book he has a face - more funny than scary - but then he lights up. Then we do the same with fake pumpkin.

Crafts are hit and miss depending on the ages of the kids. I am more likely to make them things we play with and then they get to take them home such as a jackolantern fingerpuppet.

apples and bananas
09-18-2012, 02:47 PM
Last year we painted pumpkins, but my kids are little this year. One doesn't like the feel of paint and the other it goes right into the mouth. UGH!!! Any other ideas on what we can do with real pumpkins?

I was going to do a bat craft using handprints as the wings and a toilet paper roll as the body.
We were also going to do pumpkins made out of paperplates using orange tissue scrunched up to glue onto the plate.

I wasn't sure what to do as a trick or treat bag for the kids since they are all until 18 months.

Momof4
09-18-2012, 03:58 PM
We do crafts for a week or two before Hallowe'en and our downtown library always has a scavenger hunt on 3 floors with music and everyone in costumes. I will have been taking my group there Hallowe'en morning for the 5th year this year and looooove it! We make a bag and practice trick or treating from the librarians for little toys and stickers and it helps the children understand better when their parents take them out that evening.

I always make monster faces for lunch, eg: mashed potato eyeballs with an olive in the middle, pepper strips for ears, broccoli hair, ham sliced into scary teeth, cherry tomato nose.

mlle.coccinelle
10-09-2012, 03:01 PM
I have a family in my DH that are jehova witnesses.... and when I invited her dauther for the halloween party she got very offended ( I didnt knw they were JW btw..) So, I'm just wondering what i should to about this... I have told parents that we will have a party for halloween, ive been talking about it with the kids... and asked my mother in law to come help out with the practice trick or treat! what should i do?

Momof4
10-09-2012, 03:09 PM
I have a family in my DH that are jehova witnesses.... and when I invited her dauther for the halloween party she got very offended ( I didnt knw they were JW btw..) So, I'm just wondering what i should to about this... I have told parents that we will have a party for halloween, ive been talking about it with the kids... and asked my mother in law to come help out with the practice trick or treat! what should i do?
I always ask the families as they are signing the contract if there is any problem celebrating all of the holidays but I keep religion out of the daycare and celebrate everything at kid fun levels. I believe religion is best taught at home by the parents because there are so many variations.

If I were you I would ask the family honestly how they would like for you to handle the situation because Christmas is coming, then Valentine, St. Patrick, Easter, etc. Do they want to find alternate care when you have a special day? Do they want their child to colour or do something different while your other children are making holiday crafts? Can they give you something to say to the child so he/she doesn't feel left out? I would completely do whatever the parents want, but it is very strange that they didn't bring this up at the very beginning of care. They shouldn't be offended because this is going to happen in daycare and school and everywhere.

Dreamalittledream
10-09-2012, 04:09 PM
Last year we painted pumpkins, but my kids are little this year. One doesn't like the feel of paint and the other it goes right into the mouth. UGH!!! Any other ideas...
I wasn't sure what to do as a trick or treat bag for the kids since they are all until 18 months.
I have little ones too & I bought the face parts stickers for them to place on little pumpkins.
As for a trick or treat; dollar store has some cute Halloween themed books, that packaged with some Halloween socks or something?

mimi
10-09-2012, 05:53 PM
I get a little pumpkin for each child and they paint, put stickers on it, sparkles....whatever we can glue on it. Then we insert plastic face pieces specificly for the pumpkin (dollar store) onto the front of the pumpkin. I let the kids choose which ones they want and I insert. We also have a Hallowe'en party and neighborhood parade walk to show off our costumes to whom ever is out. I send them home with age appropriate treats which they know they have to show parents first to get permission to eat (so they can be the bad guy!!) I take lots of pictures and give a copy to the parents. Fun, busy day.

mlle.coccinelle
10-11-2012, 10:12 PM
I would completely do whatever the parents want, but it is very strange that they didn't bring this up at the very beginning of care. They shouldn't be offended because this is going to happen in daycare and school and everywhere.

I actually told them that we were gonna do activities about halloween and christmas ( more about Santa and christmas trees and such not about religion at all) and she was totaly fine with it! Now that I started to put up my decorations she tells me that. That's why I'm so confused about it all! Anyways I spoke to her about it and she dosent mind her dauther doing the crafts but she wont be there on the 31st... I just wonder what christmas time is going to be like :S

kidlove
10-12-2012, 08:31 AM
You could make it a "harvest party" or "fall Celebration" instead of "halloween"...you could focus on more of a fall theme rather than anything scary or halloween related, just to have respect for the JW family. I attend a Baptist church and they too are very anti-halloween. They don't frown on anyone who does take part (we do for fun! :)) but they just don't take part in the scaryness of it , ghosts, goblins, skeletins and such! :) look up on internet, other ways to celebrate halloween for those whos religion doesn't allow.

playfelt
10-12-2012, 08:44 AM
A lot of schools have gone to very generic celebrations just for that reason of offending the least number of families.

It is something that the daycare family may not have had time to come to grips with in the sense that they were thinking ok Oct 31 we just take a day off and they do Halloween and it is done not realizing that we do the "theme" for a couple weeks. In school they will have to address this. While the kids are little they won't get it anyways so there are ways to go around it and you might be able to put her fears to rest in the sense of the kids see monsters on tv with sesame street and in cartoons firtrucks and houses talk so a pumpkin with a face is only scary and sinister to a child when we tell them it is.

mimi
10-12-2012, 08:55 AM
Hallowe'en is about fun for the kids. I decorate my home with happy depictions of the typical Hallowe'en characters. We don't do or talk about scary stuff or religion. I respect other peoples opinions on Hallowe'en, but I think some folk take it way to seriously and forget that kids just want to dress up, run around the neighborhood and collect some treats. I also wonder about some people who delve into the negative instead of looking at the positive. In my neighborhood, if the weather is decent, some neighbors provide hot chocolate for the treaters parents and we all have quick friendly chats before the kids are on their way. We usually give out our treats outside to make it a more festive environment and to make sure kids are safe.

angelina
10-16-2012, 05:48 PM
well, we do it simple as we can. crafts, i don't put candies, as trick or treat will result to lots of treats. I will send them juice boxes, as they will get thirsty.