Halloween parties

[mlc1982]

Are any of you having a Halloween party for your dck's? Will you do it the Monday of Halloween or Friday before? What do you have planned? Will you have the kids come dressed up?

I'm looking for ideas for toddlers.

[playfelt]

I don't do a halloween party as such. My group is young enough that only half of them might even be going out the rest will be going to bed. We spend the week before and after doing our halloween theme and mostly it is done with the idea of introducing the things they might see as they go around the neighbourhood - bats, ghost, jackolantern etc. and then after we talk about what they did, let them enjoy the decorations we have in the daycare now that they understand what they go with - for toddlers many of our special day celebrations are after they have experienced the event with parents and then we can explore it further in daycare now that they have some knowledge to work with - saves all the blank stares you get when you try to talk about it before.

[MunchkinMinder]

We do a special part for all the "fun" holidays lol... manly I bake sugar cookies for decorating, we play games, do special craft, trick or treat hunt and a few other things that I'll probably think of right before..

[Sandbox Sally]

We are going to decorate cookies and I am going to tell parents that they can come in costume if they'd like. My 11 yo dd (she is home schooled) and I will be dressing up too. I'll do colouring pages and stuff as well, but that's about it. I have a 15 mo, an 18 mo and a 2 yo that day, so they likely won't get it much, but it'll be fun for us. hehe.

[mom-in-alberta]

Last year I went all out, because I had a bunch of school aged kids. We had themed food all day, did crafts and games, and coloring sheets, etc. We also came in costume that day.
This year I will encourage everyone to come in costume, and we will color, have some fun snacks. But I am scaling it back a bit, since I will only have one (not quite 2y/o) kid that day, plus my daughter!

[mamaof4]

Do any of you have DCKs who do not celebrate Halloween? I live in a very conservative area and the schools around here cannot celebrate because so many parents have complained

[Sandbox Sally]

mama, good question! I would carry on the same way whether I had someone like this in my care or not. My house, my rules. That being said, it's not that I am ethnocentric, it's that I am willing to celebrate ANY special holiday or observance of any dck in my care, and I would expect all the kids to participate. It is my personal feeling that this should be extended to public elementary schools too, and I honestly don't understand why it isn't. For example, how does it hurt a Jewish child to sing a Christmas song at a holiday pageant? I observed this first hand at my own kids' school in recent years, where some of the children would leave the room, or hop down off stage when the Christmas songs were presented. I love that my kids are exposed to other customs and cultures in their school! Christian children are expected to sing and participate in Kwaanza and Chanukah activities - why no reciprocity? I think teaching diversity and acceptance at an early age is a good thing, and I would explain this to the parents. PHEW! That was a bit of a rant. I'll jump down off my soapbox now.

If parents were not comfortable with the way I handle holidays, I would invite them to keep their child home that day. This way, they still have an option to exclude their child from festivities. Being self employed has its perks, huh?

ETA: In my contract, I actually have a paragraph inviting families to help us learn any and all customs, celebrations or different ways of life than our own.

[mom-in-alberta]

Completely agree with Alphagetti on this. I will continue to "celebrate" the occasions that our family chooses to. If someone from another faith would like to teach us about the customs and traditions that they have, I would totally be open to it. In fact, this year at Christmas, I think we will be learning/discussing the various holidays of the season.

[Spixie33]

Do any of you have DCKs who do not celebrate Halloween? I live in a very conservative area and the schools around here cannot celebrate because so many parents have complained

I am not concerned about it too much. I talk about holidays in my daycare handbook and also have a consent form that asks parents to check off whether they are okay with their child doing holiday crafts, etc or if they have any particular objections or things I need to be aware of.

All of my parents signed off a free pass and checked off the OKAY box for holiday crafts and activities.

I do try to minimize any kind of ghoulish skull stickers or stamps on our crafts but pumpkins and ghosts and non-scary looking witches I use

[little rascals]

Any ideas for a Halloween party for three 1 and a half year olds?