Sweet Dilemmas: Halloween Candy - Now What!

All year long we talk about the bad "sugar bugs" on our teeth and making good, healthy food choices.   Then comes Halloween!  I enjoyed researching various options on what to do with all the Halloween candy collected.  This is the first year I am actually concerned about how to deal with all the treats that will be brought home.  In the past, my son played with the candy without realizing it could be eaten!  A day or two after Halloween, the candy just disappeared and it wasn't a problem.  This year, may be a different story. He now knows that there are very delicious treats underneath the bright colored, crinkly wrappers.
Here are some fun and creative ideas I found.  I hope you will find them useful with your family.
* Immediately throw away all choking hazards.  Hard candy is the worst!*
1.  The Great Pumpkin or Sugar Fairy or The Switch Witch:  The kids pick a few pieces of candy (your discretion) and place the remaining candy on their doorstep before they go to bed and when they wake up the candy has been replaced with a present for the child and a thank you note.  Keep the gift small, Christmas is right around the corner!  This can be done a day or two after Halloween.
2.  Pick out and save candy to decorate a gingerbread house at Christmas time. (Use glue when attaching the candy so it won't be edible.)
3.  This can be a good opportunity to read the ingredients together and look for the really bad stuff: high-fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils, artificial coloring, etc...  Go to a natural food store with your child and have them pick "healthier" alternatives instead.
4.  Use it as a learning tool: counting, matching, sorting, graphing, weighing, estimating, patterning
5.  Candy Science Experiments: http://www.candyexperiments.com/
6.  Operation Shoe Box will send it to over to our troops http://www.operationshoebox.com/
7.  Local dentists will buy back candy, enter zip code to find one near you: http://www.halloweencandybuyback.com/index.html
8.  Movie Stash: Save some money at the movie theater by bringing your own candy.
I want to set a good example for my son, so the sooner the candy is out of the house, the sooner we can get back to living a healthy lifestyle. 
Do you and your family have any special traditions or ways to limit candy intake?

Boo-tiful Ghosts Again!

I had to re-post this project because this is one that you can do year after year, especially if you've had any new additions to the family.  This year I will be doing this activity with my son's preschool class.  The kids will be painting these ghosts on trick-or-treat bags.  On another day, the parents will be passing out non-sweet treats to the kids at the end of class so the kids can practice saying "trick-or-treat" and "thank you!"
http://mrsodaniels.blogspot.com/2010/10/adorable-ghosts.html  or you can read more at http://www.lamorindaweb.com/articles/family-parenting/1673-boo-tiful-ghosts-worth-treasuring

Nature's Calling - Adventures and Activities

Signs of Autumn are everywhere.  It is a great opportunity to get outside with our little ones and use our senses to enjoy the beauty of the season.  
Time to go exploring:  Whether you head out to your backyard, local park or trail, bring a bucket or bag to collect any small treasures your child finds on the ground, such as acorns, pine cones, leaves, rocks, twigs, etc.   Take time to stop and listen to the sounds of the rustling leaves, singing birds, or squabbling squirrels.  Look for living creatures of all sizes and examine a spider’s web.  Count the birds in the sky.  Find leaves of different colors, shapes and sizes.  Figure out which tree dropped their new found treasures.  Don’t forget to discuss being respectful toward nature.
Autumn Treasure Activities:  There are so many ways your child can have fun and learn from what they found on their nature walk.  Keep their treasures safe in a container outside so that throughout the season they can use their items or add to their collection.  

Here are some basic math concepts that you can work together on with your child.  Begin by “sorting” the items into groups.  Depending on the age of your child, have your child “sort” the leaves by color or size.  Have them line up some items from smallest to biggest to develop “sequencing” skills.  They can create math “patterns”, such as acorn, leaf, acorn, leaf.  They can “count” how many pine cones they found.  They can “add” pine cones plus rocks to find the total.  If you have a lot of acorns you can do a counting game with the numbers 0-5 using an empty egg carton.  Write # 0-5 at the inside bottom of each egg cup in the carton.  Place one acorn in the egg carton.   The first person shakes the closed egg carton then opens to see what number is under the acorn.  They collect that number of acorns from a pile.  Take turns until all the acorns are gone.  Each placer counts their pile of acorns.  The player with the most wins.

Acorn Counting

When all the counting is done, time to get creative.  Set out some art supplies and let them create a collage from their walk.  If they found a lot of crunchy leaves, have them crunch up the leaves and glue on a leaf cutout for a mosaic.  Paint the rocks and pine cones.  Don’t forget to draw faces on the acorns.  The ideas are endless.  Let your child come up with some of their own creations.  

Crushed Leaf Mosaic

What are some of your fun Fall activities?  I have to admit, having just moved here from Orange County, we looking forward to jumping in the leaves.  My son and I used to pretend racking and jumping into a huge pile of leaves, but this year we get to do it.  Happy Fall!