The kids are excited, anticipating a dress-up day and receiving lots of halloween candy. The parents are nervous, worried about traffic danger in the dark and tainted halloween candy in the trick-or-treat bags.
What's a parent to do?
Halloween doesn't have to be a scary time for parents. The Richmond/Petersburg local news has published a list a of safety tips for trick or treating designed to keep kids safe on the streets.
Some additional Halloween safety tips that I've used with my own kids include:
- Only trick-or-treating at houses where we know the occupants (no worries about tainted candy)
- Making a Halloween alternative (often available at a school, church, or community center) the highlight of our Halloween instead of going door-to-door
- Having an adult accompanies the smallest children
- Arrange with a farmer to visit a pumpkin field with your kids and pick out a pumpkin. If you don't want to carve a jack-o-lantern with them, use the pumpkin to bake a delicious pumpkin pie instead.
- It's harvest-time! Take the kids to a nearby farmer's market and have them help you pick out fresh fruits and vegetables. (Farmer's market vendors also often offer samples of their fruit. Yummy!)
- It's also football season. Treat your family to a local game. (If NFL tickets are too pricey, consider attending a minor league or high school game instead.)
By the way home school moms, Halloween can make an excellent research project for the kids (especially since most of them are already interested). Have them find out how it started, when the first Halloween was celebrated, and whether other countries celebrate it. Here's a few Halloween research links to get you started:
What about you? What will you be doing this Halloween?
Leave a comment and let us know.
Parts of northern Germany celebrate an interesting holiday: Martinstag in commemoration of Martin Luther. Children go around with lighted lanterns, sing songs and receive candy. I must say the take is much better than at your average American house. : )
Older kids and adults are involved, too, but they dress up and the person at the door tries to guess who they are. In exchange, they imbibe, uh, shall we say small portions of adult liquid?
That's in November, though.
Posted by: Dana | October 29, 2007 3:42 PM | Permalink to Comment