I love this time of year and it is especially exciting to experience it through the eyes of my 6 year old son, Oliver. He has been putting on his astronaut costume everyday and would eat, sleep and go to school in it if he could! We decorated our house for Halloween early on as Oliver could not wait. We still need to carve the pumpkins, but Oliver is filling in for one right now since he has lost 4 teeth and looks like a Jack-o-Lantern himself!I happen to love any combination of chocolate, caramel, crunchy rice crisps and peanut butter, but sadly I have recently been enlightened to some really scary stuff found in common candy. Please check out this wonderful website called Out of the Box Food ~ Fresh Alternatives to Processed 'Kid Food'. There is a great article called Trick or Treat that explains these scary ingredients a but more. In an ideal world, Oliver would collect homemade popcorn balls, organic candy made without food dyes, HFCS or TBHQ, but I know that is not reality. Here are some suggestions for how to handle the Halloween Candy!
Employ the Switch Witch
Whether you are the Switch Witch or there is a magical one who comes to your house, have your children put their candy out for the Switch Witch to collect and leave a toy for them to enjoy instead. I told Oliver about this and he LOVED the idea. He's excited to eat some of his candy that night, and leave the rest of it for the candy-loving witch to take home to Hallow Heights with her black cat, Corn.
Share the Candy
Our school collects candy for children who are not able to enjoy a night of Trick-or-Treating. They have bins at school to collect candy that they bring to a local hospital. We actually don't share the Halloween candy we collect as I just cannot feed something so unhealthful to a child with a fragile immune system. Instead, we bought some Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops which are a delicious and more body-friendly treat.
Candy Experiments
Here are some great ideas to have fun with Halloween Candy that will not promote tooth decay.
Color Separation
• Cut out a rectangle of coffee filter paper. • Wet an M&M or Skittle. • Dab color onto paper, 1 inch from the bottom. • Stand up in ½ inch of water. • Watch the colors separate.
Test Candy for Acid
• Dissolve candy in water. • Add a spoon of baking soda. • If it bubbles, the candy contains acid.
Floating Letters
• Drop M&M’s or Skittles in water. • Wait a few minutes. • The m’s and s’s will float to the top.
Test Candy for Oil
• Microwave the candy until it melts. • Let candy cool. • Look for waxy oil spots.
For more experiments, please visit http://www.candyexperiments.com/.
Employ the Switch Witch
Whether you are the Switch Witch or there is a magical one who comes to your house, have your children put their candy out for the Switch Witch to collect and leave a toy for them to enjoy instead. I told Oliver about this and he LOVED the idea. He's excited to eat some of his candy that night, and leave the rest of it for the candy-loving witch to take home to Hallow Heights with her black cat, Corn.
Share the Candy
Our school collects candy for children who are not able to enjoy a night of Trick-or-Treating. They have bins at school to collect candy that they bring to a local hospital. We actually don't share the Halloween candy we collect as I just cannot feed something so unhealthful to a child with a fragile immune system. Instead, we bought some Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops which are a delicious and more body-friendly treat.
Candy Experiments Here are some great ideas to have fun with Halloween Candy that will not promote tooth decay.
Color Separation
• Cut out a rectangle of coffee filter paper. • Wet an M&M or Skittle. • Dab color onto paper, 1 inch from the bottom. • Stand up in ½ inch of water. • Watch the colors separate.
Test Candy for Acid
• Dissolve candy in water. • Add a spoon of baking soda. • If it bubbles, the candy contains acid.
Floating Letters
• Drop M&M’s or Skittles in water. • Wait a few minutes. • The m’s and s’s will float to the top.
Test Candy for Oil
• Microwave the candy until it melts. • Let candy cool. • Look for waxy oil spots.
For more experiments, please visit http://www.candyexperiments.com/.
LOVE these ideas!! Of course my kids are basically beyond trick or treating but I sure wish I had these when they were little. My personal favorite (though not very community minded) is to send it off with David to work and let the adults devour the chemicals!! Oh well...
ReplyDelete