I decided to sign up for the committee(s) to plan my son's class Halloween, Christmas and Valentine parties...The moms that have the kids making candy necklaces and decorating sugar cookies with canned frosting and colored sprinkles aren't going to go for my ideas, I don't imagine...Maybe they'll at least have one less artificially flavored, colored, sugar-loaded treat if I'm in on the planning, eh?
__________________ Jody
Mama to two boys (5-10-98 and 6-01-01), and two girls (11-18-03 and 1-11-07)
What are you planning? I am considering signing up to be room mom for my 3 year old's class.
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Hayes, mama to Celeste, Lydia, William, Samuel, Isaac, and Joseph
This is Joseph at 1 month old. He is next to his newest friend, Mary Frances, just minutes after she was born. She weighed 8 pounds 10 ounces and was 18.5 inches long!
I just signed up to help plan the parties. I have signed up the last two years to donate items, and I just by chance wound up helping in the room with the valentine's party last year. I just would prefer to have at least a few more natural or non-food treats going on. The Valentine party consisted of making candy necklaces, making a lifesaver rocket, decorating a sugar cookie with sprinkles and spoonfuls of pink canned frosting, and washing it down with sprite and colored/flavored (I don't know what they were made of...) ice cubes. They also did some wordfinds, a pencil craft, and a beanbag toss.
In Kindergarten, I think it was actually worse...
I just saw a Parenting magazine which had a "monster" made with peanut butter, grapes, apple slices, and choc. chips for eyeballs. Maybe something like that if we don't have any peanut allergies? I am trying to eliminate artificial flavorings, colorings, preservatives, so I tend just to lean toward, at the least, stuff that doesn't have those things in them, even if there is still some kind of need to stuff the kids full of junk, YK? Maybe some pumpkin muffins? Apple juice or cider instead of punch? Hot chocolate with whipped cream "ghosts"? Could groups of kids work together to paint pumpkins or make scarecrows? Just thinking off the top of my head.
I need to go though...Do you have ideas???
My mother used to read a book about Mrs Witch's Magic Pumpkin Bread, then the kids would make and eat the bread. Unfortunately, I think the book is out of print. Plus, apparently witches have become offensive in the 25 years since I was a little person. Anyway, I'd go with muffins and cider. And maybe get the mini pumpkins for the kids to color.
maybe they could collect fallen leaves and make leaf rubbing? Or pinecone and peanut butter bird feeders? There are so many non-sugar projects in the world. I don't get why people think kids need to be bribed with treats into having fun?
You know, I bet they will appreciate your point of view. I think that most moms, even mainstream ones, want their kids to eat more healthy items. Sometimes maybe they give this up for a day or two if it's a special occaision, but if you show them that it can be fun without all the sugar and color, with other crafts and stuff, I'm sure everyone will appreciate it. I mean, even as a kid, you can only eat so much sugar before you really wish you could have some "real" food, you know?
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Ann
mommy to Morgan Phillip 5/24/02
and Elisha Nicole 5/10/05
and Bethany Alyssa 1/5/08
I LOVE the cider and hot cocoa with ghosts ideas. My 4 year old is red dye intolerant. Valentines day last year involved throw up and diarrhea from all the red dye.
I hope so...I mean, especially at Halloween, they're already going to be loading up with garbage, YK? DS's teacher last year gave the kids candy and other sugary treats all the time. One day, I was going to pick him up after school, and in the few minutes between last recess and them getting on the bus, she was handing out ice pops (the plastic tube ones). Why? As a reward for being good when a group came around and brought LIVE ANIMALS INTO THE ROOM. Can you explain to me, why a child would need a bribe of sugar to behave while there was a sugar glider or a bearded lizard in their classroom? Wouldn't saying, "If you don't behave, you will have to leave the classroom," be enough????
That simply amazed me. At the end of the year, the teacher put together a powerpoint show and the running joke throughout was how much sugar she was giving them. Really sad. And I liked her, too.
Anyway, I thought maybe I could be a good influence on the planning committee. Hopefully, my ideas will be well-received.
Those are some more great ideas! Thank you!
I dunno, I was completely overruled when I was in on the planning of one party and suggested that I could make english muffin mini pizzas and bring melon. I was told that at a party kids want to eat junk.
The kids and teacher REALLY liked apple bobbing when we did that though.
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Our school is really into healthy stuff except at parties. I try to keep it healthy when I am on a party committee. I encounter odd looks with my Halloween/Fall Festival parties. I am pagan. It is an Episcopal school. It is supposed to be more fall themed than Hallloween. I love that party though. I am room mother this year so I get to choose who helps.
Which parenting issue had the ghost? I would love to do that.
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Michelle
-- Mom to Beth, 11 and Sam, 8
I think if you approach it as "lots of kids have allergies and we want everyone to be safe and healthy. yadda yadda yadda" you might be fairly well recieved. There are a lot of kids these days with various allergies so it's not pushing it to say we need to control the things that will make these kids sick, we don't want to be sending home sick kids on a holiday. Also it will be better recieved if you go in with ideas, not just a list of "no's". I love the craft ideas. Maybe for halloween you could do a "mummy wrapping" contest, where the kids try to wrap eacho other in toilet paper the fastest. That was always a favorite at our Moose Club kids parties. Also maybe making masks out of paper plates, bobbing for apples or the apple one where you hang the apple from a string and everyone tries to eat a bit without using their hands to hold it in place. Luckily there are a lot of good craft idea magazines out there, maybe even bringing in one to share with the other mom's would help them get excited about doing things without sugar.
Chole
__________________ 18th century Mama to a exciting 8yr old, SO to a graphic novel guy
Red and Green grapes taken off the stems and put into a bowl and label them dragon's eyes.
Combine glitter with baking soda and label it pixie/fairy dust in small containers. Take some vinegar and label them dragon's tears (or something similar) and put it into small containers. Give each child the containers and let them see what happens when you combine them (give them something to combine them in also).
Sandwiches any kind you want to make and use cookie cutters to cut out halloween shapes. Heck you could make a few to look like bugs and use stuffed olives for eyes on them.
Alot of the kids know about Harry Potter, you could make some treats that sound like treats from the book/movie. Pumpkin pasties, pumpkin juice, treacle tarts, etc.
Strawberry Kiwi tea bags in sprite makes a good punch. I think you pour out about a bit of the sprite first then put in 3-5 tea bags. Or take your favorite red punch/fruit juice recipe and use that. Something like nonalcoholic sangria. Or heck red grape juice would work, or add some sparkling water to it for fizzy effect.
Make owls out of pinecones, cut felt and acorn caps. You need pine cones, brown felt, yellow felt, black felt, acorn caps and glue. Make a pattern for wings and tail and depending on the size of acorn caps, 2 circles (one bigger than the other). Precut all the felt shapes and have the kids glue it all together. Best of all, its a cheap project.
Make magic wands from paint, glitter, jewels, and sticks. You can actually find branches and cut them to size in advance.
Popcorn makes a great halloween treat and it doesn't have to have all the bad stuff on it if you pop it yourself.
Carrotcake or fruitcake cupcakes and give them some awful names for the cakes (remember kids like being grossed out at Halloween).
Gause ghost. Make them out of cheesecloth and a fabric stiffener of somesort. And black paint. Though this craft may take a bit too long.
Make your own chips. Buy or make blue corn tortillas and cut out bat and cat shapes. Then bake until crisp. Make a dip to go with it and serve it in a mini cauldron.
Get small pie pumpkins and have a pumpkin decorating contest using nontoxic paint.
This should go without saying, but serve roasted pumpkin seeds and call them fingernails. Heck on that note, you could serve sunflower seeds and call it bird beaks or dogs toenails or something like that.
Make a halloween ornament. A regular christmas ball and paint and make it into a halloween decoration. You can get them in plastic now, so it will be safe for kids to do.
Have the kids make their own masks with plain eyed masks, paint, beads, pompoms, wiggle eyes, sequins, etc.
I have a book called "Scary Scenes for halloween" by Jill Williams Grover and she tells how to make a skull from a 1 gallon milk jug and black paint. Take the labels off in advance.
Make ghost, bat, pumpkin, or owl paper chains.
Make pizzas that look like skills, bugs, monsters, etc. Use olives, pepperoni, peppers, tomatos, etc to decorate.
You can make/order chicken wings and call them bat wings.
Bread sticks or large stick pretzels decorated to look like fingers of people or monsters (frankenstein, swamp monster, mummy, etc).
Make and decorate their own treat bag/container
Games: Bean bag toss with bean bags in the shape of pumpkins, ghosts, black cats, etc., bobbing for apples, pin the tail on the dragon or pin the tentacle on the monster,
I know this is going to sound insane but Martha Stewart usually has some good ideas for halloween, so check out her site.
Jody
I love that party though. I am room mother this year so I get to choose who helps. 
and Sam, 8 
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