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By Mom Unplugged, October 30, 2009 9:45 pm

Get your Candy Bank ready, it’s Halloween tomorrow!

If you are unsure about what to do with an influx of massive amounts of candy into your house, then read on.

If your children are young (younger than maybe 4 or 5?) you can probably get away with the “Hide It and They’ll Forget About It” method.

If you have older children, take it from me, that will not work.  Either let them have it all in moderated doses (and “lose” a few bits here and there and hope they don’t notice), or try a Candy Bank.

We have a jar into which all extra candy is put (as well as any junky little toys that somehow show up).  We use it throughout the year for birthday party candy, but Halloween is where it really comes in useful.

Once the Candy Bank is full, the kids get money for charity in exchange for the candy.  The first time I did this, I let them each choose a small present in exchange for the candy.  Ever since then, I have given them $10.00 collectively to donate to a charity of their choice.

I like that it goes to charity (rather than just more junk to fill the house) and I also like that they must agree amongst themselves as to how the money will be applied.  I can only hope that this will encourage a lifetime of negotiation and cooperation!

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By Mom Unplugged, October 31, 2008 3:28 pm

Wondering what to do with all that candy?

Check out my Candy Fairy and Candy Bank posts for some alternatives to eating it!

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By Mom Unplugged, December 5, 2007 1:19 pm

This is our “Candy Bank,” it is our extension of the Halloween “Candy Fairy” concept. Every time the kids go to a birthday party and come home with a bunch of candy and junky toys, they can choose to put them in “The Candy Bank.” When the jar is full, I give them $10.00 to donate to a charity of their choice.

My original plan had been to buy them each a small gift when the jar was full, but before I was able to suggest the gift idea, my daughter said she wanted to use the Candy Bank as a way to collect money for charity. My son was enthusiastic about the charity idea too, so that is what we are doing with our Candy Bank!

They were so excited, that after putting in their candy, they asked if toys could go in too.

“Of course!!!” I said, hardly believing my good fortune!

They rushed off to collect bits and pieces and, in under ten minutes, they had the jar completely filled. At $10.00 per jar this could get expensive, but for a good cause, I don’t mind. I didn’t realize that it would be filled so quickly, but I am so grateful for their enthusiasm.

We had a very interesting dinnertime conversation that night about some different charities and what they do. My daughter apparently still remembers seeing the Smile Train website over a year ago, because she asked me about the charity that fixes children’s mouths.

The two junior philanthropists have decided to donate the first batch of Candy Bank money to Heifer International, since my daughter is trying to earn money for her class to buy animals and seedlings from Heifer International to donate to a village in Africa. After the class places the Heifer order, then the kids want to donate to Smile Train.

Honestly, I am blown away by this whole concept that we have stumbled upon, and especially by the children’s excitement.

What a win-win:

+ The kids develop a sense of altruism and learn to enjoy helping others.

+ They also learn about saving up for something, a notion that we can extend to actual money later on.

+ Of course you won’t be surprised to hear how thrilled I am to eliminate candy and a bit of clutter from the house!

+ We have a few little toys to donate to a local charity thrift store.

+ I am also hoping to teach cooperation. Since we have only one jar and one sum of money, the two children must fill the jar together, and then together, come up with a plan for the money.

On a side note, a few days after the Candy Bank discussion, my daughter asked me if for Christmas she could get a book about different charities that exist and what each of them does. I definitely want to encourage this spirit of generosity as much as I can, so I immediately went onto Amazon and found this one which I have ordered:

If we like it, I’ll write a review after Christmas.

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By Mom Unplugged, November 3, 2007 12:42 pm

OK, so it wasn’t the Candy Fairy exactly, it was Mom. I didn’t think that at ages 5 and 7 they would suddenly start to believe in a Candy Fairy, so I simply said:

“How would you like to trade in your Halloween candy for a toy?”

My daughter said: “Can I trade it all in for a fish?”

My son said: “Can I trade it all in for a transformer?”

I said: “Sure.”

So we did. It was that easy! Honestly, I was anticipating more resistance to the idea. I guess I was lucky.

The fish was OK with me as long as my daughter agreed to take care of it herself. The transformer was not my idea of the perfect toy, but ever since my son played with one at a friend’s house, he has desperately wanted one. I scoured Amazon for the least violent transformer that I could find and finally settled on a Star Wars space ship that he seems to love.

They actually didn’t get much candy this year, so I may be the loser in this particular deal. At least they traded willing though. And they also agreed to the idea of a Candy Bank where all party candy will be put to be traded in for something when enough has been accumulated. Hooray!

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By Mom Unplugged, October 31, 2007 12:31 pm

My daughter’s Montessori class (1st through 3rd grade) does a wonderful thing for Halloween that I thought might interest some homeschool families or teachers out there.

Instead of wearing Halloween costumes to school, or even simply using the day to celebrate fall, the children prepare an oral report about a famous historical person. They must read a book about (or by) that person, then gather facts about their chosen person, most importantly they are not allowed to tell anyone else (except the teacher of course) who they are.

Throughout the week before Halloween, the teacher briefly presents to the class each of the chosen historical figures so everyone is familiar with them.

On Halloween the children go to school dressed as their person. They each give a short presentation to the class about their person, ending their talk with the question: “Who am I?” At the end of each presentation, the class tries to guess who the student is.

I am so impressed with this idea. What a wonderful way to encourage excitement about reading, history and learning…all while dealing with the sometimes sticky issue of how to celebrate (or not celebrate) Halloween at school.

My daughter read Little House in the Big Woods and chose Laura Ingalls Wilder. We had a great bonnet in the dress-up box, but no dress. As a teenager, I used to make clothes, and I actually do own a sewing machine that I have used exactly once since I bought it about 8 years ago, so I decided to go for a Super Mom Award and make a dress!

We went to Walmart (our only local fabric source) to choose a pattern and an appropriate fabric. The pattern was simple. I chose a classic little girl dress and bought an extra yard of fabric to make it reach the ankle instead of the pattern-specified knee length. The fabric choice was a little tougher.

I was thinking “little girl in dainty flowered calico,” my 7 year-old was apparently thinking “trashy bar-maid in seedy saloon.” She kept holding up more and more impossible fabrics beginning with: “Oh look Mom!” (florescent rainbow motif) and ending with: “Would she have worn this one?” (hot pink sequins on purple sparkle background). We finally settled on something resembling more of a calico.

After many hours of work wrestling zippers and gathered sleeves, I was quite pleased with the final result. There are a few flaws that probably only I will ever see, and it might not be 100% historically accurate, but I am pretty proud of it I must say.

The presentations were amazing and the costumes were very cute, and quite clever. For example there was Neil Armstrong (tin foil boots), Abraham Lincoln (fake beard and hat of course) and Mother Teresa (very clever rendition of Mother Teresa’s classic “chura” headscarf made out of a white towel with blue ribbon sewn on!) … as well as a very realistic-looking 6 year-old Sandra Day O’Connor complete with gavel!