One thing parents often tell me is that once the day of Halloween arrives they don’t know what to do because some children absolutely refuse to wear their costume! Some costumes have different textures on them and others due to their design, just make it difficult for children to move in them. Here are some ideas I have for your pre-Halloween preparations:
1. Allow ample opportunities for your children to wear their costumes, even if it’s for just a few minutes, working up to an hour or so each day so that on the big day of Halloween, they will know how it feels like and how to move in it.
2. Once the kids are dressed up, role play trick or treating within your home, encouraging your children to understand the concepts of how to just pick one piece of candy, say Trick or Treat when they get up to the door and how to follow it up with a “Please and Thank You!”
3. Reiterate safety rules of the road ahead of time, practice crossing the street by looking both ways, holding hands with a parent when necessary, and for older children a meeting place at the end of each sidewalk or driveway if they should become separated from you.
4. Talk about what you might see on the night of Halloween. Some children have silly costumes, some have scary costumes and that some houses may have lights and sounds that can be scary but to remember that this is all just for fun!
5. Practice scaring them by playing “Boo” and “Hide and Seek” in the dark inside the house using flashlights to try to prepare them for the unexpected!
Disguise, a Jakks Pacific company, provided the Buzz Lightyear, Woody and Jessie costumes for the purpose of this review. All opinions provided in this post, are purely the bloggers own. Disguise costumes are commercially located in stores around the country including Target, K-Mart, Party City, Wal-Mart, etc.
Photo credits to Derek Wilmot because just in case you haven’t noticed, this picture is of me and my family!