Tricks & Tips for Halloween

Fall is here and with it comes Halloween. Whether you celebrate the holiday or not, it’s hard to ignore the decorations and the hustle and bustle of Trick or Treating. Here are some tips for navigating this season: 

1. Listen to your child, be curious about what they are experiencing. “Oh you see a spider? What else do you see?”.  We don’t want to incite fear if they’re not showing signs of being afraid. It’s easy to assume kids might be fearful of the giant skeletons that have become so popular or spooky looking Halloween decorations, but sometimes they’re just observing! If they are afraid, validate that feeling and let them know they’re not alone. 

2. Give gentle reminders that they are safe. This might sound  like “Oh you see a spider? That spider is pretty big huh? Are spiders really that big? No they’re little, that’s silly to make a spider so big!”. 

3. Prepare them ahead of time. If your family will be going out trick or treating, preparing your kids for the experience can help lead to less overwhelm on Halloween night. Talk about how there might be a lot of families walking around, sometimes kids are running and screaming, they’ll ring a doorbell or knock and say “Trick or treat” if they want to, they probably won’t be able to eat all the candy right away (it’s so hard to wait!).

Resources:

If you’re looking for resources to help your family celebrate the season, here are some of our favorites! 

Stephanie Leavell, owner and founder of Music for Kiddos, wrote a sweet Halloween book called “The Shy Little Monster” (see image below).

Image description: A green monster in a lobster costume on an orange background with text "The Shy Little Monster By Stephanie Leavell. Illustrated by Sarah Pilar Echeverria"

This book is a fun and silly way to talk about Halloween with your little ones and includes the enjoyable engagement of saying BOO!

Another way to celebrate the season is by playing some kid-friendly Halloween songs (Super Simple Songs has a TON!) and draw some Halloween pictures with your kids  while singing “Knock Knock, Trick or Treat”, guessing what each drawing might be! Or Maybe you practice social skills while singing “Can You Make a Happy Face?”, changing the type of face for each verse (happy, sad, angry, silly). 

You could even take your kids on a scavenger hunt outside while singing “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong. What can they find that’s green? Red? Blue? White? Maybe you even end up writing a completely different song together!

**Check out our last Blog post for more Fall fun!