As Sugar Day (also known as “Halloween”) approaches, there are numerous activities you and your children can participate in together besides dressing up in costumes and going door to door.

Pumpkin Decoration

One of the most obvious and popular thing families do together around this time of year is pumpkin carving. However, not all of us are comfortable letting our kids near carving tools, especially if they’re younger, so instead of carving pumpkins, try decorating them! They’ll last a lot longer that way, too.

You can start with the pumpkin itself. Kids enjoy any opportunity to be independent, so it’s okay to let them pick out their own pumpkin at the store. Then, you and your kids can use a variety of materials to decorate the outside of the pumpkin: They could design pictures, shapes, faces, and words in glitter glue, paint, permanent markers, and more!

Bake Halloween Treats

What better excuse for kids to lick the batter bowl than after helping prepare tasty Halloween treats? There are so many sweets out there that you and your kids can bake together, from cakes to cookies! If you want to promote healthy eating to counter the candy, it’s good to find dessert recipes that may include fruit or yogurt.

When it comes to decoration, your kids can also help top the treats, whether it be icing, nuts, or even candy.Just make sure they don’t get too ahead of themselves by picking out of these bowls before the oven timer goes off!

Homemade Costumes

If there’s absolutely no way to convince your kids there’s more to life than candy at this point, before you go out door to door, try to encourage them to make creative homemade costumes to wear rather than buying a generic one. They can use all sorts of materials around the house (with your permission of course) to make their costume any way they would like.

If you need to, you can take a trip to a nearby dollar store or any other store that offers inexpensive Halloween decorations to give your kids more supplies to work with. After they’re done making their costumes, to give it a nice finishing touch, you can help them use face paint instead of a traditional mask.

Most of these Halloween activities for kids show great emphasis on their creativity, which is always a good exercise for a learning child. Try any of these activities out this weekend!