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7 Best Halloween Costume Ideas For The Family

7 Best Halloween Costume Ideas For The Family

7 Best Halloween Costume Ideas For FamilyHalloween is right around the corner! It’s that time of the year when your entire family dresses up in quirky outfits and wears crazy make-up – the spookier the better! Halloween is filled with great activities like costume parties, carving jack-o’-lanterns, putting up spooky decorations, trick or treating and so much more. Every parent loves to team up with their child and become the center of attention of every Halloween party. It’s a great experience for you to bond with your child and create memories that you can treasure for the rest of your life.

If you’re not sure of what you and your kid want to dress up as for Halloween this year, don’t worry!
Here are 7 easy and awesome Halloween costume ideas for you and your little one!

1. Tortoise and Hare

‘The Tortoise and the Hare’ is one of the most famous Aesop’s Fables. For the tortoise costume, you can dress your munchkin in a green colored outfit. Get him a backpack shaped like a tortoise shell and you have a cute little tortoise! You can dress yourself in a brown outfit and add bunny ears to go with it.

2. Elsa and Anna

If you have a daughter, she’s most probably obsessed with the Disney movie ‘Frozen’. Halloween is the perfect occasion to team up with your daughter as Disney princesses. You can let your daughter be either Anna, Elsa (or even Olaf!) depending on her choice, and you can be the other Disney princess. And don’t worry, Dads can dress up as princesses too!

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3. The Addams Family

‘The Addams Family’ has been an integral part of our childhood. You can take a trip down memory lane by dressing yourself as either Morticia (the mom) or Gomez (the dad). Your daughter can be Wednesday Addams or your son can be Pugsley Addams. This is also a great family Halloween costume idea!

4. Cruella De Vil and a Dalmatian

Both famous characters are a part of ‘101 dalmatians’. Your toddler can dress up in an adorable dalmatian costume. As Cruella De Vil, you can wear a long black dress and temporarily dye half of your hair silver or wear a wig!

5. Batman and Robin

Spice up your Halloween by being the Robin to your child’s Batman! Find an awesome Robin costume for yourself online and a tiny Batman costume for your little superhero! What fun it will be to be your son’s sidekick!

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6. Mickey and Minnie Mouse

Mickey and Minnie Mouse ears are extremely easy to find. Grab a pair of those ears, add short red pants with two buttons for the Mickey Mouse costume and a polka dotted red skirt for the Minnie Mouse costume. That’s it! Easy as pie!

7. Starbucks cold coffee and employee

Dress up as a Starbucks employee by wearing a black shirt and black pants with a green apron. Stick the Starbucks logo on it. For your child, you can make the cold coffee outfit yourself – just take a big cylindrical cardboard roll, print the Starbucks logo and stick it on the cardboard. Add ruffled white fabric to imitate foam, add a green straw made by cardboard, and voila! Your cold coffee is ready!

happy-halloween-2016

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Image credits: lcr3cr, Mojpe, Jill111, PublicDomainPictures

Top 13 Christmas Party Games For Kids

Top 13 Christmas Party Games For Kids

Christmas holidays are coming! Playing Christmas games with your children is one of the best ways for celebrating the holiday season as they not only supply entertainment but also help your child in sensory development and learning new things. Keep your children learning as they celebrate the merriest holiday of the year with Christmas Party Games!

The Top 13 Christmas Party Games for Kids are:

1. Ring the bell:

In this game, all you have to do is cut a large bell shape out of a large piece of cardboard. Then attach all the bells to a piece of ribbon. Then attach the ribbon to the top of the bell shape cutout and let your children ring the bell by throwing bean bags or balls through the hole.
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2. Christmas Bingo:

Play Christmas bingo with your children by making a bingo card with different Christmas shapes like Christmas Trees, Stockings, Reindeer, Fireplaces, Santa, Ornaments, etc. on it. Next make Rudolph Nose markers (red circles). Have your children cover the shape you call or hold up larger pictures of them.

3. Big and little Christmas trees:

In this game you call out big, medium, and little and tell your children to be that size of Christmas Tree.
Big: stand up with feet together and put hands above head in a point,
Middle: Squat knees together and put hands above head in a point,
Little: Sit down with legs crossed and put hands above head in a point.

4. Santa’s Toy Shop:

Set different spots on your floor by using tape, paper bags, hula hoops, etc. and place different toys on each spot. Tell your kids that they need to test out new toys for them. Play music and tell the children that they have one song to play at an area and then once the music stops they have to move to the next area.
santa_shop

5. Pass the Christmas fun:

Have all your children sit in a circle. Let them all pass something like candy, small toys, crayons, etc. around the circle (once they have one thing mastered you can have them pass two things – one clockwise and one counter-clockwise. Play music and when you stop the music the child that is holding the item gets to keep it and then give one to another child that has not yet received an item. Continue the game until everyone has an item.

6. Mistletoe:

Tell all your children sit in a circle. Let them all pass a plastic or a silk mistletoe around the circle. Play music and when you stop the music everyone blows kisses to the person holding the mistletoe.

7. Santa, Santa, Reindeer game:

Make all kids sit in a circle. Choose the first picker from among the kids. The picker walks around the circle tapping heads of all kids by repeatedly saying “Santa”, finally chooses a kid by saying “reindeer” and runs. The kid who runs around the circle and sits down at the reindeer’s spot wins! Play many rounds to have fun!

8. Decorate the tree:

For this game you have to cut out Christmas Trees with felt. Next you have to cut out ornament shapes out of different colored felt. Let your children decorate the felt Christmas Trees. For older children tell them how many ornaments to put on the tree or have them roll dice to decide.
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9. Chase Santa:

To play this game, one person is chosen to be the Santa. All the children stand on the starting line and the Santa has his back to the rest of the children. When he says “green light,” children try to run to the finish line. When the Santa says “red light,” he turns around and children have to stop in their tracks. To have more fun provide dress up materials like elve hats, Santa hats, beards, boots, etc.

10. Don’t touch the bows:

Put bows all throughout your classroom i.e. on the floors, chairs, etc. Play music and have your children run around without touching the bows!

11. Match the shapes:

In this game you have to use a cookie cutter and draw different shapes on a large piece of felt. Use a knife to cut out the shapes. Let your children match the shape to the missing part of the felt.

12. Christmas match:

Produce several different Christmas Shape Cutouts (Santa, stocking, ornaments, Christmas Trees, etc). Cut them in half and then tell your children to match the halves.

13. Pin the Nose on the Reindeer:

You need to draw and cut out a reindeer face with details like eyes, mouth, ears and atntlers. Hang it up and see how many children can pin his nose in place. To make it extra challenging, spin each kid around before pinning the nose on the reindeer.
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Image credits: geralt, unsplash, markusspiske, HansPublicDomainPictures

13 Fun Halloween Party Games For Kids

13 Fun Halloween Party Games For Kids

Many parents are opting for Halloween parties as an alternative to trick-or-treating. But how do you keep your kids safely and happily occupied for a few hours? There are simple, easy to manage games and activities that will make your party a memorable one. Some fun Halloween themed games and activities for toddlers and preschoolers are:

1. Mummy wrap game

Buy some cheap rolls or crepe paper streamers in Halloween colors. Split the kids up into teams of two. One child will be the mummy and the other is in charge of wrapping up the child like a mummy. When you start playing the music the teams can start wrapping up the mummy. When you turn the music off the kids need to stop. The team whose mummy is more wrapped wins!

2. Donuts eating race

Thread donuts on a long piece of a string. Make sure that you leave space between each of the donuts. Have the kids race to eat the donuts off of the string with their hands behind their backs.
halloween-2016-Donuts

3. Pass the pumpkin

Sit in a circle. Provide a plastic pumpkin for children to pass while the teacher beats on a drum. Children pass the pumpkin to the tempo of the music. Alternate between slow and fast. When the music stops the child who has the pumpkin stands and takes a bow. Continue process

4. Eyeball mini putt

You will need approximately a dozen golf balls with pupils drawn on to make eyeballs. Decorate boxes or containers and cut out a large enough entrance/exit to allow the balls to pass through. Then just set up a miniature golf course inside or outside and practice putting!

5. Pin the grin on the jack-o-lantern

Draw a picture of a jack-o-lantern with eyes and a nose on a large piece of paper. Do not draw a mouth on the picture but cut a mouth out of black construction paper. Attach a piece of masking tape to the back of the mouth. Take turns blindfolding the children to see if they can stick the mouth onto the picture of the jack-o-lantern.

6. Monster freeze dance

Play Halloween music and have the kids dance around like monsters! The Monster Mash is a great song for this game. When the music stops the kids freeze in their monster positions. The first kid to move is out, and the game continues until only one child is left.

7. Pumpkin walk

This game is played like musical chairs. Place different colored pumpkins on the floor made from construction paper and the children walk around them to music. When the music stops the adult calls out a color and the children try to find a pumpkin of that color and stand on it.
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8. Pin the heart on the skeleton

Buy or draw a skeleton on a big sheet of paper then tape a heart to the skeleton where a normal heart would be. Cut out hearts from red construction paper and put tape on the back of the hearts. Blindfold the children and have them put the heart on the skeleton.

This game is based on Bozo buckets and uses pumpkin buckets that children use to collect candy on Halloween night. Use five or six buckets and place them in a line (front to back). Give children bean bags to try to toss into each pumpkin beginning with the closest pumpkin.

10. Guess which paper cup has candy under it

The name of this game says it all. Have children turn their backs while you place five or six cups upside down on a table with candy under one. Tell them to turn around. Have one child at a time come to the table, guess until he guesses the correct cup. Give him a small prize for being such a good guesser.

11. Halloween eye spy activity

Go for a walk outside with the kids and look for Halloween decorations around the neighborhood. Take turns playing eye spy and describing things such as: scarecrows, black cats, witches, pumpkins, ghosts, skeletons, monsters and vampires. Keep track of how many of each kind of decoration is seen on the walk.

12. Marshmallow bobbing

Take a large tub with ice water in it and float full size marshmallows in it. Each child is given a straw. They then have to race to see who can suck up a marshmallow the fastest. Once a child scores a marshmallow they can eat it, and sit out to let another child have a turn if they cannot all fit around the basin at one time. Keep rotating until all the kids have had one or two marshmallows.
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13. Trick for a treat

Make up a bag with candy and a bag with slips of paper in it. The bag with slips of paper will have all the tricks apart from one which will have candies. The number of slips of paper should equal the number of children. All the kids who draw a ‘trick’ will have a specified trick that they will need to perform to get a piece of candy. One lucky child just wins a special ‘treat’. The tricks can be singing, doing jumping jacks or other fun things.

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Image Credits: pixel1condesign, OpenClipart-Vectors