Never before have we had to deal with SO MUCH candy coming into the house until this past year. Chalk it up to now having five kids in the house and celebrating things like Easter, Birthdays, Pumpkin Parties, School events and Christmas. It is like a non stop candy shop at our house!
We knew right away that we had to figure out how to ration it, so each child got a ziploc bag to put "their" candy in. For the most part I would say that Sam and I did a great job at watching guard over their bags, except on a few occasions when our favorite candy suddenly disappeared from their bags in the middle of the night.
About once a day (or every other day) the kids got to pick out a treat from their bags. I even started letting them pick out two pieces because I was so sick of seeing these bags...but it wouldn't end! Someone suggested to have the kids make ginger bread houses using the candy, so we did that. STILL these bags were like a bottomless pit of non-stop sugar. So we pulled the plug.
We have found that if we include the kids in decisions where we are getting rid of things it is a win, win and we don't catch them by surprise later when they say, go looking for their candy bag that has mysteriously disappeared. We gathered all of the candy that was in the bags. Seriously! Look at how much is STILL left!
We dumped it all out onto the table.
Then I put a white bucket from our kitchen cupboard in the middle of the pile. I told the kids that this was now our "family" bucket of candy. That no one would have individual bags but that it would now be the "sharing" bucket.
I removed all of the smarties and kept those for potty treats.
When the kids first saw all of the candy on the table I think they thought that it was a special occasion again where they got to eat treats for dinner. Nope, sorry kids that tradition is a once a year thing. However, I explained to them how they could each pick out FIVE pieces of candy to put in the family basket. I also told them that they weren't guaranteed to have those pieces in the future, but they would be added to the bucket to share. It is amazing how BIG FIVE sounds when you say it right! They felt like they were winning the jackpot (insert evil laughter here.) ;-)
It was a success! The candies that were "last to be picked for kick ball" ended up in a grocery bag to be given away. Below is what we were left with in the sharing bucket...GOLDEN!
How do you deal with candy coming in or out of your house with kids? Tips, ideas?!?! I would LOVE to hear them!
I'm not sure I have ever heard your evil laugh...wonder what that sounds like! :)
ReplyDeleteWhere r u planning to donate the leftover candy?
Candace, it is my "internal" evil laugh so it can sound like whatever you imagine it to be. :-) We actually trashed a lot of the candy. Because it kept coming in throughout the year, I wasn't sure when all of it had originally come into the house (aka, not sure if it was still edible.) Although it is candy (made with lots of "nutrients") so I am sure it is good f.o.r.e.v.e.r! ;-) Any ideas on future donation spots?
DeleteU can donate the extra candy to my favorite donation called xhantals tummy
ReplyDeleteChantal, I'll keep that in mind for next time. :D
DeleteI spelt my name wrong imbarising chantals*
ReplyDeleteYou can check with your dentist to see if they are part of a candy buy-back plan for donating to troops. (http://www.halloweencandybuyback.com/) I love this idea of a family bucket. However, we still keep to our separate buckets because some of us like snickers and well...one of us, the snickers doesn't like him!
ReplyDeleteHmmm, good question to ask our dentist. Thanks for the tip!
DeleteI love this - such great ideas! I love having a system in place...definitely going to implement some of this. Thanks for sharing! :)
ReplyDeleteSystems are GREAT! Thanks for reading! :D
DeleteMirabel's ends up going out for other events...like Halloween, pinata at birthday party, Operation Christmas Child (for the hard candies). I involve her in some, like the Operation Christmas child and talk about her sharing her candy with kids who don't get to have candy usually. It's touching to see her go through and share.
ReplyDeleteKeturah,
ReplyDeleteThose are all great ideas!
~Sarah