What I Do With All That Halloween Candy...

My four year old wanted to dress as a penguin again this year. Here she is with her friend, who trick or treated as Princess Ariel in the best wig ever. My daughter and I wore matching costumes, walked four and a half miles, and she was treated to half a jumbo ziploc bag of candy.

I recently read how one mother does something called the Switch Witch. She created a character, like the Tooth Fairy, who comes at night and swaps candy for toys. She even decorated a special basket for each child to leave their candy in for the Switch Witch. 

I work full time, so all I could think of when I read that was Who has time for that?

I also don't understand the concept of taking a child trick or treating, only to take the candy to a dentist's office for a "buy back" event.

If I take my child trick or treating, I'm going to let her eat the candy. I'm just not going to let her eat it all in one night, and I'm going to floss and brush her teeth afterward.

I let her choose one piece of candy per day, and she gets to eat it during her reading lesson. 

For example, this was yesterday's lesson (from The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading by Jessie Wise & Sara Buffington):

This particular page is divided into six sections, so I divided her piece of candy into six portions. That means a candy like a Tootsie Roll gets cut into sixths, and she gets to eat one sixth after each section. If she chooses a candy like M&Ms, she gets to have one M&M after each section, and the rest of the little bag at the very end.

While rewarding her for reading is very un-Charlotte Mason, training her in the habit of moderation is.

Happy Halloween.