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Halloween is quickly approaching! Stores are filled with candy, costumes, and Halloween decorations. Children are excited about pumpkins and dressing up. Parents are figuring out how they will take their kids out trick-or-treating and still get them home in time for bed so they aren’t exhausted at school the next morning or sick from candy overload.
As I was scrolling through social media last week, I came across a post that talked about the “Switch Witch.” I learned that it is a Halloween tradition that some families practice where they take their child(ren) trick-or-treating and let them enjoy the fun. When they return home, the child(ren) can choose a determined amount of candy (the video I saw said the family let the child choose five pieces of candy) and they put the rest of the candy outside on the doorstep overnight. When they wake up in the morning, instead of a bucket of candy, there is a toy from the Switch Witch.
I found this tradition really interesting and I liked that the child really isn’t losing out on anything besides candy that children don’t need a lot of. The child is still getting the experience of trick-or-treating and they are still able to eat candy, but this idea of the Switch Witch actually helps to cut back on the amount of candy and junk being taken in by the child and it is teaching children concepts like limits, patience, and wants.
I brought this tradition up with my fiance and he loved the idea which isn’t really a surprise given that he is a former college baseball player, grew up playing sports, not much of a junk foodie, a future dentist, and someone who is really into health and fitness.
Over the last couple of days, I thought about this practice more and I think that this tradition is actually the least harmful out of all the make-believe figures we adults often come up with for children. We all remember when we found out Santa wasn’t real and parents often dread the day that happens, if it didn’t already. Other figures like the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, those are all more traumatizing to find out aren’t real than a Witch that replaces your candy with toys. I feel like it is the least manipulative as well. The Elf on the Shelf and Santa Claus have become ways for parents to get children to listen and behave (it may not be the original intention, but that is what they have evolved into for large parts of the world). The Easter Bunny was originally a symbol of rebirth and fertility, but children (and some adults) don’t know that. I feel that if we are going to create these symbols and fictitious characters, we should be honest about the intention behind their creation or how adults use them.
If I were a child and had found out that the Switch Witch was not real, I feel I wouldn’t be as upset about it as I was when I found out about Santa. And I personally would be happier to see a toy I could enjoy over a long period of time versus a bucket of candy that will eventually go bad, run out, and contribute to childhood diabetes and obesity.
When I have children of my own, I do play on using this tradition. I like that this tradition doesn’t really take anything away from the kids’ childhood experiences but it still contributes positively to their health and development.
If you are one of those parents, like I probably will be, that wants their child to have toys that help them develop skills when they are younger but are still fun, check out some of the toys I would recommend the Switch Witch to use with young children. A lot of these toys are items I have/had or would like to have in my classroom as they are very open-ended. Having open-ended materials allows children to be more creative with the items and allows for more opportunities for creative thinking, problem solving, and exploration. They can also help keep the child interested in the material longer.
Please keep in mind your child(ren)’s age, development, and individual needs when choosing toys for them.
I like this toy for the younger kids (probably around 2 years old) as it has so many sensory aspects to it. There’s different textures, different grips, and different sizes. This all plays into their fine motor and cognitive development. They will get exposure to learning how to sort and differentiate by sizes, the colors are engaging and good for identification, it will encourage them to do trial and error and see the correlation between cause and effect, there’s a lot of development opportunities with this toy. My students really love toys like this and will go back to it repeatedly.
I cannot tell you how many parents come up to me telling me about how ipads and other electronic tablets have become a problem in their house. This tablet is one that would never present the same issue as the screen time tablets as it relies on your child’s actions and creativity. This tablet is good for those kiddos who are interested in coloring, drawing, or even just scribbling.
Here’s a little story for you. When I was teaching 3-5 year olds, I had a class parent express their concern with their child’s lack of interest in writing. They said their child just scribbles on paper but is not interested in writing their name or words. Their child was only 3 years old, which is a little early to be concerned about this issue in my opinion. I reassured this parent that their child is doing what is developmentally appropriate for their age and that scribbling is the gateway to writing. When young children scribble, they are practicing holding the writing tool, they are practicing the motions. Cursive is just a series of scribbles when you think about it. What was happening was that the child was interested in writing, but they weren’t ready to write real words. They were demonstrating that they are developing the understanding of the purpose of writing: to communicate with others. This child was not that interested in reading, so it made sense that they wouldn’t connect reading and writing together. This child was watching the adults around them writing and was simply mimicking the action and incorporating it into their play.
My advice for that parent was to foster their child’s interest in scribbling, show them how scribbling can lead to drawing and making different shapes and strokes. Soon, the child would start showing us more letter-like forms and possibly show interest in writing actual words or their name. The important thing was not to put stress on the child, keep things light and fun when it came to writing. Having a table like this is one way to do just that. It is a designated item their child can doodle on and explore writing in a fun way. It doesn’t have lines or dotted letters to trace, it is simply a blank canvas that can expose lots of fun colors when you draw on it.
Pop Tubes
I first came across this toy when one of my students brought in some goodie bags for their birthday. I found these tubes so interesting as they help children who benefit from fidget items (they work with adults too, my co-teacher at the time really enjoyed it). Research has been shown that allowing children to fidget while they work or think can actually help them focus as it redirects their extra energy into an item, it can help relieve stress and anxiety, and can help the individual relax.
These pop tubes can be stretched out, collapsed, bent in so many different ways, and they make interesting sounds when they are being manipulated. The textures provide sensory relief, this can be good for children who are prone to picking at things like their skin, clothes, hair, nails, etc. The only issue with these pop tubes is that children can break it if they are too rough with it.
This item may require you to either have a very large Halloween candy bucket or asking the Switch Witch to just replace the whole bucket with a toy, but I think this item is totally worth it. I have this in my classroom and my students love it! I really like this toy as it can be used by both young 2 year olds as well as 6 or 7 year olds. This flower garden helps with young children’s skill development as it is easy for them to understand stacking and sticking things in holes. It requires children to practice their fine motor skills with gripping, pulling and placing these different flowers into the base and into other flowers. Older kids can practice their counting and start to develop the concept of height, measurement, and even cause and effect.
This toy is marketed for girls, but my boy students actually played with it more. They loved to incorporate it into their block building and my older kids (when I worked with 3-5 year olds) would build rain forests and model the plant life cycle. My 2 year olds have shown me that they understand that plants need water and sun to grow and that we can smell flowers.
Wooden Stacking Building Blocks
I have been wanting a set of these in my classroom for the longest time. I love that they are multi-faceted and interesting shapes. Children will need to problem solve and use trial and error to figure out how to stack these blocks so that they won’t come falling down. As they practice with these blocks, they will start to notice the flat sides and edges and will understand that those flat areas are the keys to figuring out how to stack these blocks. These blocks are very open-ended, allowing for more creativity and creative thinking. The kids don’t just have to stack these blocks, they could also build houses, nests, mountains, or just line them up and it would be helping them develop skills.
What do you think of the Switch Witch? Would you use this tradition with your kids? What item(s) would you put into the Halloween bag or bucket?