Backwards Trick or Treating

If your little ones are like mine, Trick-or-Treating is too much fun for just one day. My four year old is so into it, that we don’t have to use candy. She likes it so much that she’ll do it backwards. And clean up at the same time. Try this next time you’ve got a kid mess that needs tidying. (Ha ha ha, “next time,” just a little personal joke. I’ll skip the mess photo.)

Tell your little witch/demon/princess (costume optional) to fill up a Trick-or-Treat pumpkin or whatever with the toys and such that are scattered about. (Sorry, this is limited to items that are small enough to fit–unless you have a really eager participant.)

Then (and it’s great if an older sibling can help out with this so you can work on your own grown up mess while this is going on), she picks something out of the pumpkin and goes to where it belongs. There the older sibling acts as the person behind the imaginary door while your princess declares “Trick or Treat!” and they then put away anything in the pumpkin that belongs in that place.

Another way we sometimes Trick or Treat backwards is that I put the pumpkin on a kitchen shelf and occasionally put something in it that I find left out. Then she puts them away–things that belong to other siblings get put on their bed. At least it’s out of my space without having to wait for them to come home from school.

If it’s after Halloween, perhaps they’ll get a piece of their candy when they’ve finished. Nothing like having to earn your own candy to keep it from getting consumed too quickly.