With three kids, this is the time of year I see so much candy come home in their backpacks!! I will say, I am super proud that my kids do not eat it before getting home. They choose to wait and ask first if they can have it. With that being said, I am a big reader of ingredients and my kids know I like to avoid the high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils and food colorings. Those are my big ones with candy and they are in a lot of them. So here are a few ways I get a better version of a treat into my kids hands or completely trade their candy out for something different. Any links below are Amazon Affiliate links that if you use them it gives me a little extra money to put towards growing this site! 🙂 Thank you in advance!

#1 Trick to AVOID the Treats!

I stock up on my own healthy candy and have a stash in our pantry. When the kids come home they can exchange their food colored/high fructose corn syrup candy for a better version that mom approves!

Here are a few goodies I approve and still satisfy their sweet tooth!

Annie’s Organic Bunny Fruit Snacks

Annie’s Organic Realy Peely Fruit Tape (Huge hit!)

Yum Earth Gummy Worms

Yum Earth Organic Lolly Pops

#2 Trick to AVOID the Treats

I have a glass mason jar for each child with their name on it. I told them if they want to turn the candy in to me, I will pay them 1 quarter for it. They LOVE this! This allows me to toss that candy that was going to do them no good and give them money for it. This allows them to see their jar savings grow because of their good decision making. 🙂

My kids actually choose this over exchanging their candy most of the time and have racked up a nice amount of money because of it. It teaches them to save and they get to practice counting it and converting it into dollar bills.

#3 Trick to AVOID the Treats

This is for Halloween night for all those trick or treaters coming to my house. I have slowly been buying less candy and adding in more fun toys into my treat bin. It has actually become a huge hit and the kids choose the toys over the candy! Here are a few toy items I have added that the kids go crazy for. I get all of these at The Dollar Store, I provided links so you could see what I get. For the candy, I keep it simple and get Hershey’s chocolate and the candy from above in #1! Pretzels or Popcorn are other great add ins for treats to avoid all the sugar.

Glow in the dark teeth

Spin tops

Slinky

Rubber Glow in the Dark Bugs

Glow in the Dark Sticks

#4 Trick to AVOID the Treats

After my kids have went trick or treating they lay out their stash of CANDY on the floor. They just love to see how much they collected. They sort out the ones they for sure don’t like and we throw it back into our bin to hand out to the late older kid trick or treaters. Then they exchange out some for mom’s approved stash from #1 and they even turn a few in for quarters in #2! To end the night, they get to choose 5 pieces of their choice to eat, because it is Halloween and we need to let them let loose a little while still avoiding a tummy ache. 😉

To a fun Halloween month ahead! Look out for my future posts on Halloween treats and our Family Traditions for this spooky holiday!! Boo!!

 

To stressing less and playing more,

Melissa 🙂