Kids love this time of year, while parents like me dread Halloween because of the GOBS of candy. So in looking for a solution, I came across THE answer. Here’s an article on it that I wrote for this month’s Maui Mamas Magazine:

What To Do With All That Halloween Candy?
CANDY SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS!

Goblins, ghouls, witches and ghosts… It’s that time of year again for scary things, but the most frightening of all on Halloween is ALL THAT CANDY!
I love all the costumes.  And even the “trick or treating” is fun.  But if you’re a mom like me, I cringe when I think of my kids eating Halloween candy and so much of it! Last year my toddlers scored such a loot that was astonishingly cool to them and absolutely horrifying to me and my husband (based on our usual “no sugar” nutritional sense).

Being a health conscious parent, you can hide it, donate it, negotiate about how much they can eat or just throw it away.  But I always feel kind of guilty for taking away the treasure that they worked so hard for. So how can you let your kids keep their candy, let them enjoy it and as a responsible mom, still feel good about it?  The answer: Candy “Science” Experiments!

“Drop a Warhead in baking soda water and see bubbles erupt.  Leave a Skittles in water, the “S” floats to the surface.  Melt a Starburst and see shiny oil spots form.”  These are just a few examples of candy science experiments from candyexperiments.com.

Why do it all alone when you can gather up some friends and have a Post-Halloween Candy Experiment  Party!
Kids can wear rubber gloves, aprons, and swim goggles to turn your home into a Candy Science Lab!

Candyexperiments.com suggests these experiments:
The Acid Test
Floating M’s
Color Separation (make a ROYGBIV rainbow with skittles in water)
Dissolving Hot/Cold
Sink/Float
Free For All: Let kids smash, microwave or anything else they can think of.

Here are some other ideas:

Make a Mentos/Soda Erupting Volcano

Make a Game Of It:
Guess which one will float
Guess what part will melt away last

Crafts:
Melt hard candies and lollipops and pour into cookie cutters to make stained glass ornaments.  Poke a hole and string it up for your Christmas tree!

I know my kids will be excited to try these experiments and maybe even forget about eating the candy at all!  That’s nothing to say Boo to!  Have a Happy and Safe Halloween!

P.S. Check out my last year’s blog post about Holidays- making it about tradition rather than commercialism.

Your Sensible Girlfriend