Pre-School and Daycare
JMay
member
"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..."
Miracle DD born 12.2005
TTC #2 since Dec 2008 w/ PCOS
***P/SAIF Always Welcome***
Keep it Natural, Baby!
no costumes at school?
JMay
member
DD goes to a religiously-affiliated school, and I've just learned that not only do they not allow halloween costumes, there is no acknowledgement of halloween at all. Anyone else?
I have to admit, I'm totally bummed. I was so excited for DD to wear her costume to school - we're not really into trick or treating, so really, what does she even need a costume for, if not school? We even had treats planned for her friends, and now, nothing. Bummer.
"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..."
Miracle DD born 12.2005
TTC #2 since Dec 2008 w/ PCOS
***P/SAIF Always Welcome***
Keep it Natural, Baby!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: no costumes at school?
I wouldn't think that a religiously affiliated school would allow costumes or Halloween since most religions don't believe in it.
At our preschool, only the Pre-K class has a Halloween party. The intro (2.5 YO's) and the 3's do not.
what type of religion?
I went to a catholic school and we had halloween parties. dressed up. had a costume parade.
does your mall do a trick or treat night? boo at the zoo (if there's a zoo close by)? do you hand out candy? we dress them up, go to maybe 3 houses.... come back and hand out candy. they love seeing how the big kids are dressed and giving out the candy.
That surprises me. Our preschool is part of a Methodist church, and they make a big deal out of Halloween. The kids wear costumes and play games, and have "spooky" treats for snack and trick or treat to the other classrooms.
If you don't care for going door-to-door, maybe you could find a trick-or-trunk run by a church? A few of the churches in our area do them every year. Also, our children's museum has a big Halloween celebration, and there are always fall festivals and such. I'll bet you could find a lot of places for her to show off her costume.
My kids go to a university-run (non denominational) daycare center. They have never observed halloween and always send a letter home with parents in October asking us to respect their decision not to celebrate it. I think it is a bummer too.
My kids' preschool was like this too, and it was kind of a bummer. However, they had a "Harvest Festival" instead of a Halloween party and they had a fall field trip to a pumpkin patch. The teachers weren't completely rigid about it, and they did discuss and acknowledge that kids were dressing up in costumes at home, and that kids would be trick-or-treating, etc.
Still, my son is in kindergarten this year, and he's looking forward to the Halloween parade and party at the end of the month!
"Halloween is an annual holiday observed on October 31. It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holiday All Saints' Day, but is today largely a secular celebration."
If you go to a relgious school that is not Christian based, I totally see them not celebrating Halloween. I am Jewish but not religious and have always celebrated Halloween but I knew people growing up that were very obersvant Jews who did not. One of the teachers at my younger DD's daycare does not observe Halloween (I can't recall her religion but its not Jewish). The center does Halloween so she either just goes alone with whatever is planned or more often than not, has taken that day off of work.
The daycare has done either just a kids party during the day and the kids do a little parade around the building and bring in treats to exchange and last year, they did a bigger party after school (from 4:30-6 or something like that) and the kids all dressed up. I think doing a "Fall Festival" vs Halloween stuff is becoming more common.
We are Greek Orthodox Christian, and do not celebrate Halloween at all. All Saint's Day has nothing to do with dressing up/costumes/halloween stuff for us.
We have a "mommy and me" class at our Church and do a Harvest Party. The kids are allowed costumes and we paint pumpkins, but you can't come dressed as a devil, black cat, witch, etc.
Just wanted to give info that some Christians don't celebrate Halloween.
My twins are 5! My baby is 3!
DS#2 - Allergic to Cashew, Pistachio, Kiwi
DS#3 - Allergic to Milk, Egg, Peanut, Tree Nuts and Sesame
DD#1 went to a Baptist MDO her first year at 15 months. They didn't even acknowledge Halloween. I was totally bummed. The girls now go to a Catholic preschool and they definitely do Halloween. They even have a parade for all the parents in their costumes and everything. It's a blast.
That said, this year the girls will be wearing their costumes at least 3 or 4 times. They have school, but we also do Boo at the Zoo every year and they love that. It's so much fun you might look into that or a museum event. Then our street is having a Halloween block party the night before Halloween and, of course, there's trick-or-treating on Halloween. It should be a fun year for them. Anyway, there are a lot of other events you can take your LO to where they can dress up!
The preschool where I work does not allow costumes for various reasons: 1 is b/c of the various religons (which is kind of silly b/c we do crafts and read Halloween stories). Other reasons include kids being scared of costumes, and when my director did allow it years ago, she had many frantic calls from parents who had left parts of the costumes at school and they wanted her to go back and open the school for them to get it. Some of the younger groups do a harvest party, but older groups like mine make our own (non scary) masks. Last year, we were frogs.
When I was in the 2 year old room, I asked all of the parents to send in white t-shirts. One year we painted black spots of them and made cow ear headbands. Another year, they stamped big spiders on the front and we wrote "Itsy Bitsy Spider" on the back. So cute.
Exactly this for my DS, and his preschool is in a Lutheren Church
episcopal school - they do halloween! church does a pumpkin patch and a trunk or treat. the school does costumes and parties.
I sent DD as a little she-devil year before last, didn't even really think twice about it. No one said anything but compliments.