Family Night Friday-October Plan

So I decided that the best way for us to help us stick with a weekly family night was to try to plan each month in advance. Over the past few days I looked through books that we had, ideas I had printed from some of my online resources that I shared last time, and did some more internet research. Since October is the month of pumpkins, fall leaves, apple cider and Halloween it was pretty easy to come up with my plan. So here is our Family Night Plan for October.

1) Booing: In our neighborhood the Boo ghost makes it's way around to each house every year. So, after we have been boo'd we will spend one of our family nights putting together Boo baskets for two of our neighbors. Before hand I will need to pick up little things (we usually grab them at the Dollar store or the Dollar Spot at Target) to put in the baskets. I thought this year we could also bake some Halloween cookies to bag up and include in our baskets. We will then deliver the baskets to the neighbors we have chosen (Brianna gets to choose one and then Jonah chooses the other- we ring the doorbell and then run away. It's super fun!!) Then we'll come home and eat cookies, drink hot apple cider and watch a Halloween themed movie, maybe Charlie Brown and The Great Pumpkin or one of the Casper movies.  I can't assign a date to this family night. It will be done during the week after we get boo'd.

2) Spookley the Square Pumpkin: Dare to be Square: I found this lesson last year over at Sugardoodle.net, another great site for Family Night inspiration. The movie is adorable and it teaches a great lesson. I thought we would watch the movie and then use the discussion questions provided to talk about the movie. We used this last year, but the kids are older now and I think ready for a better conversation. October is also National Bullying Prevention Month. Even children our kids ages can learn about bullying and how to stop it, and this movie is a great aide in that. Instead of the suggested activity of coloring the Spookley coloring pages I thought we would decorate pumpkins. Instead of carving them, which really turns into daddy carving and the rest of us watching I thought I would order these foam pumpkin stickers from Oriental Trading. The pumpkins will last longer if they aren't hallowed and carved, and the kids can design their own pumpkin face. Then for dessert, we have, what else? Pumpkin pie!!! Yum!

3) I want to do an evening where we talk about what All Hallow's Eve/All Saint's/All Soul's Day is all about. I haven't figured out how I'm going to do that yet but I will post a plan once I have one. I'm doing lots of research but haven't found anything that screams out to me yet.

4) Finally I want to do a night on Halloween/Trick or Treating Safety. I found a really cute lesson last year involving ghosts and the rules of Trick or Treating, and it had a little board game to go along with it. I wrote the website on the page after I printed it, but it's not coming up anymore :-(  So I'll share it more with you when we do it, which will be the week leading up to Halloween/Trick or Treating. We'll review the safety rules the day of as well in order to reinforce them.

So that's our Family Night plan for the month of October. My goal now is that each Friday  I will share pictures, a lesson plan (if there is one), activity directions, dessert suggestions, and other various tips. Then you can decide if it's something you might want to do with your own family. Have a great weekend everyone! I'll be back on Sunday with my next Communion of Saints post! You can view my first one here in case you missed it!