‘Tis the season for that super sweet kernel of candy corn that everyone can agree reminds them of Halloween past, present, and, most likely, future! Besides eating all of that candy corn that may be lying around your home this week, you can also play some fun and simple games with these bright candy kernels.

Send the kids on a Candy Corn Hunt. You can do this a couple of different ways. Create a path of Candy Corn that they must use to hunt around and cannot sway from the path. Alternatively, hide small bags of candy corn around your yard and send the kids on a traditional hunt.

• Fill a large pumpkin pail with candy corn and see who guesses the number of candy corn. Whoever guesses closest, wins! Share the Candy Corn with everyone.
• Create Candy Corn Artwork with heavy card stock, candy corn, and a glue stick. This may get messy, but will be fun!
• Make Candy Corn Strings, just like popcorn. Decorate the room and front doorway with the Candy Corn Strings.
• Make a homemade batch of Candy Cor. A great idea for older children.
• Make Candy Corn Krispie Treats by adding in candy corn to this favorite recipe.
• Play Candy Corn Fooz Ball. Using a large table surface set up two kids at different ends of the table. The children throw candy corn to the other child, who must block it from going through and making a goal. The child can block it using a solid cookie cutter. (Make sure it is one that will not scratch up your table.)
• Make Candy Corn Sculptures using frosting to hold the sculpture together. (Make sure to place paper down on your table to keep the mess minimal.)
• Finally, send them home with bags of the sweet stuff!

For school-aged children, there may be nothing like a Mad Scientist Party, especially as school gets underway and kids are back in science class. It will be a fun party theme that holds their attention, and could even be educational. If your child is interested in the wacky side of science, seriously consider this theme!

Invitations:
Using large size test tubes with a rubber stopper, print all of the party details on a small piece of paper that can be rolled up and placed into the test tube. On the outside of the tube, write in permanent marker, “Inside contains the Mad Scientist Secret Formula for Party Fun!” These will have to be hand-delivered or mailed in cushioned envelopes.

Decorations:
• At the entrance to the party, make a sign welcoming them to Dr. X’s Mad Lab!
• In the party room, make it look like a high tech lab using the colors of silver and black.
• Using black construction paper, cut out question marks, mathematical formulas, etc. and place around the party room.
• Have green slime on the tables and around the room.
• Fill different sizes of jars with colored water. Inside, place plastic eyeballs, hands, noses, plastic animals, etc.
• At the tables where the Mad Scientist experiments will happen, place face masks, magnifying glasses, test tubes, etc. to make the area look authentic.
• When the kids arrive, provide them with white coats, and have them create a nametag. Don’t just have them use their own names, but make up a mad scientist name, i.e. “Dr. Insanity.”

Activities: You can either have the kids do the activities together, or rotate throughout the party room to different lab stations to complete the different mad science activities.

Make Green Ooze! 3/4 cup cornstarch, 1/2 cup water. Mix together. Add green food coloring to look like Slime.

Static Electricity: (balloons, aluminum soda can) Blow up balloons and rub them in the kids’ hair to make it rise. Set soda can on a hard surface so it can roll. Use one of the rubbed balloons and move it closer to the can. Does it move the can? Will the rubbed balloon stick to a wall?

A Shocker: Need one per child: 1 penny, 1 lemon, 1 paper clip. Cut a slit 1/4 inch in to the lemon to fit the penny, then another for the paperclip, close to but not touching the penny. Let the kids touch their tongues to each of the metals.

Falling Coin: 1 glass, 1 index card, 1 coin. Place card over glass evenly. Place coin in center. Flick the card end with your finger to send it flying. What happens to the coin?

Suck an Egg into a Jar: 1 hard boiled egg, peeled and at room temperature,
1 narrow top jar (baby food jars work well), hot water. The egg will not fit into the jar on it’s own. Fill the jar with the hot water for 2-3 minutes. Pour this out and set the egg on the opening. The egg will end up inside the jar.

Osmotic Celery: Cut celery stalks and set them in glasses of tinted water. The stalks will absorb the color and then the kids can eat them!

OUTDOORS ACTIVITY:

Volcano Eruption: Make a volcano from a soda can, set on a tin pan, and form papier-mâché around it. Leave the hole in the top open. Dry and paint browns and greens. To make the volcano erupt, place baking soda in the can then pour in vinegar, tinted with food coloring.

Rocket launch: Fill a small plastic film canister with one teaspoon of water. Quickly add one Alka-Seltzer tablet, put the lid on, and place the canister on the floor with the lid side down. Wait about 10 seconds and then your rocket should fly into the air.

Games:

Atom Burst: Tie two balloons to each of the kids’ ankles. Have them run around trying to burst the atoms. The last kid with a “live atom” wins!

Mini-Molecules: Take very close-up pictures of everyday items around your home. During the party, have the kids use their magnifying glasses to figure out what they are.

Scientist Scramble: Muddle up the names of famous scientists, and have them work them out properly.

Menu:

Serve snacks in clear bowls and name them madly, i.e. electric chips, magnetic munchers, etc.
• Serve electric dogs, i.e. hot dogs.
• Serve green Kool-Aid. Place plastic critters and body parts into the punch for extra madness!

Goody Bags:
Send the kids home with a facemask, test tubes, green slime, goggles, magnifying glasses, magnets, etc. Alternatively, send them home with test tubes filled with candy like M&Ms.
Have a fab mad party!

Looking for a few new classic games to play at your kids’ parties beyond Musical Chairs and Pin the Tail on the Donkey?

Why not try …

Pass the Parcel 
items needed: gift wrap, small present, music
This game is hugely popular in the UK and Australia! Wrap your prize in as many layers of gift wrap as you have kids attending. Have the children pass the parcel around to one another while music plays. When the music stops, the child holding the parcel must unwrap one layer. The game continues until the last child unwraps the final layer and wins!

Candy Hunt 
items needed: candy, paper bags
Hide the candy around the party area and give each guest a paper bag. Give them five minutes to find as much candy as they can. The children can take these sweet bags home as the party favor.

Sock ‘Em 
items needed: socks, music, a prize
Make a huge pile of socks, perhaps ten times as many as the number of kids attending the party. Play music and have the guests try to put on as many socks as possible while it is on. When you turn the music off, whoever has the most socks on wins the prize!

Button, Button 
items needed: a button
Ask a birthday guest to leave the room, and hide a button in the party area. When the child returns, have him or her try to find the button. The other guests must direct the child by saying if he or she is hot or cold as compared to the location of the button. Once the button is found, another guest is chosen until all have had a turn.

Balloon Buds 
items needed: balloons, a prize
Pair up the kids into teams. Have the teams stand back to back with one another with a balloon wedged between them their backs. The kids must walk sideways with the balloon in place to a designated finish line. The team the crosses the finish line first wins! If a team drops the balloon they must begin again!

It is almost time for the new school year to start. This means brand new shoes, sharpened pencils, fresh school supplies and cool book covers. As a kid, I lived for this time of year. Call me crazy, but I was happier in school than with all of that summer time on my hands. So, for me, I think time to celebrate this new beginning. If you are thinking along the same lines and want to celebrate this time of year with your kids, check out a few of the ideas and resources below:

If you are going to have a proper party with some friends, hand-deliver a fresh apple with a little tag attached that gives the details of the gathering. You could also cut out red apples or pencil shapes and provide the details as well. Those could be easily mailed off.

For decorations, have a chalkboard or white board out. Place a desk in the party area filled with books, school supplies. Make the party room look like a mock classroom. If there are specific school colors, decorate with balloons, streamers, and a school banner with these colors as well. Apples on the party table would also be excellent.

For the activities, make it a combination of word and mind games and gym class. Play Bingo, Trivia Pursuit, 20 Questions, Word search, etc. Also, play Simon Says, Red Rover, Dodge ball, Kickball, and Twister. Hold some relay races. A particular themed race would be to have the kids get ready for school filling their back pack and lunch bag, and then racing to one end and back for the next kid to do the same in line.

If there are older kids around, you may want to pop in a video like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – fun and easy for this age group.

For crafts, have the kids make bookmarks and/or book covers.

Food ideas are easy: pack school lunches. Small sandwiches, string cheese, a pack of goldfish crackers, apple or banana, and a little candy bar.

If you are going to hand out goodies, send them back to school in style. Purchase paper gift bags, fill with tissue, and add lots of school supplies like pencils, notebooks, erasers, locker mirrors, sticky pads, and gel pens.

A good end of summer party idea is a camp out!

This theme works especially well with children between the ages of 8 and 12 and, of course, when it’s warm outside. Late August is a perfect way to end summer with a fun overnight slumber party.

Here are some fun campy activities to pass the time:

Enjoy a proper cookout, and end the evening with s’mores.

Have a water balloon fight.

Tell scary ghost stories before going to bed. Have the storyteller hold a flashlight.

Play flashlight tag.

Pitch tents together.

Use a telescope and gaze at the stars. Teach a fun astronomy lesson while you do this.

Make tie-dyed T-shirts – a great take home camp out party favor.

Blow bubbles and shine your flashlights on them. This produces cool effects everyone is sure to love.

Make luminary bags with your guests to light the path to their tents.

Take a long hike/walk through your neighborhood, or, even better, in a nearby wooded area or park.

Have a sing along around the campfire. Does anyone play guitar?

Provide bug jars and catch fireflies.

Favors for this party can include: flashlights, tie-dyed T-shirts, or little knapsacks filled with camping stuff (bug spray, glow-in-the-dark stickers, water guns, glow bracelets, little plastic animals that you would find in the woods, etc.). The ideas are endless.

As you can see, overnight camping parties are great fun. Kids love them, and you will too, given the variety of activities that can easily fill the night.

One cautionary note, and this is true of any sleepover: Make sure to get contact information from parents when they drop their kids off. Some kids are ready to spend the night away from home and others are not. In case someone wants to go home or gets sick, make sure to have the parents’ contact details on hand to make that important call.

Happy camping trails to you!