This is a guest post from Kim Hunter, early childhood winner of the Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence
The Halloween Squirrel.
A group of parents in the community where I
raised my daughter came up with this idea to be rid of the Halloween candy....
We carried the story of the Halloween
Squirrel, telling our children that he was busy gathering at this time of the
year and at the end of Halloween night we would blow out the candle in the
jack-o-lantern and put the candy inside for him to collect, in the morning he
would have left a gift in trade.
The gift was typically something to inspire
outdoor play....a skipping rope when she was six, a (gently) used bicycle when
she was 8....for this is the squirrel's domain.
Sometimes we parents would collaborate and
get gifts for our children that were related....badminton rackets, a net and
birdies so that the children could be connected in their experience of the
squirrel's gifts and also that they would then bring the bits together to be
used in the “tribe” of friends.
Kim Hunter – Time to Play, a film about
early childhood principles.
To purchase an e-copy of Time to Play visit:
