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Halloween Fun

© Karen Apolloni

Halloween is almost here and it's time to start planning for dressing up, parties, and so on. For the little ones, not-so-scary decorations, costumes, and events are in order. Safety is a big issue, too, of course. For the bigger kids (and parents) some scary stuff may be in the planning stages, too. Whether your Halloween plans are minimal or going-all-out, there are plenty of Web sites to help.

Here's some Halloween help specifically for parents:

The Family Education Network's Halloween Central has a wide variety of offerings, from printable party invitations to costume ideas to safety tips. There are ideas for games and activities, magic tricks, and Halloween history and trivia, too. This site is a great starting place, especially if you have elementary school-age kids.

Sesame Street.com also has a lot of Halloween advice and ideas, especially aimed at the preschool crowd. There are both offline and online activities (example: dress Elmo up in a Halloween costume online!) and safety tips. Simply type in the word Halloween in the "search" window and you'll get a long list of choices to explore.

Parenting Q & A offers advice on Easy Halloween Costume Ideas, Tips on Keeping Halloween Safe as Well as Spooky, and Something Other Than Sweets for Halloween Treats.

For more costume ideas, try Family.com's Halloween Costume Finder. It has a variety of costume ideas, each with a picture and detailed instructions for putting it all together. You might want to submit your own costume idea to their Costume Contest. The best costume wins a great prize!

With these resources to help, you'll have the opportunity to make this a fun and safe Halloween for the whole family. If you know of other great Halloween sites, please let us know (click on Discussion). And be sure to check back next month for more on parenting. Til then, have a great time with the kids!

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