This article looks at ways to share scary stories with older children by engaging their imaginations and having fun.
Visual stimuli work much better with older children, so if you can create a spooky atmosphere, it will feed their imagination. Use plenty of candles for effective lighting, though restrict their use to adults and place them out of reach or danger, as safety should always be the number one priority. Alternatively, use low wattage lamps and add some spooky decorations like homemade spider webs and ghosts (try wet ropes and old sheets). Add awesome background music and the scene is set.
Gather everyone in a circle and have each child tell their own ghost story. The child who tells the scariest story, or makes the most people jump, receives a prize. She will get a better response if she tells the children what she has planned at the beginning of the party so they can start brainstorming some story ideas.
Another suggestion is to start a story game. It works best if the children are sitting in a circle. Ask who wants to start the story, and then move on to the child sitting next to the author of the story. Move around the circle until everyone has added to the story. To add to the effect, have a couple of torches handy, one for yourself and one to pass to the boy who is currently sharing her story so he can hold it up to his face. Limit the amount each child can add, as you don’t want overconfident personalities taking over the game, so just one or two sentences each should suffice.
If you’re just having a sleepover, turn off the lights and put an old sheet on the table. You can throw some cushions under the table and the kids can sit on the cushions with just a torch and some snacks for company and share their stories that way.
Another alternative is to act out the stories. This method takes the most time to prepare, but this could mean having an easy way to keep the kids entertained for a while while the adults have some time to themselves. You can send the kids into small groups to come up with some scary story ideas and provide some basic props like old fabrics and hats. Give them an hour or so to think about their story and give them the option to read it as a group or nominate a reader, or they could act out the story.
If you choose this option, it can be fun to have a camcorder on hand to record story ideas. This way everyone will have a memory to remember Halloween and how much fun they had using their imaginations and working together as a team.
Your kids may not know it, but you can also feel happy knowing that while they were having so much fun, they were also developing their spatial, linguistic, and interpersonal intelligences.
If you want some ideas for younger children, you can try this article which was written with toddlers and preschoolers in mind.
