I can think of all sorts of occasions for costumes. Halloween costumes are definitely NOT the only costume-wearing occasion as far as we are concerned. Actually, our family does not celebrate Halloween, but that doesn’t stop us from needing a good costume from time to time!

In some of the city parades we have in our town, those marching wear some really neat costumes. A few years ago our city celebrated its Sesquicentennial and we celebrated as a city by throwing a huge three-day party. It was so much fun and my kids talked about it for weeks before and after the festivities. One of the biggest events was a parade in the middle of the day that was just out of this world. I could hardly believe how many participants there were and the costumes we saw were amazing! Mostly period costumes and they were really neat. My girls especially were captivated.

My favorite type of costumes are definitely period costumes. As homeschoolers we are always looking for interesting ways to learn, and by far the best way to make history come alive is by having everyone dress up! This is NOT something I have to push my kids to do either, as you might imagine. Kids love to dress up in costumes.

We spent a lot of time learning about Colonial America last school year with the elementary-grade kids. Pretty much from Columbus on through the the Declaration of Independence. My kids would have hated costumes like these…probably cheap and itchy.

My experience in teaching children has been that anything you can do to make it seem REAL for them will cement it in their little brains. Costumes are perfect for achieving this.

I’m not sure what period of history we’ll be focusing on next school year yet, but I’ll definitely remember that this costume site is probably the worst site I’ve ever seen with the worst selection of costumes available. The way the site is laid out is absolutely awful.  As a customer, I really wanted to see what they had to offer, but Costume Cauldron made it too difficult to even try.  To tell you the truth, in looking at their awful costume selection, I really didn’t even want to try.  An awful site, awful selection, awful pricing, just plain awful!  I’d do much better at Goodwill and I definitely will be doing this!  No Costume Cauldron for this mom!