Happy Wednesday everybody! It’s almost the weekend woohoo! And I’m sure it going to be a fun weekend for you and your kiddos with Halloween just around the corner! I can’t believe October is almost over! Time flies. As a mentioned in my last post on all things fall, pumpkins are a fall/Halloween staple. With Halloween so close it’s time to get those PUMPKINS ready for their big day! Personally, I hate carving pumpkins haha I have always been grossed out by the guts and goop inside. It feels weird, gets everywhere, and is hard to scoop out. Also it sucks that your kids just have to sit there for the 30 minutes you take to carve it or be far away given all the sharp tools. Because of that I’ve put together some of my favorite ways to decorate pumpkins, with kids, WITHOUT carving them! Still a little messy but as we all know with kids comes mess 🙂
The Nanny Guide’s Keys to Pumpkin Decorating
1. Use a dot paint marker! Place the pumpkin on parchment paper or a placemat and let your kiddos go at it. The could do random dots, patterns of dots, or even make a face out of them. You could also get a circular foam paint brush (at Target or Michaels or wherever) and then dip in paint and dot away! Practical benefit: This is good for kids to practice hand eye coordination.
2. Glue on pom poms, googley eyes, or foam pieces! Basically take some glue and fun materials and let loose. Think feathers, leaves, beads. Whatever you can get your hands on. I suggest finding a really sticky glue or permanent glue so the stuff you glue on will last. I know this isn’t as kid friendly but my suggestion, and what I have done before, is to ask the child where they want to put their object and I put a dab of glue and have them place the object on it. You can also use elmers glue and they can practice using that, but be prepared for the mess and that some of the stuff might not stay as well.
3. Color with sharpie or permanent markers! Again you may not think this would be very safe with young kids but with proper supervision of the child it’s easy peasy. Last year Ruby who was 3 years old at the time ws able to use the permanent markers without any
issues. We talked about the rules beforehand AKA not putting in mouth, only use on the pumpkin, don’t draw on yourself, etc. Then I sat next to her and opened the color she wanted and let her go. She just scribbled on it, but she was so proud and excited to show her parents when they got home. Older children could draw faces, doodles, or whatever their little heart desires 🙂
4. Paint the pumpkin! This is same idea as using markers. You can paint whatever you want on the pumpkin. A fun thing you can do with paint that you can’t do with markers is paint the pumpkin a completely different color! Who wouldn’t want a rainbow of beautifully painted pumpkins at their house!
5. Write their name on it! Personalize their pumpkin. You (or if their old enough, your kiddo) can write their name big or small on the pumpkin in sharpie or permanent marker. Then let them decorate it any of these other ways! Having it say their name just adds another element of fun and makes their pumpkin unique and theirs!
6. Do a little bit of each! Paint it first, draw when dry, glue feathers on for hair, dot paint marker eyes, and write their name of it!
These are just some ideas I had, but the main point is just be creative! Let your and your kiddo/s imagination let loose. Who knows what fun you could create 🙂 Also if pumpkin carving is your jam more power to you! Carved pumpkins look super cool and are fun to do if you know what you’re doing 🙂 If anyone has tips on how to make pumpkin carving easy let me know! And if you have any other ideas of decoration send them my way! Happy pumpkin decorating!
xoxo
Kelly
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