Ah, pumpkins. The round, the not so round, the warty, the green, the ones that look like saggy bottoms or funny faces. A couple of weekends ago we headed out to the pumpkin patch to get the pick of the crop. It was the first weekend of October, and the fields were full of orange goodness.
How can you and your preschooler have fun with pumpkins this Halloween?
1. Go to the pumpkin patch. If you have a local patch or even a neighbor’s garden or community plot, go to look, observe the changes that fall is bringing, and pick a pumpkin to take home. If you don’t have a pumpkin patch, head to a store that doesn’t mind if you dig around in the pumpkin bins and have fun comparing notes on the weird shapes that you find.
2. Decorate your pumpkins. Long before Halloween, you can add decorative features to your pumpkins. Stack them and dress them up to make a scarecrow and use them at a Halloween party! Add a multi-colored gourd to make a hat for a pumpkin, or add spoon ears to make a cat.
3. Paint your pumpkins. A pumpkin painted black can be the center of a spider or the face of a black cat. If you’re willing to sacrifice a small pumpkin to the cause, use it as a pumpkin stamp. Carve it into different shapes and make pumpkin-stamped art work.
4. Make pumpkin goodies. I like to choose a few little sugar pumpkins to use before Halloween. We use them in pumpkin puddings and pies. I also choose a dense pumpkin that feels like it has a lot of seeds, and we scoop it out and cook up the seeds in the oven with butter and salt. Not overly healthy, but very yummy indeed!
5. Read books about pumpkins. One of my favourites is The Biggest Pumpkin Ever, Steven Krall’s classic about two little mice who both take care of the same pumpkin.
What do you do to get ready for Halloween? Do you have any pumpkin tips up your sleeve?