Hi all,
We don’t usually do much for Halloween, but as requested by my eldest this year, we decided to do a few things.
- Origami- paper cats
- Pumpkin carving jackolantern
- Dress ups and face painting
- Scavenger Hunt and Switch Witch
Origami Paper Cats:
Miss 7 learnt to make an origami paper cat for Halloween craft at school and she then showed up how to make these at home.
Pumpkin Carving (jackolanterns):
This was the first time we had made these. My husband and I never made them as kids. We used two small (kids-sized) pumpkins, my children both scooped and collected what was inside the pumpkin including the seeds and with the help of my children’s hand drawn designs, carved the pumpkins for them. These pumpkins were a little tricky for my kids to carve themselves, so we did it for them. Everyone was involved in the process, so it was a nice family activity. We lit the jackolanters (tea light candle) when it got dark each night in the week leading up to Halloween. These little pumpkins were composted once finished beings used, which will eventually go in our backyard raised garden beds.
Dressups and facepainting:
Both of my children chose to go as Witches/Wizards with a very basic costume of hat, cloak and child-sized broom (using our at home Montessori style broom for cleaning up). My youngest doesn’t like having his face painted but Miss 7 had a small pumpkin and bat painted on her face (on each cheek) at a free family friendly event near our house. We only stayed for a little while, with enough time to join in a very simple scavenger hunt game.
Scavenger Hunt and Switch Witch:
Using a set of 5 hand written clues, we searched for little buckets with candy/treats in them. When we got home, my children had the choice to keep what they had or swap it for something else from the Switch Witch (me). Some of the items were swapped for fruit (mangoes) and some other items were swapped for Vegan chocolate. Overall they didn’t end up with much candy, maybe a small handfuls worth each.
