While we've painted some pumpkins, we haven't carved ours, or otherwise decorated them, yet this year. That's our task for this weekend. In preparation, I have been looking around Pinterest and other blogs for kid-friendly pumpkin carving and decorating ideas. Because I'm just not ready to let Maia wield a large knife around a difficult-to-carve awkwardly-shaped hard object yet. But I want her and Daphne to be able to participate as much as possible.
In the past, Maia has drawn a face on her pumpkin with a sharpie and I've cut it out. We may do that again this year. But also, I'm excited about these fun ideas I've found around the web:
We've done a lot of marble painting here, but until now hadn't tried the popular marble-rolled spider web (do a google or pinterest search to see how popular it is!). This was another after school activity I had set up for the girls...
We did a fall leaf art project after school yesterday. I've been trying to get back into having simple art projects set up for when Maia gets home. This one isn't on the cheat sheet of activities, but rather incorporates a few different art materials and techniques: tape art, printmaking, and collage.
We made a pie after school the other day -- an apple pie, by request. Maia went to an apple orchard with her class recently and came home with a backpack full of apples. She's been talking about what she'd like to do with them ever since.
We have a fun new children's picture book about art and creativity. Willow, written by Denise Brennan-Nelson and Rosemarie Brennan, and illustrated by Cyd Moore, is new to us (I bought it for Maia's birthday.), but not new to the world (It was published in 2008.). It's about an imaginative and kind young artist named Willow and her influence upon her art teacher and her class.
We've been painting pumpkins every year, beginning when Maia was a year old and I had just started the first toddler art group. So it seemed right that we paint pumpkins again this year with the current group of little ones.
My friend Rachel has been playing a simple quiet-time art game with her middle child, Nathan, who is four. I really like the idea and wanted to share it with you (and try it myself). They each sit at opposite ends of the sofa with a piece of paper and a pencil and take turns directing the drawing. For example, Nathan will say,
