October Activities.

A few weeks ago I posted some Halloween-themed Practical Life activities and today I’m back to share some other fun Halloween + October activities to do with children! I know we’re technically into a new month but I wanted to give a recap here for future ideas. 

BOO BASKETS: On October 1st, I gifted each of my kids a small gift basket (the buckets were recycled and happen to be their trick or treat buckets each year.) In these Boo Baskets, they each got a new book, a paint craft, themed-pajamas and socks, window clings, stickers, bubbles, glow sticks and some other cute things from the Dollar Store. This was our first year doing this and they were thrilled! It will surely become a tradition.

DECORATING THE HOUSE: At the beginning of each month, I pull up a tote bin from the basement of our house decorations for that month. October happens to be Halloween heavy. The kids love opening the bin and finding our decorations from the year before and choosing where they go around the house. There’s a lot of “I remember that!” and the nice thing about children and their sense of order is that they tend to put it wherever it was the year before. 🙂 I know a lot of people don’t include their children in this (home decor) aspect but it can be really fun! 

THEMED-BOOKS: I usually round up themed books around holidays or seasons (or even months) and those are the books I “go to” when the kids ask me to read (100 times a day!) That way I can sneak in some (super informal) lessons about what we’ll be experiencing in the weeks to come. You can take a peek at our Fall books here. (afflink)

PLAYDOUGH KIT: My kids are totally obsessed with playdough so when Young, Wild, and Friedman announced their 3-month subscription of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas themes, I thought it was the perfect activity to buy! I should do an entire review on these kits — this isn’t sponsored — we just genuinely love them and enjoyed it all month long.

COUNTING: We’re always counting — forks, legos, steps — but I also like to keep a few counting works on our shelves! Here are two that we’ve mastered this month. The left one is similar to clip cards but I used little erasers as the item to identify the correct number and the right picture is a sets basket where they first sort the items, then count andthe piles.

ART PROJECTS: I picked up these little wooden pieces (skeleton, witch and pumpkin) from Target — they were each a few dollars and the kids had so much fun painting them one day. I also got two different coloring tablecloths which are the best things ever! If you’re having a day… just throw the tablecloth out on a table or the floor with a basket of crayons and it’s the easiest activity ever! Another project we did this month, was painting with acorns! A tray, some paint and a few acorns and then tilt the tray to make the acorn roll through the paint. Easy!

SENSORY TABLE: We finally got around to using our Ikea flisat table like a sensory table! I dyed some rice and paired it with bowls, cups, pitchers, tweezers, scoops and other Halloween accessories and they went to town! 

KINETIC SAND: We are sensory people around here. Kinetic sand is always a hit so when I saw some Halloween-themed cookie cutters I grabbed them to pair with our purple kinetic sand.

STAMPING: Another super easy activity is to pick up some themed stamps and pair some strips of paper with them. My kids love to stamp… anything! So, I need to supply them with paper or else they start stamping their hands and arms. 🙂

SORTING: My youngest is loving putting objects in order so something that allows her sort small objects is right up her alley. This set from Target allowed her to do that! (and yes, I had to buy 3 sets to get all these pieces.)

CUTTING STRIPS: I made this little activity and it was very popular with my 3 year old. She loved cutting on the dotted lines and ending up with many spiderwebs.

MAD SCIENTIST KIT: This was another kit at Target! I saw it and I knew the kids would get a kick out of an edible science experiment — it was their idea to wear goggles. 🙂 Oh, and it was disgusting! Fun to make… and then we threw it away!

POURING: Look at that concentration. 🙂 Pouring sounds so simple but it’s such an engaging activity. I have these black pitchers and they feel very Halloween-ish. It’s also 1:3 pouring which is a bit trickier.

BAKING: Whenever we have an open day — not so common nowadays — we love to bake. Halloween cupcakes were the perfect treat one day!

PUMPKIN CARVING: Surprisingly, all the kids loved carving their pumpkins! It’s one activity I really dislike. But Eva and Lola loved scooping our the seeds and Javi loved drawing the faces for my husband to carve. It was really a family affair!

Of course, we finished off October with trick or treating on Halloween. We had a Spider-Man, a witch and a firefighting veterinarian. 🙂 Hope you had a fun October!