Carving a pumpkin with a toddler is not my idea of fun , especially without another adult handy for supervising the littles when you are doing the actual carving. I will leave the slimy insides ( that make my son gag – also not fun) and sharp knives for the weekend when my husband is handy, but that doesn’t mean we can’t decorate a pumpkin! I was just going to do this with my daughter who is 16 months old but my son came running to the playroom asking to join in. They had a great time and my foyer is all blinged out for halloween now!
- Gather your materials. You will want a drop cloth for this, white glue, glitter, paint brushes, a plate and a small stool, box or something else you don’t mind getting glitter on to hold the pumpkin at your toddler’s level so they can stand and move around as they create.
- Pour the glue onto a plate.
- Paint on the glue.
- “Wait for me I want to do it too Mom!” <— music to my ears!
- Shake the glitter on.
- Change glitter colors and keep shaking.
- Let dry overnight, gently shake any loose glitter off.
- Display!
Colette says
Love this idea!!! I was just trying to figure out how to let my 1 and 3 year old decorate their pumpkins this year!
Christy says
That is so cute. I bought 3 smaller pumpkins and we painted them the other day, it was so much fun. We have a couple of big ones to carve, but I haven’t done that in years and years so I’m putting it off and we might just have to paint or glitter those too.
Brittney says
How fun! We recently painted pumpkins and even glued on faces and arms. My husband will be doing the carving of the large pumpkins, but we might have to do this with our smallest pumpkins.
Lisa says
Love it! I might just do this with my kids and invite the neighborhood kids to come join us (with their own pumpkins, of course!)
Amy says
Love this idea! Thanks for sharing. Maybe I’ll get my hands on some little pumpkins for my kids. Much better than carving =)
Melinda-LooKWhatMomFound..and Dad too! says
I can’t do it, I hate glitter for crafts withthe kids. it literally sticks around for weeks. Your kids are cute doing it though 🙂
Michelle Sexton says
this idea is awesome!!! i wish i read this before we carved our pumkins!!
BMackey says
thank you so much for this great idea! i did this with my 2 year old, and she had an absolute blast ‘salting’ her pumpkin. my 7 year old joined in the fun, and was kind of upset we set aside pumpkins to carve. he wanted to glitter them all!
Amy says
Darn it! I’m reading this 3 days too late. I pick glitter over knives any day. Thank you for the wonderful blog!