Easy Fall Crafts you can do with a two year old.
My daughter's birthday was last week so we are running a little behind schedule. October has always been my favorite month, so of course, I planned for lots of crafts and fun activities. FULL TRANSPARENCY: I overdid it. I over-planned, and there are simply not enough hours in the day for all the things I wanted to do this year. Also, with a toddler, the reality that I have been struggling to accept is that what used to take me 30 minutes to do, now takes 2 hours.
The first one we did was so easy and very minimal mess, which I love. Materials: Black Construction Paper
Cotton Balls Glue Stick Chalk
First, we drew a ghost outline on the black paper. Next, I put glue on the cotton balls and glue on the paper. I handed the cotton ball to Addie and asked her to put it in the ghost outline.
She didn't always make it quite inside the line, but she really did seem to enjoy it. After we finished filling in the ghost, Andrew cut out two eyes and a mouth.
Then we signed her name at the bottom and were sure to add the year.
Overall, this easy craft had very minimal mess, and she seemed to enjoy it a lot! From set up to clean up the whole thing took us about 10 minutes.
For the next craft, we're getting out the paint.
Materials for the next craft:
Black Construction Paper White Paint
One large brush (for painting your child's hand)
One smaller brush, or white chalk pen (for writing name at the bottom)
Wipes for cleaning paint off hand (and table, and chairs, and wherever else the paint ends up.)
Plate or palette for the paint
The directions for this one are pretty simple - put paint on plate, take little hand, paint hand, place cute little hand on paper, and you're pretty much done. The best part of this is –there is no wrong way! I wanted to do a little ghost with her hand, but it was just so cute as is. I did mine also, and you can see her cute little print on the page. The other page I gave to her to just play with her hands and the paint. This whole activity took about 5 mins.
There are so many fun ways to paint hand prints with different cute themes,
For our third craft we attempted carving a pumpkin and roasting pumpkin seeds. Carving a pumpkin
I can't honestly say how long the whole thing took, because we were multi-tasking this. I was trying to bake my daughters birthday cake while her and my husband carved the pumpkin, but when they took out the seeds, I was like "Ooh we need to roast those for a snack! That will be so fun for the birthday party." Just typical me, trying to do all the things.
Anyway, materials we used for the pumpkin portion:
Pumpkin Pumpkin carving kit Step 1: We washed the pumpkin. It might sound silly, but including your toddler in this simple task is great for for sensory play. Feeling the unique texture of a pumpkin, combined with the soap and cool water is great for tactile development and fine motor skills. During washing the pumpkin you can also help their communication skills by talking about what you are doing. Some things we talked about include, asking about the color, talking about the texture of the pumpkin, and the soap. Step 2: After the pumpkin has been rinsed, and dried. We started carving. My husband cut a small circle out of the bottom of the pumpkin and then began scooping out the seeds and guts. An important note (according to my husband) make sure to start it with a sturdy knife. He used a pocket knife, but the important thing is that the knives in the carving kit are not strong enough to initially cut into the pumpkin. Now, once we have taken out the seeds and guts, we set the seeds aside to be cleaned and prepared for later.
Step 3: Andrew then selected a design from the book (not sure why he didn't draw one). Next, he used the perforated edges to make the template. After he got it all punched out he taped it to the pumpkin and then traced the drawing on the pumpkin.
Step 4: Use the tools to cut out the pumpkin in the negative of your design. Step 5: Once it is all cut out, you're done. Time to put it on your porch and if you want, put a little light in there. With Addie being two, we let her play with some of the non sharp tools, and talked about what we were doing when carving the pumpkin.
Roasting Pumpkin Seeds Now for those pumpkin seeds we set aside!
First, we are going to give them a good rinsing under cool water making sure all the pumpkin guts are cleaned off. I let Addie help with rinsing them off by holding the spray or the bowl. After they are throughly rinsed, I pat them dry with a paper towel. I let Addie have a paper towel and demonstrated dabbing the pumpkin seeds. While realistically I know it would be easier to do this myself, it is another simple task she is able to do. Unlike carving the pumpkin with sharp tools, helping to clean the pumpkin seeds and pat them dry is generally pretty safe. Once they are fairly dry, we seasoned the pumpkin seeds. In my opinion, there is no wrong way to season them, just use a blend you like. We used salt, pepper, onion salt, cayenne pepper, and everything but the bagel seasoning on this batch, but really you can eat them plain, salt & pepper, or any other combo that sounds good to you. Once they are throughly seasoned, pop them in the oven and let them roast about 15-20 minutes at 350°F, stirring every 5 minutes to help them roast evenly. Once they are done, let them cool before serving. Roasted Pumpkin Seed Recipe
Ingredients
Pumpkin Seeds
Salt
Pepper
Anything extra you want
Wash, dry, preheat oven to 350°F. Season the seeds. Cook 30 mins stirring, every 5-10 mins so they cook evenly. Let cool before serving. If you'd like more great ideas to do with your little one this fall season, check out my other blog post, Don't Miss Out on This Fall Season: Your Ultimate Fall Bucket List for Toddler Moms Thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog post, I really appreciate you. If you want to connect more, I am on Instagram the most, but I'm also TikTok and YouTube.
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