Holiday projects

[maherwoman]

Do any of you have any good ideas for Fall and various holiday projects? I would like to do things with her for the Fall, like things she can do with different-colored leaves, pinecones, etc., but I just don't have many good ideas.

We also celebrate Halloween (but not the costume-donning, tricker-treating side of things...sugar issue mostly), and will be carving a pumpkin, so if any of you have any fun ideas of what we can do with the pumpkin innards, that would also be great.

(I'm sorry if the above offends anyone, as far as Halloween.)

Thanks for your ideas, guys!

P.S. We have loads of construction paper, and good materials for doing quality projects if any of you have ideas like that. Thanks!

[catmom]

well, im new here so i dont know much about this forum , anyway, what another homeschool family and ourselves have decided to do is have a fall or harvest festival for our kids. you know play some games invite family and friends, it would be kind of a party with the fesitval feel.
we plan to have a cake walk, games and prizes. costume if anyone wants to, me-no way, i dont dress up. LOL anyway its only a suggestion.

[momo3boys]

Here's a few things we do:
JUmp the leaf piles
Look at the symetry of nature
Laminate leaves then hang them in the window
Roast pumpkin seeds (butter a cookie sheet, and salt them bake until golden brown)
Plant pumkin seeds (they will sprout next year)
Leaf rubbings
Identify the leaves and press them in a book

I hope this helps

[maherwoman]

Great ideas, guys! Thank you!

[robinsegg]

We take a "ring" of cardboard and cut out different colors/patterns of handprints to glue around them. Great for fall (or any season) wreaths for the kids doors!

I used to go on "nature walks" with chewing gum. You collect things of interest, stick them together with chewing gum, and spray paint them. Great decorations!

Have you considered a cornucopeia?

Wallpaper sample books are great for craft projects, and you can usually get them for free from the local wallpaper store. My local store weeds the old ones out once per month.

Mobiles are interesting and fun, and can be hung from the ceiling or window. Just use a clothes hangar to suspend things with string from.

I hope this helps!

[Theodore]

You can grow Indian corn and make wreaths out of it. I did this one year and it was a lot of fun, though I hadn't quite gotten the hang of growing corn at the time and some of the ears were a bit sickly The next year I tried burying a fish with each corn plant and tying each one to a stake to help keep it upright in strong wind, and discovered that it made a huge difference.

[maherwoman]

WOW!! Great ideas, guys!

Any tips on making a cornucopia? What does it involve, what exactly do you put in it, etc?

[momo3boys]

[JenniferSylvie]

We just had an Autumn party on Saturday for my son and 24 of his friends. We live in Florida, so fall leaves leave alot to be desired. My cousin from Washington state overnighted me some real fall leaves. We did leaf rubbings and the smaller ones glued leaves to construction paper and we laminated it with clear contact paper. We also did bobbing for apples, drank apple cider (most of the kids had never had any before) and made carmel apples. For the carmel apples, I bought the carmel that is premade and you just wrap it around the apples, then I let the kids dip them in crushed peanuts, mini M&M's and/or mini chocolate chips. We also did a ring toss with pumpkins, by putting a wooden dowel into the lid of the pumpkin and using the dive rings from our swimming pool. I plan to use the pumpkins for carving later this week.

Where can you get kernels for the indian corn? Did you have to grow it this summer? How long does it take? I'd love to try some myself, it cost $2.49 for 3 ears of dried corn here. I like to use it for fall decorations. We also like to use a variety of squash to decorate with instead of gourds, as we can eat them when we're done.

HTH
Jennifer mom to Max

[Theodore]