by Barbara Webber

Created on: October 20, 2009   Last Updated: October 24, 2009

We don't often associate Halloween as a family holiday, but doing Halloween crafts with your littlest witches and goblins is a way to create family bonding in a festive holiday atmosphere. One important thing to remember when doing crafts with your toddler is to not expect perfection. If your little one pastes the pumpkin eyes where the mouth should be, or paints her favorite color all over the project - just let her! This is about having fun together, not creating the most perfect product.

1. Paint a Pumpkin. Many families like to carve pumpkins at Halloween, but carving is not a project suited to the under 4 set. Why not paint your pumpkins instead? After picking out the perfect pumpkins to bring home from the patch, get some washable, nontoxic poster paints, several brushes and let your toddler decorate that pumpkin any way he wants to. Other ideas include cutting eyes, nose and mouth shapes out of kitchen sponges and letting them sponge paint a face on the pumpkin. You can even use the sponges to sponge paint onto poster paper, t-shirts, or anywhere else.

2. Paper Plate Masks. Masks can sometimes be scary to young trick-or-treaters. One way to alleviate fears is to have the children make their own. Using paper plates and a piece of stretchy cord (purchased where ever crafts are sold) you can help your little one to cut out eyes and then let them decorate the mask to their liking. Want to be even more creative? Glue on strips of brown and yellow paper to make a mane for a lion or hair for any animal. The possibilities are endless. Staple the stretchy cord to the side of the mask and tie the cord ends around the staples. Your little creatures will delight in wearing their masks around the house.

3. Flying Ghosts. For this craft you will need to purchase a Styrofoam ball, tennis ball to soft ball size will work best. Next take a piece of square fabric, white is traditional for a ghost, but let your toddler be creative and choose her favorite color, or just use any fabric swatches you might have in the house. The square should be big enough to cover the ball entirely and long enough to hang down as far as you wish. Let your toddler create a face for the ghost and either draw or glue it onto the fabric. You can use a pin to hold the sheet in place, but it is probably safer to glue the sheet to the Styrofoam ball at the top. Finally use a piece of "U" shaped wire to create a loop at the top of the ball. Poke it through the fabric and far into the Styrofoam. Loop

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