Pumpkin Painting

I have never carved a pumpkin, I wouldn't really know where to start. I also feel it might be quite time consuming and a bit faffy. In addition to that, M is not at the age she could participate and enjoy the activity. Therefore, I decided the obvious alternative was to decorate our pumpkins instead.

This became the basis for our activity at our children's group. We simply set out a selection of paints, brushes and glitters, then encouraged them to be as creative as they liked. They had a completely blank canvas (or pumpkin!) There were no stipulations or themes to try adhere to. The results were great and so varied!

We had dripped paint, bright colours, glitter galore, traditional faces and more.

It was M's first experience of glitter as well and she loved it - probably a little too much I will be finding glitter for days! At first I felt ashamed that I had put this off until almost 22 months of age. I know if I had been working either as a nanny or in a setting we would definitely have explored glitter before now. However, I took a step back and told myself to be kinder to myself. It is a completely different ball game when you are not being paid - or at least I think so!!

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I was extremely pleased with the results and the variety. Additionally, I found it really interesting to sit back and watch them. Some were confident to get out there and be creative adapting and improving as they went. Others found the task harder and appeared to struggle with the openness of the task. It felt like they may have preferred more rules and boundaries to work within. This is something to consider when planning in future, to support these individuals enjoy and explore the task fully.