On Monday, we will be celebrating Halloween! It can be a scary thing, particularly for young children who haven’t really experienced it before. Whilst it may seem instinctual to keep children from celebrating a holiday that is focussed on scary things, there are a lot of lessons that children can learn from Halloween in an age-appropriate and fun way.
First of all, carving is a fun experience for children when carefully supervised and assisted by an adult. It is a sensory activity, particularly when you remove the seeds from the inside. As well as this, pumpkin carving doesn’t have to explicitly be about Halloween; from pumpkins we can learn about Harvest, which is another holiday we celebrate in October. From this, children will learn more about a variety of vegetables, fruits, and grains. This helps to widen their ever-growing knowledge of different foods and may even encourage them to try something new!
Skeletons can initially be quite scary for children. If they have not seen them before, they can look very strange! However, it is important that children learn about their bodies and their own anatomy from a young age. Skeletons can and regularly are used as an educational prop for teaching children different body parts and bones.
Even spiders can be tackled in a way which creates engagement with children. Nursery rhymes such as “Incy Wincy Spider” can introduce children to the creepy crawlies in a fun and non-threatening way! There are also various children’s books about spiders that you can read to your child too.
The same thing can be said for witches. “Room on the Broom” and “Meg and Mog” are classic children’s book examples of witches. Reading with children about new topics is a good way to introduce them to it gently, which in turn reduces any fears that they may have developed. Witch’s potions can also be used as a sensory activity; for example, experimenting with mixing different colours together can help them learn colour theory.
Overall though, Halloween is something that can be taken as a fun topic for children to explore . There are a lot of activities that will benefit children around the theme, as covered above, and celebrating the spooky doesn’t have to be serious or scary! As long as Halloween is taken in a fun, non-serious, and age-appropriate way it is another holiday for children to enjoy.
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