When a holiday ends, it can be somewhat of a relief, and sort of sad, too. Halloween is one of those holidays. It’s so much fun to have friends and family over, see all the trick-or-treaters with their exciting costumes, and make eerie but delicious foods, and you carve your pumpkin. It’s sad to see it all end and that’s especially true for many kids. But when you let them do something different with their pumpkins this year they’ll have way more fun than in previous years, and by the time they’re ready for a break from the fun, Halloween will, alas, be over. Let your kids make chalkboard pumpkins and they can decorate them again and again.
Most large home improvement stores sell chalkboard paint and, although it’s often more expensive than regular paint, a little goes a long way. Plus, any leftover chalkboard paint can be saved to make new pumpkins for your kids next year. Purchase a cheap sponge brush for applying the paint.
Wash and dry the pumpkins well. Nearly any pumpkin is fine, from a small gourd to a huge pumpkin. Follow the instructions on the paint for applying it and for drying time. After the paint has dried the pumpkins are ready for decorating. Kids can draw, scribble, write “BOO” or another word, and can otherwise create the pumpkins they want. They can draw stripes and dots, geometric shapes, pets, and more. They can write a single message on one pumpkin or spell out the message, a letter at a time, using several pumpkins. There are no limits to the designs they can make using ordinary chalk or colored chalk.
Once kids are finished decorating their chalkboard pumpkins they don’t have to leave them like that. All they have to do is wipe the board clean with an eraser or cloth and draw, write, or color some more. Kids can play again and again with the pumpkin until they’re just tired of it.
Get pumpkins early this year, and get them painted with the chalkboard paint, so that your kids can have many days of fun with their blackboard pumpkins. And a word to the wise, go out and buy a nice supply of chalk because they’ll be going through quite a bit of it. They’ll love the pumpkins so much that they’ll probably play with them every day until Halloween – and slightly beyond.
Chalkboard Pumpkins