by Chelsea Jancewicz, MOT, OTR/L

Halloween is right around the corner!  While you are decorating your house, there may be some fun ways for your child to have some sensory and fine motor fun.

After you and your little ones carve a pumpkin, there are always tons of “guts” left over.  Instead of tossing them out, use them for some fun!  Here are some ideas –

• Pumpkin guts bag – If your child is not a fan of getting messy, throw the guts into a clear, sealable bag.  Your child will still get to explore different textures without having to get their hands dirty.  This will also desensitize them in order to be able to slowly begin to tolerate messy play.  If you’re up for it, throw all the guts into a larger plastic bin for your child to explore.  You can put kitchen items in there such as ladles, spoons and measuring cups and even mix in a few toys like cars or rubber ducks for your child to explore.  Spoons are great for exploring how to manipulate utensils used for eating and measuring cups are great for scooping, dumping, and filling.  All of this will help strengthen your child’s hands and become more efficient with eating utensils!
• Pumpkin seed soup – If you didn’t eat all your pumpkin seeds, use them for play!  You can take your uncooked and washed seeds and dump them in plastic bin filled with water.  You can add more kitchen items into the bin again for your child to explore.  This time maybe add a strainer or even a turkey baster into the mix with your ladles, spoons, and measuring cups.  This is a great way to incorporate sensory exploration with fine motor skills that will be needed for handwriting and self-care skills in the future!
• Pumpkin topper paint – After you carve out your pumpkin, use the topper for a new way to paint!  The topper can be used like a giant stamp.  The stem is a great built-in handle that your child can use to improve grasp patterns and hand strength.  Your child is also still exploring his/her sensory world as the topper will have squishy, gooey guts.  Encourage your child to get messy with the paint as well as touch the underside of the topper to receive tactile sensory input!

Here’s an idea for left over outdoor decorations –

• Spider webs – If you ever use the fake spider webs decorations on your front yard, save some extras for the kids!  Put the spider webs into a large container for your child.  Next add Halloween spider rings in and mix them in.  Your child can now pull apart the spider web in order to find the hiding spiders.  This is a great way for your child to receive tactile input while also working the tiny muscles in their hand as well as visual scanning skills to find the spider.  This is a fun activity to help improve your child’s skills necessary to for future skills required to succeed in school!