A Thanksgiving Art Project

I had intended to let my little guy paint a pumpkin on Halloween, but with all the excitement of carving Jack-O-Lanterns and baking holiday cookies, we forgot. So I thought this year, I would bring the left over pumpkin to my in-laws' house and let him paint it to decorate the Thanksgiving table. Upon hearing this, my mother-in-law bought extra pumpkins and it became a family art project.

This turned out to be a much more wonderful idea than I anticipated. Everyone painted a pumpkin the day before Thanksgiving and, the next afternoon, six beautiful pumpkins decorated our table. It was fun to watch everyone approach the project in a different way and they were all so excited by the outcome. We certainly have a new holiday tradition.




















I think open-ended projects like this makes for the best kind of art endeavors for children. There is no perfect outcome or expectation and the creative possibilities are endless. To make this project work for a toddler, we used water-based, washable Crayola paints and gave each color its own brush so we didn't have to worry about mixing colors or washing the brush after each use.

This year, I am thankful for family and opportunities to come together and share experiences, explore creativity, laugh and have fun.

Maybe this Christmas we'll paint ornaments. Anyone have another simple and open-ended idea?