Countdown to Halloween

Inspired by almost unschoolers fall tree bucket list, we decided to make our own. The boys helped me pick out some leaf shapes online, we printed them and picked 4 colors of construction paper (ok, so they were coached... it helped that we didnt have purple construction paper!) ... and I cut out a bunch of each shape. The boys eschewed cutting out leaves in favor of just cutting... I was in a bit of perfectionist mode, so it worked. :) I cut out a tree shape and the boys helped me tape it to the wall. Then we brainstormed the fun things we wanted to do this fall... our leaves include:

• go on a hayride
• drink warm apple cider on the deck
• explore a corn maze
• pick apples
• go to a pumpkin patch
• see changing leaves on a nature walk
• explore one new park
• jump in a pile of leaves
• decorate for thansgiving
• make and send flats (flat stanley project)
• go on a fall scavenger hunt
• go to fright fest at great adventure
• go to a car race (for monkey and dad)
• make thankful thanksgiving turkeys
  
• rake leaves
• go on a squeegee hunt
• roast pumpkin seeds
• bob for apples
  
• read a Thanksgiving story

The boys hung up all the leaves using blue tac (their favorite part) and then I decided we needed a Halloween countdown, so we printed out a ghost. I cut 31 ghosts out, and Nic helped me add eyes and a mouth. Then we brainstormed things we wanted to do specifically for Halloween -- most of them are crafts to decorate the house/outside with, and some of them are just blank.

• Make a scarecrow
• Make a wreath for the front door
• Convince daddy to wear a halloween costume when trick or treating
• Make pumpkin luminaries (both painted and tissue paper versions)
• Decorate foam pumpkins and ghosts
• Make tin can luminaries
• Decorate a foam pumpkin garland
• Make yarn spiders and tape webs
• Make coffee filter bats
• Make a Halloween totem pole
• Decorate wooden Halloween houses
  
• Go trick or treating

The boys added the ghosts to our tree. At that point we were done for the day. But, we came back to it the next day because we needed a haunted house for our ghosts to fly to as we ticked off the days towards Halloween. Every day as part of our calendar time - one ghost flies over to the Haunted House and we can see how much closer we are to trick or treating!