One of the things I’ve lamented as a working mom is that I don’t feel like I’m able to do fun holiday crafts and activities with my kids. By mid-September my Pinterest feed fills with pumpkins made on paper plates, string cheese ghosts, and spooky treats galore, and every single inch of me wants to break out the construction paper and glue and just get crafty!
The actual times that I do make these holiday crafts, though, are few and far between because reality sets in. Finding all of the supplies for a project, setting it up so it is accessible for my preschooler, actually making the craft, and then cleaning up takes a lot of TIME AND ENERGY, and doing all of that while simultaneously doing all of my normal weekday chores after work turns out to be more hectic and stressful than fun and filled with holiday spirit.
Soooooooooo I put on my thinking cap and employed some of my elementary teaching skills I’ve developed and voila! Halloween Countdown Mystery Bags!
Each day in October, we will open one mystery bag in the morning to find out what our project or activity is for that day, and then actually complete it when we get home in the afternoon. Inside the bag will be a picture of what we are making/doing and all the (non-perishable) supplies or ingredients we will need.
Now, I should begin here by saying that there is a fair amount of prep that goes into this, but once you do it, you pretty much just get to enjoy each mystery bag as you go!
Before you get started, if this sounds like something you’d like to do with your little monsters, click here to download a calendar, shopping list, and how-to for all of the activities I’m doing with my gremlins this month!
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