Happy Halloween!

The October spooky season is many families’ favorite season, but it can also be stressful or overwhelming for children and parents alike. Here are some fun Halloween crafts to make sure everyone has a safe and fang-tastic October! 

Many children love October for the month’s spooky season, costumes, crafts, events, and foods. Rather than waiting to celebrate Halloween at the end of the month, why not have some fun by doing some ghoulish crafts with the family throughout the month? 

When you’re planning your children’s activities, it’s important to keep safety, their needs, and well-being in mind - even more so when other children, and their safety is also concerned! 

Here’s how to celebrate Halloween all through October, while keeping everyone safe—and happy!

Making Halloween Safe

For some children, those who are sensitive to too much stimuli, or anxious about busy social settings, Halloween can often be overwhelming or frightening. Even further, it’s important to think about accessibility and inclusion for everyone. Talk to your children about what expectations are around Halloween, and remind them that although it can sometimes be scary or overwhelming, Halloween is all pretend and they can always say ‘no’ and set boundaries. 

For others, the excitement can keep building until the big night! Those who love to dash door to door to get candy and hang out with friends should be reminded of safety rules: 

• use sidewalks and crosswalks
• obey traffic lights
• only cross the street at corners
• look both ways
• know how and when to ask for help 
• when and where to turn around and come back home 
• don’t overeat the sugary goodies or suffer a stomachache! 

To get everyone in the mood for All Hallows’ Eve, here are our favorite 3 kid-safe Halloween crafts! PS: did we mention they’re perfectly fun and safe for everyone?

1. Tissue Box Monsters

These funny creations might help kids remember there aren’t real monsters. Plan ahead to save your tissue boxes from the recycling bin, and then gather these supplies from your local craft store:

• Acrylic paint
• Googly eyes
• Pom-poms and/or pipe cleaners 
• White cardboard
• Glue

Ready to design your own monster? Follow these basic instructions to get everyone in on the fun: 

1. Paint the outside and inside of the box with two different colors. 
2. Cut out large teeth from the cardboard paper, and glue the teeth to the inside of the tissue box mouth.
3. Glue googly eyes to the outside to give your monster some personality!
4. Add pom-poms, pipe cleaners, and other crafty supplies to the top to give them “hair.”

2. Pumpkin Stress Balls

Besides being fun to make and play with, these serve another purpose as also helping children who deal with anxiety at Halloween, or all year round.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Latex free orange balloons
• A funnel
• Uncooked rice or dry beans
• Black or multi-colored markers

Ready to “carve” your pumpkin stress balls? Follow these instructions:

1. Insert the funnel into the neck of the latex free balloon.
2. Dump the uncooked rice or beans into the funnel to fill the balloon, leaving some room at the top. 
3. Securely tie the end of the balloon.
4. Use the marker to draw jack-o-lantern faces and Halloween patterns on the balloons!

3. Clothespin Bats

While younger ones may need some help cutting out the ‘bats’, this is a fun activity to get the whole family involved to making these spooky (and friendly) winged creatures!

Here’s what you’ll need to gather up:

• Black construction paper or cardboard
• Googly eyes—try looking for some red ones!
• Scissors
• Clothes pins
• A silver marker or crayon
• A black crayon
• Glue

Ready to get crafting? Here's how to make the spooky clothespin bats::

1. Color the clothespins with the black crayons.
2. Cut out some bat wings and a bat head, remembering that they aren’t meant to be perfect! 
3. Decorate the wings with the silver marker or crayon.
4. Glue the eyes on the ‘head’ of the bats.
5. Clip the wings and head in with the clothespin, adding some glue if there isn’t enough from the eyes to hold it in place.

Have a spook-tacular October!