Halloween

Favorite Toddler Halloween Books

With Halloween coming up, we have decided to intersperse our favorite Halloween story books into the mix of our bedtime stories. We have accumulated several of them over the years and I'm sure we will continue to add to the list.  As of today, the following 6 books are our favorites.  They include entertaining stories, interactivity, and of course Halloween fun.

Happy Halloween, Daniel Tiger!: A Lift-the-Flap Book 

Tyler loves Daniel Tiger and we love the positive messages presented in the show, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.  Daniel Tiger actually was a big help in getting Tyler ready for his baby sister.  We can talk about that another time. In this book, Daniel and his friends are getting ready for Halloween.  The book takes you through each character’s costume and you use clues to guess what they are going to be.  The flaps make this a fun book to read with toddlers.

 

Goodnight Goon: a Petrifying Parody

If you like Goodnight Moon, then you will thoroughly enjoy this Halloween parody.  In similar style to the original, this book takes you through the things in the little monster's room at bedtime.  The difference is these items include goo, a witch, a werewolf, a black hat, and more.  The pictures are cute, not scary, so it's enjoyable for the kids.  

 

Happy Halloween! (Sesame Street Scribbles Elmo)

This story is actually one of my favorites.  Probably because I am a BIG Edgar Allen Poe fan.  I just love the rhythm of his poetry.  This book is written with the same rhythm as Poe's The Raven. This makes it as fun for me to read as it is for Tyler to hear.  The story describes the Count waiting as guests arrive for his Halloween party.  There is definitely some knocking at Count's castle door.  The story features your favorite Sesame Street characters dressed in their Halloween best. In the end, you are invited to the party too!

Peanuts: It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

This book is of the classic Charlie Brown story.  We all know this story, or at least we should.  If you don't know it, do yourself a favor and watch the movie.  Let your kids see it too.  It's just one of those things that everyone should do.  Anyway, the best part of this book is that it comes with reusable stickers.  I don't know about you, but my toddler loves stickers.  This book has places to put stickers on every page in order to fully illustrate the story.  This has been a hit with Tyler night after night.  

Curious George Haunted Halloween

This book is an abridged version of the cartoon "Curious George's Boo Fest". Its a cute story where George gets spooked after hearing the story of No Noggin about a monster that steals hats.  The best part is that it is an unscary scary story. As in your child will feel like he/she is enjoying the scary story experience without actually being scared.  This is really an early reader book, but T liked it a lot.  It is a great length book for toddler bedtime, too. 

BABY'S FIRST HALLOWEEN

This was Tyler's first Halloween book and we are keeping it in the mix mainly for Hailey's benefit.  However, Tyler does request it himself every once in a while.  Like most baby's first books, this book contains photos of various Halloween related things with the name of the item below the picture.  I believe that T like that some of the pictures are of kids dressed up in costume.  For example, the monster picture is a baby boy dressed up as a monster.  It's a cute book for little ones. 

For more Halloween fun, check this Halloween Handprint Craft.  We will also be posting a new Halloween Craft project later this month so stay tuned.

Cheers,

Emily

Halloween Hand Print Craft for All Ages

With Halloween coming, T and I recently made a Halloween spider craft.  This was super easy and fun.  We hung up the end result in the living room and T shows it off to everyone who comes by.  It's also nice because it can be adapted to different age groups.

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Markers/crayons

To start, draw a white or silver spider web out of the left corner of the spider web.  Then flip the paper so that the web in in the bottom left corner.  (This makes it easier to make your hand print.)

Next, paint the palm of your child's hand with black paint. This will be the spider.  Form their hand print on the spider's web.

Here are the optional parts.  If your kid is not squeamish about paint you can also do a white foot print to be a ghost.  Keep the paper upside-down as the heel should be the head of the ghost and the toes should be the bottom.  My son is super squeamish about these things, so one hand print was enough.

When you are done with your prints, you can decorate your picture. For younger kids who don't really draw yet, we used stickers of haunted houses and ghosts, etc. to decorate our page.  Older kids can use markers or crayons to draw their own spooky scene.

Once the prints have dried, you can add googly eyes to the spider and draw on a ghost face.

This is a super easy project both to create and supply.  Nothing you need should be hard to find and you may just have it all at home! I love it because you can make it fun for all different age groups.

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Definitely, try it out and share your finished products on my Facebook page!!