Your Child’s Halloween Scrapbook
by Chris Kullstroem
[originally from HalloweenMagazine.com]

Just about every child is crazy about Halloween. Picking out a costume, carving pumpkins and trick-or-treating are ways to be creative and use their imagination. This Halloween, give your child a fun project that will make them enjoy the season even more. Let them create their very own Halloween scrapbook.

To start, let your child pick out their own scrapbook. At the craft store, show them a selection of small 5x7” scrapbooks to choose from. Once they’ve picked one out, let them choose some Halloween stickers and a small stack of autumn-themed craft paper. At home, put all of their pencils, crayons and markers in a plastic pumpkin or cauldron for their Halloween work station.

Use the following ideas for different items that you and your child can work on together to put into the scrapbook:

• Colorful leaves your child collects when the two of you go for autumn walks in the woods or through the park
• Halloween cards or invitations they receive to Halloween parties from family and friends ? Halloween drawings and paintings they make, as well as pages from Halloween coloring books they’ve done
• Halloween crafts that they make in school
• Crafts they make at home or that the two of you make together, such as pumpkins or ghosts made from construction paper or Halloween cards to send out
• Souvenirs from a Halloween party, such as a gift bag or a nametag
• A list of your child’s Halloween favorites, such as their favorite Halloween TV special, their favorite Halloween song, and what they like most about Halloween
• Pictures from your little photographer. Give your child a small disposable camera so they can take their own pictures of their Halloween adventures, such as going to a pumpkin patch, going to a Halloween party, decorating the house and helping to bake pumpkin bread or ghost cookies
• Pictures that you take of them of picking out pumpkins, carving or painting their pumpkin, in their Halloween costume, and trick-or-treating

Encourage your child to be creative by putting Halloween stickers and a variety of autumn-themed craft paper throughout their scrapbook. On the first page, have them title their scrapbook, such as “Jessie’s Halloween Scrapbook, 2006.”

This is a great craft for the Halloween season because it’s something the two of you can create together and look back on each Halloween. The scrapbook is also something your child can show their friends and family after the season, and share with the class during show-and-tell. Start this new craft with your child today, and you may even turn Halloween scrapbooking into a yearly tradition that you and your child can enjoy together with each new season!