Halloween is coming. Balancing the teens interest in all things scary with my need to keep things innocent and fun for the little guy is one of the many challenges we face in our "wide age gap" family. One of the ways we've encouraged the Bigs to connect with the Little is through books. I try to get them to read to him as often as they're willing. These are a few of our Halloween favorites:
Where is Baby's Pumpkin - We love Karen Katz books in general. The life-the-flap pages keep Connell interested and excited. The page with a double flapped closet hiding the bats is by far his favorite. We have to read that page at least five times every time we read the book.
Max's Halloween - This is actually my favorite. I'm a big fan of Max and Ruby, despite their missing parents and Ruby's Oldest Child Syndrome issues. The candy names and Max's obvious dismissal of his older sister's megalomaniacal demeanor always makes me chuckle. Connell tolerates the book, but I'm sure as he gets older he'll come to appreciate Max's struggles. 
Five Little Pumpkins - A holiday classic, this book has been set to several different tunes. I prefer to recite it dramatically, giving each pumpkin its own distinct personality. There are several different versions online. The counting in this book inspired this morning's 2 minute craft.
While Connell was napping, I gathered up odds and ends from previous crafts. Since he seems to really like counting (okay, he likes saying "Two two two!" and then jumping), I thought we'd work on some simple groups of five. I found cats, bats, and ghosts left over from something the Bigs did last year. Punches I've collected over the years worked well to add circle pumpkins and fall leaves to the mix.
We had a serious conversation about the importance of respecting glue, but I suspect he was more interested in the Thomas episode playing in the background. He enjoyed sticking the self-adhesive foam shapes. The paper shapes were a little more difficult, so I helped him with those.
The finished product will look festive on the fridge! I don't think he has a clue how any of this relates to the books we read today, but he didn't eat the paper... so we're making progress!
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