The arrival of October means it’s time for children and families to prepare for Halloween! Arriving on the 31st of the month, it’s a firm favourite for any childhood and gives children the opportunity for uniquely spooky fun, games and dressing up. Indeed, Halloween offers a wonderful variety of activities for children to take part in and that’s exactly what we look at in today’s article. Stand by, then, to prepare the household for some spookylicious Halloween activity ideas for kids!
Dress up in Spooky Halloween Costumes
Children adore dressing up for Halloween. The spooky nature of Halloween costumes really appeals to them, especially if they get together with friends and compare outfits on Halloween evening.
A huge range of wonderful Halloween fancy dress costumes is available to purchase. However, your child can have even more fun and potentially save costs by making their own Halloween outfit. It’s both great fun and a wonderfully creative activity. Here are a few ideas but bear in mind, of course, that any fabric cutting should be done by adults or, for older children, under their supervision:
- A white bedsheet with two eye holes suitably positioned makes for a wonderfully effective ghost costume. Kids will love wearing these and leaping out at unsuspecting family and friends!
Similarly, black sheets are easy to make into witch or wizard outfits. Alternatively, use black clothing and, if it’s no longer being worn for anything else, it can even be given ragged edges for extra effect. Add pointy black hats made of cardboard or paper and the costumes are complete.- Clothing that’s no longer needed is a great canvas on which children or parents can paint the bones of the body, so children wearing the costume look like spooky walking skeletons. Some black and white face painting will complete the effect by creating a ‘skull’ face!
- Home-made spider costumes are also feasible using black clothing, stuffed jumpers (for the body) and extra spider legs made from black tights stuffed and attached to the child’s belt.
- Similarly, children can dress up as pumpkins simply by using an orange top or t-shirt, suitably decorated in paint so children look like walking, talking Jack-O’-Lanterns!
As you can see, these home-made Halloween outfits are fairly simple to accomplish, without the need for much, if any, expense. This activity is also one that really gets children’s creative juices and a sense of fun flowing.
Display Some Spooky Halloween Decorations
If you want your child’s Halloween experience to be truly spooktacular, encourage them to decorate the house – whether inside or out – with all manner of ghoulish decorations and ghostly paraphernalia. Home-made spider webs can, of course, be made using string, thread or stretched-out cotton wool. However, such decorations can usually be purchased inexpensively from supermarkets, which typically have cheap Halloween decorations around October each year. Spiders can be home-made by children from wool or black pipe cleaners, or similarly bought commercially along with shop-bought decorations depicting skeletons, ghosts, bats and suchlike. You can also buy LED lights, including strings of lights, that look like Halloween pumpkin lanterns. Such lighting is great for extra atmosphere!
Make Spooky Food & Drink
If your household is carving pumpkins for Halloween this year, perhaps save some of the flesh and use it to make a spookylicious pumpkin soup for the family to eat come Halloween evening time. There are plenty of excellent recipes online and children can help make the soup, under supervision for safety purposes.
Children of all ages also generally love cooking biscuits and cookies, so why not encourage them to make some that are Halloween-themed? Perhaps try ghost-shaped and bat-shaped cookies with decorating in black and white icing (see example).
Drinks can also be themed by children by painting Halloween imagery onto paper cups – it’s another simple Halloween children’s activity that’s both fun and creative.
Supermarkets are also sure to sell Halloween-themed party food, drink and accessories as Halloween approaches, so there’s usually lots for children and families to choose from.
Host a Spooktacular Halloween Party!
Children can combine Halloween fancy dress costumes, spooky decorations, and themed food and drink by hosting a Halloween party for friends and family. Such preparations are sure to set up a wonderfully spooky atmosphere in which children will have immense fun comparing outfits and getting into the spirit of the event. Add Halloween-themed games, play ghostly music and take turns to read ghost stories and the evening is sure to be one to remember! It’s also a great conduit through which children can socialise and perhaps grow stronger bonds.
Trick-or-Treating Activity
Take the Halloween activities to an extra level by arranging a group trick-or-treat session, under adult supervision, for children in your street. They will absolutely love this activity and it’s sure to result in much giggling and laughter if it goes as planned. However, be sure to check with each neighbour before the day. In that way, they can opt out if they prefer not to get involved. For those that do take part, most neighbours usually go the ‘treat’ route but be ready for the possibility that a few may opt for the ‘trick’ option, in which scenario the children under your supervision will need to be ready with a fun but harmless trick. Some forethought and creative thinking may be needed there, with care being taken not to allow children to overstep the mark.
Also, be sure to buy suitable sweets or gifts for children who may trick-or-treat and knock on your door (age-appropriate, of course).
Visit a Local Pumpkin Patch
Pumpkin patches are often wonderful places for children and families to spend a few hours in the run-up to Halloween. In such places, your little one can explore amongst hundreds of pumpkins and other gourds of different sizes and shapes. And, if they find one they take a liking to, they can usually be purchased to take home, or might even be included in the price if the venue has an entrance fee. Pumpkin patches often also have other Halloween-themed activities at this time of year, whether it’s displays where you can take memorable snaps of your child amongst the pumpkins, wheelbarrow rides for children across a pumpkin field, pop-up refreshments with Halloween-themed food and drink or pumpkin-decorating workshops, they’re always great fun for children. They really help to make Halloween the special time of year that it is.
Pumpkin patches are usually found on farms and agricultural locations, so you may not have one locally if you live in a big city like London. However, some may be a short train, bus or car ride away. Either way, try Googling ‘pumpkin patches near me‘ and see if any of the results throw up a pumpkin patch that’s within reach.
Decorate Pumpkins & Make Jack-O’-Lanterns
Once you’ve sourced a suitable pumpkin for your child, it’s time for the really fun part — pumpkin carving and decorating! While the carving part may not be suited to children of a young age (knives are super-dangerous), they can usually help, under supervision, with scooping out the flesh and then, the most fun part of all, decorating. Pumpkins can depict faces, spiders, owls or any spooky imagery you or your little one can imagine. And, even if they may be too young to carve the holes,
they can still decorate using paint or markers, or simply enjoy Mum or Dad getting creative on their behalves.
Once ready, the spooky pumpkin(s) are ready to display indoors or out once it gets dark. Adults should supervise if lighting the pumpkins with real-flame tea lights, or better still look out for flickering LED fake candles, which will be the safest option. Children will love looking at these pumpkin lanterns (also known as Jack-O’-Lanterns) glowing in the dark and they will really set the Halloween atmosphere.
TIP: Kids don’t even really need a pumpkin; the smallest of children can decorate oranges or yellow/orange bell peppers! They look really cute and an added bonus is that they avoid the need for any carving.
Little Cedars Nursery, Streatham, London SW16
We hope today’s article gives children and families some good ideas for Halloween this year. These days, it’s simply a wonderful opportunity for children to have fun, socialise and get creative with friends and family. It’s also a unique milestone in the calendar each year and something children can really look forward to.
A Nursery Place for Your Baby, Toddler or Preschooler in Streatham
Trust your weekday childcare to a ‘Good Provider’ (it’s official!). We are a high-quality nursery and preschool located in Streatham, London SW16, offering a first-class early years education and childcare service to babies, toddlers and preschoolers under five. We may also suit if you’re located in Streatham Hill, Streatham Park, Streatham Common, Furzedown, Tooting, Tooting Bec, Tooting Broadway, Tooting Common, Balham, Norbury or Colliers Wood. What’s more, we support free childcare through various Government schemes, making childcare more affordable for eligible families.
Request a place for your child, a tour, or more information below — we look forward to hearing from you:
In today’s guide, we outline a simple but powerful nature-based activity that will be both fun and educational for children and under-fives. This one is all about how to sow wildflower seeds. Once growing, these will bring beauty and wonder to any setting. The activity will also complement our recent 
Children benefit very much from spending time in nature, as we outlined in our article entitled 
Colour(s) — Children can help decide whether to grow wildflowers of just one colour, a limited 2- or 3-colour palette or perhaps multiple colours. If parents have an existing colour theme in their garden or plant area, they may wish to point children in a particular direction, so as to keep that colour theme going.
Free wildflower seeds can be harvested from existing wildflowers — either from your own wildflowers if you have them, or from those found in the wild along hedgerows and similar (N.B. only do so in moderation and for personal use). Timing will, of course, be critical because seeds will only be available at certain times of the year, i.e. when the wildflowers have “gone to seed” at the end of their flowering period.
Sowing seeds on existing lawns that you/your child want as a wildflower meadow is simply a case of scattering seeds on the lawn, ideally spaced out in such a way that they don’t have to compete with each other once they start growing. Then ensure that the area of lawn is kept moist by either rain or, if there is no rain, regular sprinkling from a watering can fitted with a sprinkling head (a.k.a. ‘rose head’). Children may need to remind adults not to cut the lawn thereafter, of course!
Children will love it once the wildflowers begin to grow and later bloom. They’ll also love seeing bees, butterflies, and other insects visiting and the results of the activity may indeed give them a great sense of accomplishment. The whole process and the results are quite magical when you think about it.
In today’s post, we explore the benefits of using positive language around under-fives. All too often, it’s tempting to say ‘No!’, ‘Stop that!’ or even ‘Don’t Eat That!’ and similar around little ones. This is particularly true when you want them to cease the offending activity urgently or are simply exhausted if it’s been a challenging day. There are good reasons for such negative commands, of course, not least that of their safety in many cases. However, such commands can sound stern and cause stress for the little ones. What’s more, if a child hears too much negative language and cannot understand why they’re not allowed to do a particular thing, problems can begin to arise and, indeed, the issue can become insidious. It may even result in worsening behaviour. Let’s explore, therefore, the issues around negative language and the simple solution that’s available in the form of positive language.
Sometimes, though, constantly hearing ‘no’ can spark tantrums, particularly if a child doesn’t understand the reason they are not allowed to do something. They can feel particularly frustrated when they receive a succession of negative commands and, in the end, may feel they simply can’t do anything right. This can lead not only to stress for them, but also to possible low self-esteem. Furthermore, if they hear ‘no’ and other negative language too often, they can begin to ‘tune out’ to it. They could then go on to develop challenging behaviour due to this, their confusion and frustration. Stress levels can then rise for the parent too, the infant can pick up on this and it can become a real vicious circle. It doesn’t have to be that way, though …
Stop shouting!
Please use a much softer voice.
A childcare nursery should not be thought of only as a crèche, playgroup, or simply somewhere that looks after babies and children while parents go to work. Good nurseries and pre-schools like Little Cedars are so much more than that. It’s incredible just how much they benefit under-fives, families and society as a whole once you take a closer look at everything they do — and that’s exactly what we’re doing today…
What’s more, staff at childcare settings like Little Cedars will form close bonds with little ones. Studies show that 
Good Ofsted-registered nurseries/pre-schools like Little Cedars also give under-fives a full early years education. That’s important to know. Through a learning and development programme that’s customised to each individual child, we ensure they achieve their own personal bests in all areas of the statutory 
Part of children’s personal, social and emotional development comes through active play with other children that they meet and get to know at the nursery. This is firstly great fun, of course, and that’s a hugely important part of any happy childhood. However, they’ll also learn many things through play. Without socialising with others, it would be more difficult to improve social skills, for example. Only by being around other children will they learn to account for the feelings of others, learn to respect one another and ultimately form close bonds, trust and friendships. Many such friendships will indeed continue long afterwards, as children move to schools at the age of five.
Another key aim of good early years childcare provision is to prepare children thoroughly for school. Why? Because 
It’s almost as if children are super-charged for success — the benefits of a good early years education are surprisingly long lasting. Some studies even show that the benefits last into people’s working lives, improving salaries (
Working so closely with babies, toddlers and preschoolers allows us to continually monitor their individual progress. In so doing, we are in a prime position to spot any issues early and to make appropriate arrangements to mitigate them if needed. For example, we may spot that a child is finding reading challenging. If so, we can put extra effort and time into improving the situation for the child. On occasion, that may even include talking to parents about the possible intervention of a specialist of some kind, or it could simply be that they need to practise specific activities to overcome the issue. The earlier challenges or any special educational or developmental needs are spotted, the sooner the child in question can be helped.
It’s amazing how much nature benefits children, particularly in their early years when they’re finding out about the world around them — and also learning about themselves. There have been many studies into the importance of nature, to youngsters in particular, and the studies all reach a similar conclusion — nature is incredibly important and beneficial to children. Today we’ll explore the topic and learn why children should regularly access the natural world.
Stress is also reduced on both a mental and physiological level through exposure to a natural environment. In studies, stress hormone and blood pressure levels both improved after exposure to nature, helping children both physically and emotionally. Nature seems to be a great way to recharge children’s batteries and lower stress and anxiety, as well as improving attention, engagement and academic performance. That includes improvements in important skills like reading, writing and mathematics.
Improved social skills and even wider circles of friends due to the opportunities offered through outdoor play and adventure.
The new skills, knowledge and freedom that nature gives children also helps them to become more self-confident and independent individuals.
Even in built-up cities like London, immersion in nature is possible via gardens, parks, commons or, if you’re lucky to have them near you, nature reserves and nature gardens. There are many of these dotted around London, including 
If you’re searching for 
Sooner or later, many parents will consider the possible benefits of pets and whether their child should grow up with one. Mostly, the answer is positive because growing up with a pet can benefit children in many important ways — and really enrich their lives. However, looking after animals is a huge responsibility, not least to the animal itself, so should never be taken on lightly. Today we explore the topic and also outline a couple of animal-related initiatives that we have undertaken at 
On a simple level, pets are incredibly cute and great fun to be around. As such, most children are naturally drawn to them.
Familiarity with animals and closeness to pets also teaches children respect for other individuals (whether human or non-human), including recognition of the consequences of their actions towards them. It shows them how to care for others too. It can also teach them patience (e.g. when training) and even some of the harder lessons about life cycles.
Introducing animals like dogs and cats to the household is quite a life-changing thing. After all, they are the kinds of animals that pretty much become one of the family and, as such, require significant time, care and attention for their own wellbeing. They also often live freely within the house and require access to the garden and, for dogs, regular walks outdoors. They are quite an undertaking, so the decision to introduce one needs careful and thorough consideration. Many animals form deep, lifelong bonds and you will become their family just as much as they become yours. So, that lifelong commitment is an important one — they are absolutely not unfeeling objects to be treated like just a toy.
Pets like hamsters, rabbits, budgies and guinea pigs require less space in the household, of course. Indeed, some types of pets can be housed outdoors in suitable hutches. They’re also small enough to be temporarily moved elsewhere, for example to a friend or neighbour when you go on holiday. However, despite them being small, they too have their own needs and wants, including your care and regular attention. Giving them this, however, will be rewarded and children who spend significant time with any pet will soon begin to pick up on each one’s distinct personality and any likes or dislikes. Treat them well and pets will become trusting and friendly. Dogs, in particular, are incredibly loyal when treated well.
Just like humans, animals need care, proper food, fresh water, friendship, comfort and stimulation. If they don’t get these essentials, they may lead miserable and potentially even foreshortened lives. So, before a family takes on a pet, it’s best to thoroughly research the particular type of animal and exactly what they will require, from food, nutrition and bedding to stimulation (games, exercise etc.), contact with others and medical needs. Families should find out about all these things before taking an animal on. For some types of animal, for example dogs, even the breed and background is important. That’s for the wellbeing of both the pet and the family itself. Remember too that some animals will need training, for example toilet training in the case of cats, dogs and perhaps even ‘house’ rabbits. Some dogs may also require behaviour training. Everything needs factoring in beforehand including things like who will look after the pets while adults are at work, what happens when you go on holiday, who will exercise the dog, clean out the rabbit hutch regularly, feed the rabbit or clean the budgie cage.
At Little Cedars Nursery in Streatham, we believe that children will learn a huge amount through contact with animals. For this reason, we have our own chickens and rabbits at the setting — and the children adore them! Our rabbits are named Miffy and Bella and indeed naming them naturally encourages children to treat them like individuals rather than something to play with.
We are also raising some new chickens from fertilised eggs that we currently have in an incubator. We’ll teach children all about the life cycle of chickens with these. Once they hatch, children are sure to love the adorable little chicks that will emerge and they’ll be able to watch them grow up from fluffy chicks to adult chickens. When old enough, the chickens will join our existing, fully-grown chickens that we keep for the children in our animal enclosure outside.
We also have a caterpillar/butterfly enclosure indoors at the setting. Through this, children can follow the incredible life cycle of butterflies, starting off as tiny eggs, hatching into caterpillars, building cocoons and eventually emerging as incredibly beautiful butterflies. This is an amazing metamorphosis for children to witness and teaches them so much about the wonder of the natural world as well as the individual needs of some of its creatures.
In our last post, we asked 
For those on dairy-based formula milk, it’s pretty much plain sailing too. Because vegetarians — as opposed to vegans — are OK eating dairy-based food, formula milk is generally fine for them. The most popular types are based on cows’ milk, although several other animal milks are also available. So long as dairy-based formula milk is high quality, given in the right quantities, consumed at the right intervals and is age appropriate for the child, it contains all the nutrients and vitamins needed. That’s without the need to give additional supplements too.
Fruit and vegetables are really a given because they pack so much goodness, including many vitamins, minerals like potassium and also fibre. Fresh vegetables and fruit are ideal but, failing that, frozen, tinned and even dried varieties are also OK.
Tofu, also known as bean curd, which is made from soy.
any pulses, seeds or grains should be sprouted, cooked or soaked before consumption (as appropriate);
