Pumpkin Carving with Kids

October means fall has arrived, pumpkin festivals are a plenty, and Halloween is near. That means it’s pumpkin carving time! Pumpkin carving with kids is always a fun time. Using a Pumpkin Masters carving kit can make carving even easier.

Pumpkin Masters sent us several carving kits to try out – their regular carving kit, a kids carving kit, a surface carving kit, and decorating punches. We were excited to try out the different kits, but we were most intrigued by the kids carving kit.

The Kids Carving Kit came with a larger saw than the regular kit. It was easier to hold and easier to control. This is perfect for kids. The carving saws are so much safer and easier to use than knives. I would not let my almost 4 year old use anything but a butter knife, but we did let him use the carving saw from the kids kit. He helped his daddy move the saw up and down.

Check out the video of our pumpkin carving experience:

Pumpkin carving step one is to cut open and clean out your pumpkin. Cut open the pumpkin from the bottom. Then, you won’t have a strange line on the top of your pumpkin that could interfere with your carving.

Next, you must have fun scooping out the seeds. The carving kit has a handy scoop just for that.

Check out all of those pumpkin innards. Last year we roasted the seeds and used the scraped out pumpkin to make some pumpkin oobleck! It’s ooey gooey sensory fun!

It’s time to tape your pattern of choice to the pumpkin. Aiden chose the spider. The kids carving kit has a kid-friendly way to transfer the pattern to your pumpkin – a crayon!

The pattern has holes punched in it. All you do is color the dots. Aiden was able to help with this step. The regular carving kit has a special tool that you use for transferring a pattern. The wheel tool works well for more intricate patterns, but it is difficult for children to use successfully. The crayon transfer method is great.

After all that prep work {which is totally worth it}, it’s finally time to carve! Aiden helped a little with the carving, but mostly he just watched and cheered loudly. Every time a piece was finished he would cheer. {Side note: for more intricate patterns, the Pumpkin Masters website recommends leaving all of the pieces in the pumpkin until you’re finished carving. It will help give the pumpkin a little more stability while carving.}

Here’s our finished spider pumpkin.

We washed off the crayon dots, gave the spider eyes, and added the multi-color xtreme strobe light. Here’s the spider during the daylight.

Here’s the spider at night. So cool!

Last year we used one of the regular carving kits from Pumpkin Masters. Here’s our cute kitty popping out of jack 0’lantern.

You can find Pumpkin Masters kits and accessories at your local grocery, drug, or craft store, and nationally at Target and Walmart.

Pumpkin Masters Carving Contest

Are you up for a carving challenge? Now that you have the tools, you can be creative and enter the annual Pumpkin Masters Carving Contest.

Share a picture of your carving via Instagram or Twitter with #PumpkinMasters2013, submit via the Facebook app, or send via email to: social@pumpkinmasters.com to enter for the chance to win one of six prizes, including $5,000 for the Best Pumpkin!

The contest runs from October 1 – 31, 2013. Check out the contest details and official rules at Pumpkin Masters.

Have fun!

Be sure to check out all of our fun Halloween ideas.

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