By Paola Minekov
Half term is here, Halloween is days away, and if your house is anything like mine, the children are already restless. Before anyone reaches for a screen, here are seven things we do in our family that cost very little, get everyone making something, and turn an ordinary half-term day into one worth remembering.
Some of these are outdoor adventures. Some happen at the kitchen table. All of them involve your children actually doing something with their hands, which as an artist and a mother, I think matters more than ever.
1. Take a spooky walk in the woods
This is always my first suggestion, because nothing matches it. A walk in the woods at this time of year is already atmospheric: fallen leaves, bare branches, strange fungi growing out of dead trees, spider webs catching the morning dew. Add Halloween to the mix and you have a ready-made adventure.
My 11-year-old is obsessed with animals, bugs and anything that crawls, flies or hides under a log. A forest walk is his idea of heaven. We look for mushrooms (never pick them, just admire, I’m paranoid like that), spot spiders’ webs, listen for owls, and talk about why dead trees are actually full of life. The children come home tired, muddy and full of stories, which is exactly the point.
If you need ideas for what to look out for, Elysium Lifestyle Magazine has a guide to spooky things to discover in the woods, from poisonous mushrooms to woodland folklore. Take it with you on your phone and turn the walk into a scavenger hunt.
2. Carve a pumpkin (together, not for them)
Pumpkin carving is the classic half-term activity, but the key is letting the children do as much of it as they safely can. An adult handles the knife, but everything else belongs to them.
Let your child draw the face or design on the pumpkin with a marker. Let them scoop out the seeds and the stringy insides (they will love this, or hate it, and both reactions are entertaining). Talk about what they want the face to look like before anyone picks up a knife. The drawing and the scooping are the creative part. The cutting is just execution.
And whatever you do, do not throw away the seeds.
3. Roast the pumpkin seeds
This is the bit most people skip, and it is the bit my children enjoy most. Once you have scooped out the pumpkin, rinse the seeds, toss them with a little olive oil and a pinch of salt, spread them on a baking tray and roast them at about 180°C for 15 to 20 minutes until they are golden and crunchy.
Pumpkin seeds are packed with protein, magnesium and zinc. They make a brilliant snack and your children will eat them because they made them. You can experiment with flavours: a little cinnamon and honey for sweet, or paprika and garlic powder for savoury. The children can measure, mix and spread the seeds themselves. It is cooking, science and Halloween all in one.
4. Bake Halloween pumpkin muffins
While the oven is on for the seeds, keep going. I make gluten-free pumpkin muffins with my children that have become a half-term tradition. They are not overly sweet, which is the whole point when the house is already full of Halloween sweets.
The base is simple: roasted pumpkin (or butternut squash or sweet potato, all work), oats, gluten-free flour, an egg, a spoonful of psyllium husk (which is brilliant for binding gluten-free baking), a little bicarbonate of soda, a splash of natural yogurt, a drizzle of honey, and seasonal spices like cinnamon, cardamom or cloves, some melted butter. Mix it all together, spoon into muffin cases and bake. If your children want them more indulgent, throw in a handful of dark chocolate chips or a few tablespoons of cocoa powder to add that ah-so-chockolatey flavour.
The batter is forgiving, so small hands can do most of the measuring and stirring. And because they are made with real vegetables, whole oats and only a touch of honey, you can feel good about the fact that they will eat four in a row.
The full recipe with measurements is on A Balanced Belly: gluten-free Halloween pumpkin muffins.
5. Build a forest creature from things you collected
If you went on a forest walk (see number 1), your children probably came home with pockets full of conkers, acorns, sticks and interesting leaves. Do not let those sit in a pile on the hallway floor. Use them.
Give your children some glue, googly eyes if you have them, and a piece of card or an old box, and challenge them to build a creature. It can be a monster, a fairy, an owl, a dragon, whatever they imagine. The only rule is that it has to be made from what they found.
This is the kind of activity that starts with five minutes of concentration and turns into an hour. No instructions, no template, just materials and imagination. And when they are done, the creature lives on the windowsill for weeks, which is more than you can say for most Halloween decorations.
6. Draw or paint something spooky
I am a painter, so of course this is on the list. But you do not need to be an artist to set up a painting session at the kitchen table.
Put out whatever you have: paints, pens, crayons, markers. Give everyone a piece of paper and a theme. Haunted houses. Monsters. A spooky forest. Bats. The point is not to make a masterpiece. The point is to sit together and make something.
If your children like drawing on a tablet, that counts too. Digital drawing is still drawing. I use my iPad for commissioned portraits, and my children have always drawn alongside me, on paper and on screen. The medium does not matter. The making does.
You could even turn it into a competition: who can draw the scariest pumpkin face? Best design gets carved into the real pumpkin.
7. Read a spooky story by torchlight
When the day is done and it is dark outside, pile onto the sofa or build a den from cushions and blankets, turn off the lights, and read a story by torchlight.
It does not have to be a long book. A picture book works for younger children. For older ones, a chapter of something genuinely creepy does the job. The torchlight makes it an event rather than just bedtime reading, and even children who resist picking up a book will usually get drawn in when the lights go off and someone starts reading in a spooky voice.
This is also a good reminder that a paper book is still the best screen-free entertainment there is. No battery, no notifications, no algorithm deciding what comes next. Just a story, a torch and your children’s imaginations doing all the work.
About the author
Paola Minekov is a London-based painter, digital artist, and mother of two. She co-founded Creations Atelier, a platform connecting artists and creatives with property and design professionals, and is Creative Director of Elysium Lifestyle Magazine. She also writes about food and healthy family recipes at A Balanced Belly.
See her paintings and digital work at paola.art.
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