Letting Kids Carve Their Own Pumpkins

Every year at Halloween, the kids look forward to choosing their pumpkins and then carving them. It used to be that I did most of the carving. I would let them draw on the pumpkin and then I would cut it out with their guidance. Carving pumpkins can be a scary proposition using sharp knives in a confined space with kids eagerly standing next to you, wanting to be close so that they can see it all.

A couple of years ago, I found (and purchased) two My Safe Cutter knifes from Pampered Chef. These knives are great. They have a small blade with large serrations. The edge is not sharp, yet somehow because of that serration, they still manage to cut things easily - including pumpkins.
My daughter still needs some help getting started, but my son completely carved his own pumpkin this year. He even removed the top - no starter cuts were even required. He says that the big opening beneath the mouth is a beard. I asked why he chose to cut out the beard rather than color/draw it, especially since he drew on glasses and ears. His response was "I just wanted to" - which is fine with me, it was his Jack-o-Lantern.
Letting my kids be creative (and safe) works for me.

This post shared at Works for Me Wednesday.