National Pumpkin Day Activities on a Shoestring

Our family lives a simple, debt-free life on a single income. I homeschool and my husband has his own business. Fun doesn’t always have to come with a hefty price tag. Here is how we are having some fun this year on the “dedicated” national days’ on a shoestring.

Cooking with Pumpkins on National Pumpkin Day

Every year as far back as I can remember my mom always made pumpkin cookies for Christmas and Thanksgiving. Even though I do not have her exact recipe pumpkin cookies are delicious.

Now that we have a National Pumpkin Day, we will switch cooking the pumpkin cookies to celebrate. Pumpkins are really a once a year event that are centered around Halloween. History shows that pumpkins originated with the Pilgrims and thrived. They were hardy vegetables that lasted into winter and that it how they were associated with Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims loved the pumpkins and used them in recipes. When introduced to England, the weather was cooler there, and pumpkins never really took off.

In accordance with National Pumpkin day add a history lesson of pumpkins. They are in the gourd family and have a long growing season from June until October. Pumpkins are so great that we gave this gourd it’s own day.

Pumpkin Day Fun on a Shoestring

First, we use our pumpkins for carving, and eating. So, this year I think National Pumpkin Day for us may be picking out our pumpkin. Whether going to the store, or pumpkin patch, celebrating National Pumpkin Day will involve selecting the pumpkin. Carving it will be closer to Halloween. If we carve our pumpkin too early, then it molds and the squirrels eat it. Many times as we get our pumpkins closer to Halloween they are discounted.

Next, eating the pumpkin seeds is always fun for us. We fry them in the cast iron skillet with a little bit of oil and salt. They come out tasting delicious like popcorn. To add to the family fun a movie always goes great with pumpkin seeds.

Another way to use pumpkin seeds is for homeschool math. We count the pumpkin seeds. After counting the pumpkin seeds they are used for math division, tallies, addition and subtraction. Pumpkin seeds have many uses in our homeschool.

Pumpkin Science Experiment

Pumpkins are not only good to eat, but are also great to use in a volcano experiment. I am sure there are many great experiments they are used for, but we like to create a volcano in our pumpkins.

Pumpkins’ can be used in gravity experiments, we have tried to see if they will also work well on a trampoline. For our homeschool, we decided to make National Pumpkin day our day to complete a pumpkin unit study.

Sink or float is another fun science experiment that the kids’ and I love. I fill up a tub, or bucket from around the house and fill it with water. Walmart has pumpkins pretty cheap, both big and little. We each take a guess before our pumpkin goes in, and this low cost experiment is fun. Three out of our four pumpkins floated. Each kid gave their thoughts and then we did some research.

National Pumpkin Day is perfect for pumpkin based crafts, cooking, and homeschooling. Shopping for deals and planning ahead are the best ways to save and have fun on a shoestring. How will you celebrate your Pumpkin day?

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