What’s inside: Thanksgiving Homeschool Activities: A Roundup of Fun Crafts to do with your kids this November.
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Fun Crafts for Thanksgiving
When Charlotte Mason homeschoolers do crafts for thanksgiving, they don’t break out the macaroni noodles to glue a turkey onto construction paper.
No, they make meaningful handmade items that are not “futilities such as pea and stick work, paper mats, and the like”. (Charlotte Mason Original Home School Series, Volume 1: Home Education, page 316)
Curated Collection
With that in mind, I’ve collected ideas for you in case you or your kids feel inspired to turn their hands and mind towards thanksgiving crafting.
These may take a bit more focused attention, but the goal is the process. And the handicraft should always stay within your child’s compass.
For instance, I’ve collected some sewing projects. These are not really for the child who has never learned to sew. They are more appropriate if the child has already developed some skills in sewing.
Some of the projects might be within your child’s abilities if they have been doing various handicrafts and now find it easy to pick up new skills. Guide your children to the projects that are right for your family.
Decor-oriented
- Glass Leaf Lantern
- My guest post at How to Homeschool Your Child—which will be available on 11/6.
- A simple, but beautiful project to put on your table. Suitable for anyone who can paste and wait for it to dry.
- Quilling Turkey
- This video shows how to make a cute turkey for a card or to display in a frame.
- Honey’s Quilling has dozens of other ideas for thanksgiving quilling, including window hangings, earrings, note cards, and more.
- Pillow case covers that you hand letter “Give Thanks” or “Thankful”
- While you might consider this to be under sewing, the craft is about lettering on a seasonal pillow cover.
- You can sew an envelope pillow cover in a canvas fabric, then use fabric paint to hand letter the words.
- An alternative, no-sew version can be made with felt and glue as shown by Smiling Colors (watch the video for instructions if you need it).
- Hand Lettering Chalkboard projects
- Where the Smiles Have Been has a cute chalkboard tutorial. She uses carbon paper to trace the word(s) onto the chalkboard and then fills in the letters with a chalk pen.
- Crochet Turkey Coaster Tutorial and Pattern:
- Great tutorial on a Turkey Coaster Crochet Pattern – if you know how to crochet already.
Sewing Projects
These completely depend on the skill level of your child. I’ll list them in order of what I think is the easiest to the hardest – but remember… While I can upholster a chair, I think sewing a zipper is super-hard!! It really depends on the skills you’ve already learned.
Nevertheless, there are so many wonderful tutorials out there for sewing Thanksgiving projects, I had to include the ones I found irresistible.
- Fall leaf coasters from felt using hand sewing
- Sewing Pumpkin decorations (fabric pumpkins)
- Red Ted Art has instructions on how to do this as well as variations – some easier, some more challenging. But she gives complete instructions especially for the beginner.
- And the Brother sewing machines also have a tutorial for sewing pumpkins.
- Another one that shows you how to decorate the top of a sewn pumpkin.
- Potholder
- Mary Martha Mama has a good tutorial for a simple potholder. Just use your Fall Thanksgiving colors or patterns!
- Deb’s Days has a much more intricate pattern with a turkey applique.
- Apron
- A Thanksgiving Apron is just an apron pattern with the right “thanksgiving-y” material! Think fall colors and patterns. Warm, comforting colors.
- Sew She Can has 20 free patterns you can make an apron with.
- Table runners
- Here’s one that uses a binding and plaid material.
- Here’s one from burlap with leaf shapes sewn on.
- Turkey stuffed doll
More Challenging Sewing projects
- Turkey applique pillow
- Cute, but we are starting to get into advanced when we talk about a turkey applique pillow!
- Quilted anything: Table runners, potholders, throws, pillow covers.
- In my mind, quilting is the hardest of sewing because things have to line up and look neat. It’s up there with applique. If you are experienced at quilting, I imagine you would think this is easy. It does look fun.
- Connie Kresin found a bunch of quilted thanksgiving projects for you
Food-based projects
Food and Thanksgiving go hand in hand. I’m sure you have your favorites, but maybe your family likes to try some new food crafts around Thanksgiving. I’ll just give you links to a few of our favorite recipes.
- Pumpkin Bread. So many different versions of this! Here’s a Paleo Pumpkin Banana version that’s good for “no sugar added”! And here’s Katie Kimball’s GF muffin version that soaks the grains and uses honey.
- Fermented Cranberry Sauce. This is a make-ahead and runs on the tart side from Melissa Norris.
- Maple Pecans. Nuts sweetened with maple syrup.
- Make ahead Pie Crust: You can make it ahead. I like to make a butter crust dough, shape it into a disc, then wrap it securely in parchment paper, and freeze it. Thaw when ready to make the pie. See my post for tips on how many pies you need with the free pie calculator.
- Cranberry Apple Sauce
- What post would be complete without more cranberry recipes? Try this cranberry applesauce recipe.
Remember
Have fun with your family and remember the joy in the process. Practicing gratitude and slowing down can help!
