This year I cut the pumpkin in front of O so he could watch as the top came off and get a better understanding of where the seeds and gooey stuff comes from. He was fascinated as I was cutting and said 'yaaaaay' when I finally got the top off.
Then he spent about 3 minutes taking the top off and putting it back on. He made icky faces at the inside of the pumpkin so I knew it was going to be interesting to try and get him to touch it.
After watching me pull most of the seeds out he finally was brave enough to touch them. To have him be more successful at the slimy part of it, I pulled a bunch of seeds to the front of the pumpkin so that he didn't have to stick his whole arm in the pumpkin. Once he saw them there he started pulling them out and smiled and made lots of his happy sounds.
He played with the seeds for a while but eventually he scooped them all onto the floor. Then he went back to the fun and non-sticky part of the experience.
O is almost 16 months and I would recommend doing this activity during any age of toddlerhood. The whole experience supports developmental growth - watching the pumpkin be whole then not whole, realizing that there is more too it then the hard & smooth skin, putting the top back on and fitting it into place, the touching and feeling. As your toddler gets older you can even use an experience like this to introduce new words to their vocabulary. And as one mom who explored a pumpkin with her child told me, she cooked the pumpkin for her son's lunch while he napped. Ours is still sitting on his table because I want to see if he's curious about it at all for a second day, I'm guessing he'll at least take the top off a few more times.
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