Smaller Jack O'Lanterns

Mena wanted to put a candle in our big Jack O'Lantern, but when I took the top off I found a whole lot of mold.  She said to me, "I have a great idea!  Let's carve the other pumpkins."  I gave each of the girls one of the little pumpkin carving knives and let them do whatever they wanted.

Mena's pumpkin.  She poked holes for the triangle she planned to cut.  She had trouble cutting straight and then declared she was cutting a circle.

Maggie just started cutting.  I think her planning was in her head rather than on the pumpkin because she declared, "I'm making a door.  Go up and down, up and down, and makes it."  Mena then said, "I'm making a circle.  It's hard."  I told Mena that it was hard, but she was tough.  Maggie repeated after me, "You're tough."  Mena said she wanted to cut a door like Maggie and told me, "A door is a rectangle so I'm cutting a rectangle."

When you look at the pumpkins, Maggie has more of a hole cut out of hers than Mena does.  Their personalities could be seen in their work.  Maggie attacked her pumpkin with vigor and cut, cut, cut away at the pumpkin.  Mena was planning hers out and disappointed that it wasn't working like she wanted.  Maggie seemed less concerned with precision than Mena did.  Maggie also seemed to figure out how to make the knife cut better than Mena did.  Even when I pointed out the zig-zag edge does the cutting, Mena still seemed to have trouble.  Maggie's got adventuresome energy for life and Mena's got planning abilities for life.  Both will carry them far!