Autumn Activities for Children of All Ages

With the new shcool year beginning and the lazy hazy days of summer coming to a close, it is very easy to realize that autumn is just aroud the seasonal corner. Soon we will have cooler days filled with falling leaves, sweaters and mugs of hot chocolate. What will you do when the children start telling you that they are bored? How about one of these autumn activities for children of all ages!!!

Most people think that once summer comes to an end so do the outside activities. I'm here to say NO! Autumn activites can be some of the best activites of the year. You just have to know about them. So here are some wonderful autumn activites for your children to enjoy. You may even have a good time too.

On one cool autumn day, you and your children can take off for a nature walk. Nature walks are very enjoyable. Children are very inquisitive creatures and they love learning new things. On a nature walk you can encourage your child's interest in the world around them. This would be a good opportunity to discuss with them the reason that leaves change colors in the autumn.

During your nature walk with your children, it would be a good time to collect leaves. These leaves will be used when you get home to make leaf rubbings. Try to encourage your children to collect leaves that aren't dry and brittle yet. The greener the leaf the better they will hold up under a rubbing. Once you get home with all of the leaves, show your children how to do a rubbing. Place a leaf (or more) under a sheet of paper and rub over the paper with a crayon. Once your children are finished with their rubbings you can tell them that even though the leaves will dry up and fade away, their rubbings will last forever. You could even frame the rubbings for a nice autumn display.

Another great autumn children activity is an autumn wreath. To make the wreath you just need scissors, glue, red, orange and yellow construction paper and a willing child. Trace your child's hands on the construction paper. Let them cut the handprints out if they are old enough. Afterwards, glue the handprints into a circle while alternating the colors until your wreath is complete. Hang it up somewhere and viola!

A leaf collage is a good autumn activity. Either print out a page with leaves on it or draw some leaves on a piece of paper. Then have some reds, yellows, browns and orange colored tissue paper. Tear small pieces of the tissue paper and roll them up in small balls. Glue each ball onto the page with the leaves on it. Fill in each leaf picture with the tissue and once finished you will have a beautiful piece of artwork to display for the autumn season. My children love rolling the tissue up into the little balls. Of course they also like throwing them at each other.

Along the same lines as the leaf collage is a dried bean mosaic. On a nice piece of heavy card stock paper, draw or copy a nature scene.....leaves, pumpkins, anything autumn related. Gather up many different types of dried beans in an assortment of colors. You then show your children how to glue the beans onto the paper in order to fill it all in and make a lovely picture.

Our favorite autumn children activity is one that is definitely fun for the whole family. Apple picking!! Find a local apple orchard that is open to the public. The apple orchard that we go to has many things to do including milking a cow, a petting zoo and hayrides. It even has a store full of apple items like jelly, candy, pies, cider, jars of fresh honey and many many more items. Even with all of the activities available there, the girls still enjoy picking the apples most of all. Once it is closer to Halloween you could take the children to a pumpkin farm. The one we go to is just like the apple orchard with all of the activites. The only difference is that you are choosing your pumpkins instead of picking apples.

Once you get home with all of the apples you have picked ,the real fun can begin.....making all those yummy apple recipes!! Our house always smells so good in the autumn due to all of the apples we had picked at the apple orchard. The children love to help make baked apples, breads, muffins, pancakes and pies.

The best thing about autumn is that there are so many different learning opportunities out there for your children to take advantage of. Enjoy the autumn season!!