5 Fall Activities Your Family Will Love
Celebrate the season with five fall activities your family will love—in or near your home—guaranteed to make your kids smile!
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Fall is synonymous with apple picking, hay rides, pumpkin patches, corn mazes, and the beautiful sights of radiant foliage. Because Mother Nature has created such a feast for the senses, gather your family together and enjoy one or all of the following activities to celebrate glorious autumn:
- Make Mini Scarecrows for Your Young Children
- Have a Build a Scarecrow Party
- Press Some Leaves
- Go on a Treasure Hunt with Geocaching
- Make Candied and Caramel Apples
Fall Activities Your Family Will Love
Tip 1: Make Mini Scarecrows for Your Young Children
Nothing says fall like an overstuffed, silly scarecrow! Most families perch them on their front porches or under a big tree in their yards, but another great place to prop them is somewhere inside your house where you can enjoy them up close and personal.
You just gather up some of your kids’ old pants, shirts, hats, and accessories (or use doll clothing), as well as scarecrow materials such as straw (or packing material from delivered packages) and burlap to build funny scarecrows that will take up a temporary residence in your child’s bedroom.
You can have your kids help, or you can surprise and thrill them as scarecrows make great tea party guests and bedtime companions when it’s time to get some sleep!
Tip 2: Have a Build a Scarecrow Party
Our neighborhood began a fun fall tradition several years ago called the “Build a Scarecrow Party.” (You could also do this at home with your children ages six and up as part of your fall activities.)
To make this work, decide how many scarecrows will be built—one or two for each person there. Then everyone must bring one or two complete outfits so there are enough pants, shirts, etc., for everyone to take one or two complete scarecrows home.
Meet in someone’s home or garage and bring supplies for the scarecrows. These items include old jeans or skirts and tights, worn-out men’s shirts, costume jewelry, gloves, colorful yarn or old wigs, and several bags of pillow stuffing that you can buy at your local craft store. Many times, we also build mini scarecrows out of baby and children’s clothes.
We pool all our items so everyone can build unique scarecrow friends for their family.
The fun is in the mixing and matching up of pieces to create unique scarecrows to take home from the party. There will be lots of laughing!
Serve apple cider, muffins, and donuts, and make an amusing afternoon of it. Everyone leaves with one or two unique scarecrows that find a place of honor in their homes or kids’ bedrooms until after Thanksgiving.
Tip 3: Press Some Leaves
Capture the beautiful foliage by pressing leaves to admire all year long. All you need are some freshly fallen leaves, clear contact paper, and a pair of scissors.
Take your kids on a nature walk or through your neighborhood or park, and gather as many pretty leaves as you can. Then, sort the leaves on a table.
Next, cut the clear contact paper to the size you want. I recommend 12 x 12 pieces because your artwork can be used as placemats or hung in windows. Cut out two pieces of contact paper for each placemat you plan to make.
Arrange the leaves in any pattern you like. Rearrange until you love your design.
Peel the contact paper off one of the cut sheets and place it sticky side up on a table. Then, place the leaves in your pattern onto the sticky side of the contact paper. Then peel and place the second piece of sticky contact paper down right on top of your leaf arrangement so your leaves are sandwiched between the contact paper.
Press firmly around each leaf and across the whole picture. Trim it any way you want.
Hang in a sunny window, use it as a placemat, or mail your vibrant celebration of autumn projects as gifts to relatives.
Tip 4: Go on a Treasure Hunt with Geocaching
Geocaching is a real-world outdoor treasure hunt where the goal is to find caches (or containers) filled with objects that other people have hidden.
Check out www.geocaching.com, the official website, to find cache locations near you.
Then, use your smartphones to track the treasures, often stashed behind rocks, in tree hollows, or under park benches.
It’s an exciting scavenger hunt for the whole family!
Tip 5: Make Candied and Caramel Apples
It wouldn’t be fall without sweet and juicy apples.
Whether you live near an orchard and can go apple picking as a family or take advantage of this scrumptious fruit at a local farmers’ market or your favorite grocer.
There are literally dozens of recipes available to turn a delectable apple into an extraordinary treat. You can dip it in a candy or caramel coating, then roll it in toffee, nuts, chocolate chips, or anything else that strikes your fancy.
Your kids can help if they are old enough or excitedly choose their own apple toppings if they are too young to help.
Be sure to cover your work area with lots of waxed paper for easy clean-up.
What are you doing to celebrate the fall season? For all kinds of mom-centered creative ideas, visit me on Instagram at CanCanMomCB or on Pinterest at theCanCanMom. If you have questions or suggestions, email me at cheryl@cancanmom.com or leave a comment in the box below.
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