Category: Autumn Projects

Pumpkin Leapfrog

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Wondering what to do with all those pumpkins from the pumpkin patch? Get in a little exercise before you carve them!

Pumpkin patches are such a fantastic outing this time of year; ideally head to one where your child can truly see where pumpkins come from (attached to the vne), instead of a big lot where pumpkins have been placed in a row.

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Travis was so proud picking out our pumpkins, especially since he could lift them all by himself. At home, I asked if he wanted to play pumpkin leapfrog, which earned an eager and curious “Yes!”

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Set your pumpkins up in a line (use as many as you’d like – we had 4, but you could go up to 8 or even higher, if you want to make the course harder), and cut a line of string to mark the start and finish of your course.

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Take turns leaping over the pumpkins, and see how long it takes! You can make this competitive for older kids by using a timer, or just be silly with it for younger ones.

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Next we ran a slalom “S” course around the pumpkins, great for practicing fancy footwork.

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From there, go on and make up your own silly versions. Travis loved straddling each pumpkin, running circles around them, and more.

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The perfect activity to tide us over until its time to carve, and yet another fantastic suggestion from our Barefoot Books Kids Garden set.

 

Fall Potpourri

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We were a little aimless on Sunday morning, so I asked Travis if he wanted to help me make the whole house smell like fall. I’ve never made potpourri before, and to be honest, have always equated it with those little sachets of lavender that you put in the sock drawer. However, in looking up potpourri recipes online that were kid-friendly, I learned that potpourri doesn’t need to be tied into a sachet, and is often left on a bowl or container on the counter, simply to scent a home. This seemed like a wonderful way to invite fall inside!

To make a super-simple countertop potpourri, we started with juicy oranges, and cut them into 1/8-inch thick slices. Travis loved the smell already!

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He helped me arrange the slices on a wire rack, after which they went into the oven at a low setting (250 degrees F) for a full 2 hours to dry out. We loved peeking at them through the oven door on occasion to check their progress, and the house already smelled lovely!

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When the oranges had dried, we combined them in a bowl with cinnamon sticks, and set it out on the counter. Easy as that!

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For a version that would last a little longer, we re-used those orange slices and cinnamon sticks, but added a whole lot more. To make your potpourri, follow my guide below as closely or loosely as you like, using whatever appeals to you best. I had originally intended to use pine cones, but we haven’t brought any home recently from nature walks. It turns out I didn’t miss their omission, but feel free to incorporate into yours!

Instead, I laid out a tray for Travis with all sorts of goodies – whole nuts in the shell, orange leaves, bay leaves, whole clove, and of course the cinnamon and orange.

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I also set out options for essential oils to add, choosing three that seemed autumnal – clove, pine, and sweet orange.

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Travis loved the multi-sensory tray, needing to smell and touch everything on it! We simply filled our jars in whatever mood struck us, layering the items as we went.

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Sprinkling on cloves was a particular favorite.

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At the end, Travis decided he liked the clove scent best, so we sprinkled in a few drops of that essential oil to one jar.

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What a gorgeous final product!

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The clove-scented one found a home in his room, and we made a jar scented with pine for mommy and daddy’s room.

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Fall Bucket List Part I

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Happy Autumn everyone! It’s my favorite season, and that has my head full of activities I hope to share and enjoy with Travis before the season ends. To make sense of all the ideas, what better way than to put it all on paper? This post is the first of a two-part series; the second will include images and tips from each item on our bucket list that we’ve checked off… But I wanted to make sure to post the Bucket List itself now so you can follow along on this fall journey!

I found a few suggested templates online, but none of them contained all of the items that I was anticipating, and most contained some activities that didn’t interest us. Instead, it was easy to type up the activities we wanted in a Word document, playing around with fun fonts.

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Since we don’t have a color printer, I printed the template in black and white, but this gave Travis the chance to fill it in with autumnal colors as I read off each item to get him excited about activities to come.

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“Can we do them all today?” he asked. Not quite!

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I filled in the final colors and hung the bucket list on our wall, and we can’t wait to check off the first one.

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Q-Tip Painting Indian Corn

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It’s official, the fall equinox is tomorrow, meaning it’s the start of my favorite season, and that we need some autumnal decorations around our home! What better way to celebrate the harvest and this fall crop than with a cute little craft involving real hay?

I cut half ovals from yellow construction paper to be ears of corn, and shapes from brown construction paper to be the husks.

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Travis hasn’t been so into painting projects lately, so to keep this one novel, we use q-tips as our paintbrushes! Little dots of red, yellow, and orange gave our corn the speckled appearance of Indian corn.

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Glue your husks to your corn shapes, and let dry.

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The biggest hit by far was when I told Travis we’d add real hay to our corn husks. Look for it at any craft store or farmers’ market this time of year.

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Definitely the perfect finishing touch.

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Pumpkin Waffles

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Walk into any Starbucks and it smells like pumpkin spice lattes these days, so the season of all-things-pumpkin must be upon us. We dove into the fall trend with this pumpkin-flavored waffle batter at home, a perfect opportunity for your little sous-chef to pour, stir, mix, and more.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 4 Ener-G eggs
  • 1/2 cup non-dairy milk
  • 1 cup canned pumpkin
  • 3/4 cup melted Earth Balance butter
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt; set aside.Pumpkin Waffles (1)
  2. In a second bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, pumpkin, butter, and vanilla.
  3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and stir until combined. Heat a waffle iron coated with cooking spray according to manufacturer’s instructions, then add 1/2 cup batter per portion and cook for 5 minutes, until set.
  4. Serve with your favorite maple syrup!

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Kindness Wreath

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It’s a new season, and we needed a wreath to adorn our door in autumnal hues. Rather than by one that was ready to go, we put a little family TLC into the piece that’s going to welcome people into our home. If you don’t want to do this project in the fall, it would make a beautiful project around Thanksgiving or Christmas! Just change the ribbon colors accordingly.

First we gathered our materials – a bare branch wreath, and colored ribbon – I chose red, orange, and yellow for the season.

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As I cut the ribbon into lengths for the wreath, Travis and I talked about what kindness meant, and how to pay attention to acts of kindness around us. (Starting with his dad bringing me my camera so I didn’t miss capturing the moment!). Travis loved helping with the ribbon of course.

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We placed our ribbons in a jar, and now our wreath was a work in progress, part decoration part performance art!

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Travis was even more into the idea than I thought he would be. Over the next couple of days, he kept asking if we could think of more examples, and was so proud each time we got to add a ribbon.

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We discovered that kindnesses can be both big and small. Travis came up with moments including: petting the cat, a friend who shared snack with him, making tea for daddy, a mommy we saw help her son with a lollipop, getting a hug after an owie, and more.

When our wreath was full of ribbons, we decided it was time to hang it up on our door.

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A proud moment, and a beautiful reminder of kindness every time we cross the threshold now.

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Apple Theme Sensory Bin

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It might not officially be autumn yet, but back-to-school has us thinking of all things apple. I put together this little sensory bin to delight Travis in the afternoon when he returned from school.

Almost any assortment of apple-themed objects will work for a sensory bin like this, so use the suggestions below as a template. I filled a tub with a base of green split peas, then added in miniature apples and a rake, great for sensory digging and pouring.

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Add any cute finds you have at home, like this dollhouse barrel of apples!

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Cinnamon sticks made this bin a multi-sensory experience, bringing our sense of smell into play as well.

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For the little trees, I glued leaf shapes cut from green felt onto old toilet paper tubes. Tiny red pom poms were the apples, and Travis could “pick” them from the trees, or stick back on again.

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A nice way to kick off the fall season!

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Turkeys at the Table

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I try to make Thanksgiving a holiday full of gratitude – for our loved ones and our blessings, and also for all animals. Raising Travis vegan, this means teaching him to celebrate turkeys, while still making sure he doesn’t feel left out of traditions! So we make these beautiful birds the stars of the table, but not the plate.

Every year since his birth I’ve adopted a turkey in his name, bringing us up to our third turkey now. Meet Kristoff!

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To further highlight turkeys, we made cute napkin-ring centerpieces for the table this year!

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Cut a paper towel tube into thirds, and trim each so that a triangle sticks up at the top. Let your child cut a slit on two sides of the tube, then insert two pieces of craft foam – one yellow, one orange – that you’ve cut into “feathers.” (To simplify, you could buy craft foam flowers and cut in half).

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Fold down the triangle on each tube to be the beak, and then add eyes (either with marker or googly eyes) and a triangle beak cut from orange construction paper.

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Your turkey friend is now ready to hold a napkin at your table!

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Chocolate Pudding Jack o’ Lanterns

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The cutest and easiest Halloween snack ever, delight your kiddos with this treat on Halloween or in the days leading up to it.

Cut about 1/4-inch off the top of clementines or tangerines, reserving the tops. Using a paring knife, remove the fruit segments, leaving the peel intact. Draw jack o’ lantern faces on the peels with a permanent marker, then spoon in your favorite chocolate pudding. I used Zen Soy, but you can also use your favorite homemade recipe!

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Serve surrounded by spooky decor of course.

Squirrel It Away

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Here’s another cute idea from 365 Toddler Activities That Inspire Creativity; this silly game will engage your child’s imagination and get them running around to burn off some energy!

Of course we’ve been having fun watching the very busy squirrels outside this time of year. To set the stage for the game, we first sang the song Gray Squirrel:

Gray squirrel, gray squirrel, sway your bushy tail.

Put a nut between your toes,

Wrinkle up your tiny nose.

Gray squirrel gray squirrel, sway your bushy tail.

Then it was time to be a squirrel! Hide any nuts in the shell around the house – walnuts, pistachios, or even real acorns from outside will work great! Hide them in little batches and invite your “squirrel” to find them all.

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No sooner did he find them than Travis was asking if we could do it again – a sign of a hit!