I love everything about Autumn. The weather, the colors, holidays and traditions. Even the cozy and cute outfits. I enjoy seeing the decor everywhere and smelling the warm sweet scents that this season brings. It’s a time to create traditions, to slow down, and to enjoy the cooler weather (a welcoming change from the heat🥵 if you live in the valley). I enjoy visiting the pumpkin patch with my kids, nature walks and plenty of trips to the park, where we see all the beautiful colors of Autumn. I find that this season allows for families, like mine to connect more. It’s safe to say this is the season I always find myself most excited for. There are plenty of fun activities to enjoy during fall, especially with little ones. Here are some ideas to try with your kids this fall and hopefully may start some family traditions. 🍂🎃
1.Pumpkin Patch
Pumpkin patches are the perfect fall backdrops for photos. Depending on your local area, there are different activities to do with kids at the pumpkin patch. Some pumpkin patches have food vendors, pony rides, and petting farms. Others have carnival rides, attractions or games. Ours have plenty of decorative areas to take cute fall photos and a huge hay tower that kids can climb. My daughter enjoys the hayrides, and the kids corn maze at our local spot. It’s also a fun spot to pick out a pumpkin to take home. My kids love to pick out the best pumpkin they can find and bring it home to decorate. A trip to the pumpkin patch is a fall activity that we yearly partake in, and the kids enjoy. 🌻
2. Fair/Fall Carnivals
Where we live, September means the county fair is coming to town. There is so much to do at the county fair. You can take your little ones to see the parade on opening day. Most fairs have rides, concerts and a variety of food vendors. There are different shows to enjoy, animals to see, and local artwork to browse. Here you can find vendors of all kinds, from crafts, food, art and clothing. There is so much for little eyes to see, it’s almost impossible for them to be bored. The county fair or fall carnivals are a great outing to enjoy with your kids during the autumn season. 🤹🏼♀️
3. Fall Crafts & Baking
You usually can tell when the fall season has begun because coffee shops start promoting pumpkin spice everything. Stores are filled with pumpkin pies, bread, cookies and drinks. If you are someone who enjoys baking, this is a great time to involve your little ones. My daughter helped me bake pumpkin muffins for breakfast this morning and they were a hit. Theres plenty of creative online recipes and themed snacks to make with your kids this season. You can start a tradition with them that they’ll look forward to and remember every year. 🧁
For those who enjoy crafts, this is the time when plenty of stores have themed sets for kids. Last year we bought a pumpkin craft set that my daughter painted, glued gems and stickers on and set it out in our living room for decor. We saved it and will continue to bring it out every year. Not everything has to be purchased though. Pinterest has plenty of fun and free ideas for crafts to make at home. You can save their crafts as keepsakes for years to come. 🧶
4. Farmers Markets
It’s easier and much more bearable to enjoy the farmers market when the hot sun isn’t blaring down on you. You can find seasonal items during fall here as well. I enjoy browsing through the stands of baked goods (my favorite), fresh veggies and artisan crafts. My daughter enjoys the samples (so do I) and we’re getting fresh air and supporting local businesses in the process. Not all farmers markets run year-round. Be sure to check your local area for more info. 🥖
5. Fall Decorating
We love driving around and looking at decorated homes for the fall and Halloween season. Most of our neighbors are pretty festive when it comes to decorating and we enjoy it. Our city also hosts a competition for the best decorated homes in town. That’s usually a sign that Halloween is almost here and my daughter gets super excited. She likes to decorate our own home with crafts, such as the painted pumpkins I mentioned earlier, or paintings of spiders and ghosts that she’d made on her own. She’ll also draw her own decorations in chalk on our sidewalk or driveway. Putting up decorations together can be a tradition you start with your little one each year. Even walks around the block to enjoy all the different decorations is a fun outing and may be less scary during the daytime for little ones. 🎃
6. Enjoying Nature
When you think of Autumn, typically leaves changing their color come to mind. Bonfires, hiking, apple picking (on my bucket list), cooler weather and leaf piles may pop up also. Fall is one of my favorite times to walk around the park. My daughter will ride her tricycle around the loop or run around and pick up huge leaves to collect and show me. There are tons of crafts to do with leaves that you can find online (like Pinterest) that you and your child might enjoy. Summers in the valley can be pretty brutal, meaning we may not get as much park time than we’d like. But come fall, the park is usually full of kids and families enjoying the cooler weather. Getting outdoors is a perfect and mostly free (depending on what you choose) way to enjoy this season with your kids. 🍂
7. Movie Nights
Movie nights with my kids are a favorite tradition of mine in the fall. Fall season for us means a Harry Potter🪄 movie each weekend. I started this tradition with my son when he was little and now my daughter has excitedly joined in as well. She has in fact become more of a fan than my son, now that he is a teen, and it just makes my heart so happy. We grab our blankets, snacks and dim the lights. It may seem like a small gesture, but I promise it’s a memory they will forever remember. Just the other day my soon to be 16-year-old turned to me on the drive to school and said, ” It’s almost Harry Potter Season Mom”. The amount of strength it took for me to not start bawling my eyes out, I can’t even describe. The fact that I had made a core memory with something as simple as sharing some of my favorite movies every autumn with my child, just melted my heart. To be able to share things you love with your kids and having them actually take an interest is pure magic. There are many seasonal movies that are family friendly that you can watch when staying in. It’s nice to cuddle up in comfy blankets with a snack or warm drink and enjoy family time together. You can set up an area outdoors to watch a movie. Make smores or special treats that you and your kids enjoy. Or You can set up blankets on the living room floor. If you’re a family who doesn’t prefer screen time, then board games or a family fun night is another option for creating traditions. There is a variety of ways to make moments like these memorable for your kids. 🍿
Creating Core Memories
I hope this list gave you some fun ideas to try this fall with your kids. Any season can have something to look forward to. Creating traditions, like I have with my kids, gives us a special reason to look forward to Fall in particular. Just like many adults look forward to specific sports seasons, kids can also have a tradition to look forward to as well. We just have to take an initiative to create the magic for them. We need to learn to be creative. It doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg to create memories that will last forever. It can be something as simple as movie nights featuring your favorite fall movies or bringing home pumpkins to decorate together. They will remember the traditions for years to come and maybe create their own for their loved ones someday. Happy Fall! 🧡