Embracing Fall

The KidsOutAndAbout site is officially embracing fall, so I thought I would, too.  I’ve got my Fall Activities page available again on the right.

When the weather first begins to get cooler at the end of summer, my kids’ natural tendency is to go into hibernation mode. So it takes a bit of extra effort to get them outside. I thought that some of your kids might do this, too, so I saved up a couple of links for fall to inspire you. One is the Handbook of Nature Study blog, which has tons of outdoor learning activities for kids. She’s writing for homeschoolers, but there’s plenty that will appeal to kids enough that they’ll want to get outside, too. I also really love this post full of squirrel and autumnal-themed activities for preschool-aged kids on Delightful Learning, another homeschooling blog.

Once my kids get acclimated to the weather, they do venture back outside. M’s been outside working on her footwork skills for soccer, but she’ll also go for runs and bike rides. J’s been climbing trees, but another favorite activity is designing forts. Somehow this is always better with a friend, a sister, or both. Here’s a recent fort:

J also likes to make a pretend cooking fire:

A perk of the cooler weather is that, really, the summer starts to get too hot for a serious hike or a really long playground playdate. If you’ve got a sweatshirt in the cooler weather, you can run around comfortably or claim a bench at the playground and hang out there all morning, through a picnic lunch, and straight into naptime. Gotta love that.

Here are some local hikes, and don’t forget that it’s already time to go apple picking.