11 Fun Fall Activities to do with Toddlers

In celebration of the first day of fall {and many great days to come}, I thought I would share a list of fall activities that we have started doing with the kids, as well as old traditions that we continue to do. From crafts, to recipes, to special family outings, fall is full of magical moments that literally make me want to squeeze our kids tighter and tighter every day. I mean, I want to do that with every season, but there is just something special about fall.

It's that season where you slow down a little before you speed up again.

Slow down, savor, and enjoy.

1. Go apple picking.

That's a definite given here, and we had our first apple picking {during a huge rainstorm} a few weeks ago. We plan on going again probably this weekend, and then one more time before the season ends. Our favorite {and the ones we get the most of} are the Macintosh apples.

2. Make something with those apples.

Every year, I make apple crisp. Every year. With the apples that we picked. It's the only time that I do it, and it's kind of our little tradition {and understood given} that when we go apple picking, mama {and the kids help, of course} will be making the best dessert topped with vanilla ice cream.

I can almost taste it just thinking about it.

3. Go to the pumpkin patch.

We have many around here, but we have two that we traditionally go to. One, we go to a farm that has lots of animals, activities, rides, and of course pumpkin picking. However, we do our main "picking a pumpkin" at a farm that we do our strawberry {and raspberry} picking at, and then we always get ice cream cones afterwards. Just our thing, I guess.

4. Decorate, carve, do something with those pumpkins.

The kids are still too young to carve their own pumpkins, but last year we bought those kits at CVS and let them watch us do it. They had fun, but I like to let them also decorate their own pumpkins. Markers, paint, stickers—whatever their little hearts desires. 

5. And make a pumpkin pie.

I made my first {successful} pumpkin pie last week, and although there was one thing that needed improving, over all I was pretty impressed. And satisfied also.

6. Go on an adventure and find rocks.... then paint them.

So I told the kids that we needed to go on a walk to find rocks to paint, and of course that was like the coolest thing ever. Funny, when you set their little minds to focus on one thing how focused they actually get on it—very. Anyways, they really got a kick out of painting rocks and displaying them on the front porch.

7. Arts and crafts that will make your head spin.

Seriously, there are so many that you wouldn't have all the time in the day to complete every single one.... so pick a few that you think the kids would enjoy. I just went to pinterest and then printed out pictures of crafts that I wanted to do with the kids, and then just whip one out on any given day and we have at it.

This one is a fun one that we did to celebrate the first day of fall: a fall tree using wine corks, and paint. We simply talked about how the leaves change color during the fall, the primary four colors, and how they fall to the ground.

8. Decorate their doors.

This is the first year that we have done this, and I was actually surprised to see how happy this made the kids. I knew they would get excited about it, but the fact that my oldest kept talking about it and wanting to go back upstairs to see her "monster" on her door was pretty neat. Made my mama heart very happy actually.

9. Make apple cider.

This is on my must do list for our next go round of apple picking. That and decorating apples.

10. Check out halloween/fall books at the library.

One of my favorite things to do when a new season or holiday approaches us is get fun books from the library to read to the kids that further gets them excited for what is it come. It's also great for my youngest who may not fully comprehend the way that my oldest does at this time.

11.  Go on a nature scavenger hunt.

find original image here to print

Make a list [with pictures for the young kids] of things for them to find that are related to fall. Give them a bag and the list and just walk and talk. You can even "plant" some of the items that you typically would not find on a walk {i.e. a scarecrow}. Or just completely skip that item.