Fall Fun
While summer vacation is long over, the current season still has plenty of opportunity for fun and leisure. The challenge though, is to find activities that the whole family will enjoy and won’t sink your budget. Fall is a wonderful time to get outdoors- not too hot, not too cold- and very colourful!
Apple Picking
Usually a short drive outside of the city, apple orchards provides an excellent setting in which to while away an afternoon. Many orchards have other activities onsite too, like mazes or crafts for kids. At the very least, you come home rosy-cheeked, full of fresh air with an armload of apples.
Nature Walk
Leaves morphing into their fall colours make for a pretty backdrop for a family stroll through your local park or conservation area. Not only does this provide fresh air and exercise for free, but provides a teachable opportunity about the changing seasons, and how that manifests itself in nature. Do a little research about what kind of trees, animals or plants you might encounter on your walk, and encourage the kids to spot them along the way.
Collect leaves and twigs for a cool fall craft when you get home.
Pumpkin Patch
Charlie Brown knew the merits of the pumpkin patch long ago. Right about now, the pumpkin crops are coming in and provide a good selection. Buy one pumpkin for each member of the family and have a mass carving/pumpkin decorating event when you get home.
Fall Baking
Fall just screams comfort food, and what is more comforting than spending an afternoon in the kitchen, making yummy treats, filling the house with enticing aromas?
Fall fruits make for excellent pies that also freeze well. Pumpkin pie spice can be added to almost everything, for extra fall flavour.
Make a pumpkin cake using two cake mixes, baked in two Bundt pans. Put a layer of icing in between, and lay the cakes on top of each other to make a pumpkin-shaped ball. Add food colouring to icing to make orange and ice the cake. For the stem, place an ice-cream cone upside down, and cover with icing that green food colouring has been added to.
Touch Football
You don’t have to be one of the Kennedys to engage in a raucous, good-natured touch football game. Gather friends on your lawn or in the park, and have some giggly good fun- for the young and old alike.
The Great Leaf Jump
Yard work is fun? What? Get out the rakes! What kid (big, small or adult-sized) doesn’t love jumping and rolling around in a giant pile of leaves.
Kids love the fundamental goofiness of being allowed to build things up for the purpose of knocking them down- like a pile of leaves.
Haunted House
Halloween sits at the end of this month, so why not extend the Halloween-themed fun all month long? Set up a haunted house inside on a rainy fall day. Be creative and use blankets, large boxes, flashlights, toys and costumes. You can even create a corner for ghost stories!