Fun Fall Outdoor Activities for Kids

Fall is here! This is the perfect time to get outdoors with your family and enjoy the crisp weather and the delights of the season.

Looking for some fall activities for your children this year? Here are some fun autumn play ideas your kids will love.

Picking pumpkins

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Head to your local pumpkin patch so your children can pick out their favorite pumpkin! Then let your kids choose or design a pattern for you to carve. While you work on carving the pumpkin, have your kids extract the seeds and set them aside. That way you can bake them later in the oven with a little salt for a tasty fall snack.

Making leaf piles

Have lots of trees shedding fall leaves all over your backyard? Grab some rakes, and get those leaves into a nice, big pile for your kids to jump in! You can also try piling them up at the base of a slide if you have one in your yard.

The bonus with this activity is that you have found a sneaky way to get your kids to help with the raking. Once the leaves are in a pile, it will be easy to get them bagged up after your children are done with their play.

Decorating for Halloween

Decorating in the fall can be a lot of fun. Take your kids to the store to pick out some spooky Halloween decorations for your yard. Then, enjoy setting them up together. Go all-out for extra fun!

Campfires with marshmallows

Have a fire pit in your backyard? There is no better time of year to sit out back as a family and roast some marshmallows. It will be chilly enough to make the most of the warmth of the fire, but not so bitterly cold yet that sitting outdoors in the evening will be uncomfortable.

If it is close to Halloween, this is also a great chance to share some ghost stories!

Picnics

Just as fall is a great time to roast marshmallows, it is also an ideal season for a picnic! Head to a park and set up a canopy tent. Sit under the shade and enjoy a delicious meal while you take in the spectacle of the fall leaves.

Fall crafts

There are dozens of autumn craft ideas that kids can make. For example, they can craft little 'people' using twigs, leaves, and acorns. Or they can use pinecones to create birdfeeders. You can often find craft booths at fall festivals, too.

Do some fall gardening.

While a lot of gardening tasks take place during spring, quite a few also take place in fall. So, this is a great time of year to get kids involved in garden maintenance.

Teach kids about flower bulbs that are best to plant in fall, and have them pick out some they like. You can work together to choose suitable spots for them.

There might also be some plants that need to be cut back around this time of year. If some of your kids are old enough to safely use garden shears, they can help you out with this chore as well.

If your kids learn to love gardening in the fall, they may be excited to help you again when spring rolls around. And they will have a fun time watching the flowers they planted blossom the next season.

Have a scavenger hunt.

Another activity you can do with your children outdoors in fall is a scavenger hunt. You can create the hunt yourself by coming up with a list of fall-themed items your kids can collect in your local area.

With very young children, you can make the list really basic: 'Fall leaf,' 'acorn,' etc. But with older kids, you can get a little more elaborate: 'Oak leaf,' 'maple leaf,' etc. That way, the scavenger hunt can serve as an educational opportunity.

Pick apples.

Pumpkins are not the only fruits that you can collect during the fall season. You can also pick apples! If you are very lucky, you may have an apple tree in your own backyard. But if you do not, you look for an orchard or farm in your area that offers apple picking as an activity for guests.

Sensory play

For your toddlers, fill a bin with interesting objects you collected from your yard along with fall-themed items you purchased from a store. Try and add as many intriguing colors and textures as you can for your children to explore.

Leaf maze

If your kids tire of jumping in their leaf pile, you can turn it into a whole new activity just by spreading it out and using a rake to make pathways through it. Try and create a maze for your children to walk through, and challenge them to create some leaf mazes of their own.

Go camping and hiking.

One more fun outdoor activity not to miss out on with your children this year is hiking and camping.

We typically think of these as summer activities, but fall can actually be the ideal time for both. As long as you are prepared with the right equipment, the fall is a wonderful time to camp.

For one thing, the heat of summer has passed, leaving more temperate days for exploring the great outdoors.

For another, the crowds have also largely gone away as peak season has passed at many popular destinations.

You can bring the same canopy tent with you on your camping outings as you use for picnics. While you will want to sleep inside a regular camping tent, the pop-up canopy tent can offer you additional shade and shelter from light rain during the day. You can store supplies under it or set up a table and chairs for dining.

Enjoy the Beauty of Autumn With Your Children

Whether you have toddlers, older kids, or teens, there are so many fun activities you can do together outdoors.

So, enjoy this special bonding time to its fullest. Chances are good your kids will come up with some ideas of their own as well, so make fall family activity time a collaborative adventure.

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