Fun Autumn activities with children

In my opinion, Autumn is such an amazing season. It’s usually still warm enough to spend time outside, the colours of the leaves are beautiful and there is plenty of fun to have. For children, it’s the perfect time of year for playing outdoors without having to be smothered in suncream (unless it’s unseasonably warm) or buried under so many layers of clothing it is hard to run around. With this in mind, I wanted to share my ideas for fun Autumn activities with children.

As well as finding lots of fun things to do, I personally love getting my Autumn wardrobe out too. A waterproof jacket is a must-have, and as a lover of all things nautical, Lighthouse has become my go-to brand. My absolute favourite jacket from Lighthouse is the Beachcomber Jacket. This waterproof and windproof item is lightweight, with a super soft outer and a cosy jersey lining. It’s just right for the transition period before you need your thick winter wear!

I also love the Lydia dress from Lighthouse; a striped cotton dress with two front pockets. It is super versatile as it’s ideal for spring, or you can team it with leggings and boots for a cute autumn outfit. I’m a massive stripes fan so this dress is a super addition to my wardrobe.

And let’s not forget summer too! Here’s a great post on things to do outside in the summer.

Fun Autumn activities with children

I’ve included costs too, hopefully demonstrating there is a lot that can be done without much expense (after all not spending too much is always a bonus!).

Puddle and mud jumping

On a drizzly day, don your welly boots and get out for a walk and good old session of jumping in puddles. Squelching through muddy patches and rustling through the leaves is fun too. Our daughter loves this and getting messy is all part of the fun. Just make sure you have a change of clothes if you’re not heading straight home!

Cost – free (petrol if you need to drive somewhere, but it’s usually easy to find puddles anywhere!)

Foliage artwork

Autumn is a great time to enjoy a walk in the woods. Although I know this isn’t always easy with smaller children! To make it more engaging, set a challenge of collecting sticks and leaves. The idea is then to use them to create a piece of artwork to remind you of your Autumn day out.

We did this and used PVA glue to stick the items onto some cardboard in the shape of a tree. Using sticks for the trunk looked really effective. The leaves we did in two stages to let the first lot dry and then add more to fill out the top of the tree. Both my daughter and I were very proud of our picture!

Although it was dry when we collected our foliage, it had rained the day before so everything was a little bit damp. We simply left it out on some newspaper to dry for 24 hours and it was good to go.

Cost – around £1 for the glue. You can use something like the side of an old cereal box to stick the items onto. Anything works that is nice and sturdy. Driving to woods will cost a few pounds in petrol, but it would be easy to do from the garden, a local park, even a path or anywhere near trees.

Marshmallow toasting

This is synonymous with the Autumn season. What can be more fitting than a campfire and some toasted marshmallows? You can involve your children by encouraging them to collect the wood for the fire.

If you have a fire pit this is perfect. I appreciate not everyone has a fire pit but there are other ways to have a small, controlled bonfire – here’s a really useful guide.

If your children are young they will naturally need complete supervision and lots of help with the marshmallows. But hopefully they will enjoy it. And of course love tucking into the warm sticky treats (mummy and daddy will like that part too!).

Cost – £1 for the bag of marshmallows, 49p for the rubber bands to attach the forks to the sticks. All of the wood can be collected.

Den Building

Autumn is a great time for getting out into nature and building a den! Here’s an example of a little place that we built as a family :o)

Cost – free. If you don’t have access to wood, try a blanket fort in the garden, or even an old sheet stretched across the washing line. Kids have such active imaginations they can spend hours playing in a den, it’s fab!

Pull on those welly boots and head outside, there’s a world of fun out there! And if you get chilly, you could warm up back home with my spiced apple juice recipe.

This was originally posted as part of Alikats Mountain Holidays ‘Wild About Autumn Blogger Challenge‘.