Nature activities in autumn: a few ideas of what to do with young children

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With all this lockdown business we have had to revisit our options for keeping the little people in our house busy, or at least settled enough with their play so that the big people could get on with work. So, we have been revisiting our favourite nature-based activities to do with young children. Bearing in mind not all of these are applicable in our current state of lockdown, but I wanted to share with you what we have enjoyed most in our boisterous family. Before I launch into the first set of seasonal activities, I just wanted to say that this is not a ‘how to educate your children in nature, mindfulness, gratitude’ kinda post, though I find these things can, and do come naturally when we are in nature, but, it is meant as a list of ideas that you can keep handy when you are coming up short due to lack of sleep, stress or anything else. Maybe most importantly it is a chance for you to reconnect with nature and to share this moment with your little ones.

Now, we have our favourites that we gravitate to and sometimes we like to mix it up a bit. We don’t always do all these things and I am a big advocate for self-entertaining, but sometimes we big people need to help the little people out so that they can build these skills up, or just to get the ball rolling. The nature-based activities I am going to be sharing in the next few posts, are ones that I personally have enjoyed doing the most with my children and have done alongside them for my own enjoyment just as much as theirs. As a personal note, I know it’s about the experience and not the end result for kids, but I have a tendency to take over to make things just right. Hence doing things alongside that are my own, while assisting them in their version of it, helps me keep my itching hands away from their own experiences of creation and exploration at home and in nature as much as possible. It is safe to say that this is the most important lesson I learned in all this parenting (and I am still learning) is to stop burning up for getting things done and getting them exactly right. Enjoy the process is where life and its magic lives.

So, here goes…

AUTUMN is the season for collection and harvest, so any nature-based activities that imitate this process lend themselves well to this time of year. Below are a few that we have enjoyed through the cooler days of autumn.

Collecting leaves

It literally can be just that for some, as finding the colours and shapes that nature offers up is quite the experience in itself. If you collect enough you could fill a big basket and have a pile to roll and play and jump in in your own backyard with or without a tree! The added bonus is that they can then be repurposed in a no-dig garden bed, into compost or as mulch in your garden as worms love this stuff. You can make leaf bunting or mobile decorations, or just put them in the bath for some pattern play on the tiles (wet leaves stick well to tiles). To extend their longevity and expand on the children’s experience you can paint them with clear glue mixed with water, as this will extend the life of their leaf bunting and decorations. I have on occasion pasted them onto jars for decorations as little lanterns for the evening outdoors. Just make sure you put sand or another substrate into the base of the jar to avoid the glass from overheating and cracking.

Collecting gumnuts or acorn hats

Gumnuts and acorn hats are good fun on their own, but we have enjoyed colouring them on the inside with felt tip pens and them filling with glue to let it dry in colour. These make them into little treasures that can be used in creative paly and even little games (using memory game principles you can stand them colour side down on a surface and collect pairs of colours, or help everyone collect a rainbow). I find it best to leave this up to the children and let them figure out their own direction of play rather than imposing set rules as there is much less direction needed.

Sunrise adventure

As the days shorten it is easier to catch the sun rising with your little ones and often, they will be up well before dawn hits the sky. Choosing autumn for a sunrise walk means you don’t need to get up too early to catch it and it is not too cold either as the time just before dawn is the coldest of the day. Of course, a sunrise walk is just as beautiful any other time of the year.

Packing a warm honeyed herbal tea and some warm breakkie in a jar wrapped in a tea towel to keep the heat in makes it quite special and a soothing start to the day, avoiding the fractious nature of hungry tummies. I have found through experience it is best to know where you are going and to give yourself the time to get to where you are going to watch the sunrise. Yes I know it sounds obvious, but I have a tendency to do things on a whim. I find a slightly planned whim works much better. If you have an easterly facing balcony or a rooftop to go to, just take a warm blanket to sit on and you have the perfect homemade adventure!

Wool and yarn weaves

Gathered sticks, bare branches of bushes and trees in the garden can all benefit from a bit of wool, twine or even embroidery thread wrapping – it brings colour and brightens the garden as the days get shorter and adds an element of care to the children’s outdoor play space.

Hand kites to play with the wind

This can be done with any stick, even a branch with a good cluster of leaves that catches the wind as the child holds it works well. But if you want to make one, a stick or a wooden curtain ring just need some ribbons or wool tied around it and they can go off into the windy weather and watch their colourful tails flutter. When my children have finished playing with these hand kites I like to stick them in the ground, hang them on a stick, attach them to a tree or hang them from our balcony to keep fluttering in the gusts of wind reminding the children of winds playful nature.

Autumn fruit picking

A few times we have had the pleasure of going on a day trip with our children’s playgroup to an orchard where you can pick your own apples. It has always been a highlight to our year that we have reminisced about warmly. If you have the opportunity to go to such a place do it, it will not disappoint. Some places are happy for you to collect the windfalls for free, which are great for making apple tea, apple sauce, apple crumble, and pie too. We have also come across wild blackberries and raspberries that we visit for a little bit of foraging. I like to make sure that they have not been sprayed, so we aim to choose places that are least likely to have council workers maintaining the area. It goes without saying to know your fruit and help your children develop the habit of showing you what they want to pick, so that you can keep their hands away from berries that are not edible. I find these to be great times for conversations and observations of what is around and sharing each other’s observations of the world giving glimpses into the workings of our children’s minds.

Setting up a worm farm

I have children who love anything that creeps, crawls, or has wings. This year we set up a worm farm in large part from collected worms. I know the worm farm experts will tell you that these ‘earthmovers’ are most likely not ones that would be happy in a standard worm farm, but it can be fun to establish all the same, especially if you have opened it up to the ground below, so that these worms can relocate themselves at will if they are not happy. So where do you find them you ask? No digging in soil required, as worms love fallen autumnal leaves and you should be able to find them in abundance under any pile. Including piles of leaves in the street gutter, from which most of our worm farm candidates came from. Just aim to do it before the frost sets in as no rational worm will stick around for that weather event.

Mushroom picking / spotting / hunting

Being Polish I could not go past Autumn and not mention mushrooms. Any pine tree patch will do, it can be big or small, but mainly off the beaten path. If you are not familiar with mushrooms find someone who is, or just go mushroom spotting. In my children’s world mushrooms are houses for gnomes and small creatures so we take care not to destroy them if we do not know that they are edible. It is always fun to have a bit of a bush bash and on occasion practice some bodily contortion getting over and under branches of fallen trees to get to a patch of shiny mushroom hats.

So I hope you have enjoyed this little list of autumn-inspired nature activities and maybe it has encouraged your own sense of adventure too. I’ll be coming back with more for each season, I just didn’t want to overwhelm you with too many options and words as I find that has never been a good thing with my mind as a mother, or with children. Less is more in this case.

Take care beautiful big people,

MaMa’T

#natureplay #natureactivities #kidsinnature #autumnactivities