50 Fabulous ways to connect with your kids in fall (printable list) (Photos)

Looking for some ways to have fun and strengthen your connections with your kids? Here's some wonderful ways to make the most of fall with your children.

(*Note: Examiner sometimes hyperlinks common words. My links are preceded by an *asterisk to take you to recommended pages.)

(Click *here to print this out as a google document)

1. Go hiking.
2. Bake bread.
3. Go to a pumpkin patch.
4. Have a taste test of different varieties of apples from local orchards.
5. Rake a leaf labyrinth for your child to walk or bike through
6. Have a hot chocolate and muffin picnic breakfast
7. Decorate gourds or mini pumpkins with craft supplies
8. Head on a walk with a permanent pen and leave little notes and happy faces on a few fall leaves on your path for others to stumble onto.
9. Go on a sunrise donut run before work and school.
10. Make a fall wreath for your door.
11. Do pumpkin pounding -- show your child how to use a mallet or hammer to pound golf tees or large nails into a pumpkin.
12. Go on a drive or bike ride to enjoy the fall leaves.
13. Use a rubber band and some white napkins to make ghosts out of empty plastic bottles and then set them up as bowling pins. Use a ball or mini pumpkin as a bowling ball.
14. Bob for apples.
15. Collect natural items to make homemade toys -- walnuts, acorn caps, pine cones, etc. can all be transformed.
16. Make leaf rubbings. To make them fancier, do *watercolor leaf rubbings.
17. Set up a bird feeder near a window where you can watch the visitors.
18. Grab rain boots, rain coats and umbrellas and go for a walk in the rain. Stomp in every puddle you can.
19. Make hot apple cider.
20. Plant bulbs that will bloom next spring.
21. Gather up unneeded winter coats, hats and mittens and donate them to a group that will give them to people who need them.
22. Gather pine cones and paint them (or add glue and glitter) to make decorations or ornaments.
23. Head someplace beautiful with a digital camera and let your kids take photos.
24. Alternately, dress the kids up in fun clothes and make them the subjects of the photos.
25. Make *acorn people necklaces.
26. Take the dog and play in the park. No dog? Borrow a friend or neighbor's.
27. Make a fancy meal together.
28. Have a "Happy Fall" party just because. Hang streamers, make decorations and serve festive food.
29. Serve supper or soup in a pumpkin.
30. Make natural bird feeders out of seed pods. *Fun in the Making tells how.
31. Jump in leaf piles.
32. Bake a pie together.
33. Visit a corn maze.
34. Make some *twig looms.
35. Make a scarecrow for your yard.
36. Press pretty leaves between sheets of clear contact paper to preserve them and then hang them from a chandelier or light fixture.
37. Mix washable tempera paint with dish soap and let the kids paint the windows with fall decorations. This will wash off easily with a wet sponge later.
38. Make *hot pumpkin almond milk or pumpkin lattes.
39. Dress the dog in a Halloween costume and take him on a walk.
40. Whip up some scratch ‘n sniff Halloween paint: Mix one packet of grape kool-aid and one packet of orange with a few spoonfuls of water each. The grape will look black at this concentration and the orange will be nice and bright. Once dry, kids can scratch them to smell the fruity scents too!
41. Make a campfire and roast marshmallows.
42. Carve jack-o-lanterns.
43. Bring fall drawings to a retirement home.
44. Go on a hayride.
45. Make a paper "thankful tree" for the wall and add colorful paper leaves each day listing more things you're thankful for.
46. Make *pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.
47. Go to a fall festival.
48. Get physical playing tennis, badminton, touch football or basketball.
49. If you have no fall leaves or you still want more leaf fun, make some inside! Cut red, orange and yellow crepe paper into short strips and make a "leaf pile" in the living room. Toss them and jump in them, and then use them for crafting to clean them all up.
50. Find someplace warm and beautiful, and just sit and talk together.

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