Free Activities to do with kids in Autumn: Outdoor activities to do with Children in Fall

September / October can be a hard time of the year.  Following the end of the summer holidays families often have very limited budgets and have money set aside for Christmas.  As a result, having days out and doing activities with children is often out of the budget, but it doesn’t have to be.  Below we have listed free activities to do with kids in Autumn which are lots of fun and can be enjoyed with no worries of budgets :). We have chosen outdoor activities to do with children in the fall, which are free and perfect for even the youngest of adventurers!

Treasure Hunt

Autumn is a perfect time to don on some warm clothes and head to the local parks.  With the weather being a little colder, a scavenger hunt is a great way to entice little adventurers and get them excited about being outdoors. I love this scavenger hunt list,

Brambling

DSC_5760

I go running with Maya and we have spotted people picking fruit one evening.  We came home and realised that they were Brambling.  Brmabling is simply picking blackberries (the fruit of the bramble)  September and October is the time of year when all the bushes are packed with berries ready to be picked.  Its a perfect way to tick off one of the 50 things to do before you turn 11 3/4 of picking fresh fruit and eating it.

Nature Art

Autumn is a great time to get your little adventurers to get their craft on, using the great outdoors as their blank canvas.  With leaves, twigs, feathers galore, autumn is the perfect time to let the children make some nature art.  We went last week and Raihan and Maya made this bonfire!

img_4861

Catch a cobweb

3360463235_0da58600b0_o

I love, love this idea.  The technique is simple and I couldn’t think of a better activity to do in the run up to Halloween.  To catch and preserve a spider web you will need dark coloured paper, hairspray & talcum powder.

1. Find a web and double check that there is definitely no spider on it or around it.
2. Slowly blow some of talcum powder (a handful is more then enough) towards the web so it covers it all.
3. With the hairspray, spray on the coloured paper so make it go slightly sticky and  then gently place the paper behind the web until it sticks. You need to do this whilst the hairspray is sticky so you need to work carefully but fast. Spray an additional round of hairspray over the web to secure it, then when dry add another coat.

Conkers

I loved Conkers when I was growing up, spending hours toughening up our conkers for conker fights.  
Conkers are the seed of the Horse Chestnut Tree and now is the best chance to go and hunt some out!  In case you have never played, the game is played by two players, each with a conker threaded onto a piece of string.  You take it in  take turns striking each other’s conker until one breaks.

15083226950_4f7def312a_k

Go to Beach

Autumn is a fabulous time to visit the beach.  On a bright day you have the opportunity to be one of the very few people visiting the seaside.  Wrap up warm and you can enjoy hours and hours of access to some stunning coastlines!  Its great to put wellies on little adventurers and have them jumping in the waves.

Den Building

The woods are fabulous this time of the year, with the changing weather, the trees are probably the most beautiful and it is a perfect time to introduce the kids to some den building.  I love the newest pack to be released by the Forestry Commission linked to Disney’s newest film, Pete’s Dragon, here.  They put together a guide on how to build a den and have lots of other fabulous activities like finding animal footprints.

Leaves

With the falling leaves, there is no better time of year to play and enjoy leaves.  My little adventurers love playing in the leaves, from hearing them crunching under their wellies to throwing them around.  The Pete’s Dragon pack also has a great sheet with outlines of different leaves for little adventurers to collect.

15892103161_75178896ea_k

Free Activities to do with kids in Autumn: Evening activities

Night Walk

With the onset of autumn, it gets darker much earlier and with Halloween around the corner, an activity which would be fabulous is taking a night walk. I love this activity from Nature Detectives and will definitely be taking my little adventurers.  It doesn’t have to be far away from home and could even be your local park but in the dark the feeling is completely different.  Nature Detectives have prepared a little sheet of all the things to listen, feel and smell for in the dark!

Stargazing

Doc is mesmerised by the stars and this has been on our list for sometime.  I love this quote from Maria Montessari “give the child a vision of the whole universe…”.  After sitting under a star speckled sky in the outback, no photograph will ever impress on you nor replace the awe-inspiring vision of millions of diamond-bright stars twinkling overhead.  You can go star gazing on top of a hill in a rural setting but likewise taking a blanket into our garden can be as satisfying.  The UK have some amazing stargazing spots and we are fortunate to have some of the most dark skies in Europe.    If you want to go all out with the Stargazing, BBC put together this great little guide.

14586197019_0e331a4035_k

An evening camp

Yes it is cold, and perhaps not something most people will think of doing in autumn.  Instead of sleeping out all night (you can if you fancy it) but getting together sleeping bags, putting up a small tent in the garden, toasting some marshmallows (disposable BBQs are perfect for this) and having a hot chocolate outside whilst telling scary stories is a fabulous way to spend an evening.  Doing it in your back garden also has the advantage of when you are ready to put the little adventurers to bed (or warm up) you can simply come home!

They say the best things in life are free, and I wholeheartedly agrees.  So there are the pick of the autumn activities I will be doing with my little adventurers.  Have you got any great ideas? let us know below!

Nisbah

I am a traveller, mother and blogger. We love to go on adventures (big and small, near and far) and strive to show our children how amazing and beautiful the world is! I caught the travel bug many moons ago and despite having three little adventurers, I still suffer from "itchy" feet. We love the great outdoors and one another. Come and join the fun :)

You may also like...

1 Response

  1. MummyTravels says:

    Lovely ideas – the simplest things are often best. I spent an hour after school hunting for conkers with my daughter: she wanted to bring them home to feed to the squirrels who live in the back garden (stuffing her cardigan pockets like a mini squirrel herself). It was just lovely being out in the autumn sun with her.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.