Fall is a wonderful time for fun activities with your children – and it’s also ideal for inspiring faith in easy ways that will warm the heart while strengthening the soul. The ideas below are a few simple things you can do with your kids this fall season to add both faith and fun to your days.
1. Take a Nature Walk

What better way to get close to your faith than by enjoying the beauty that surrounds you in the fall? Take a walk with your kids to observe nature and its changes, whether you venture to a nearby park, preservation area or just down the block.

2. Make Fall Artwork

Gather colorful leaves with your kids and press them between waxed paper sheets, or use them to create prints in acrylic paint on sheets of paper. Admiring fall leaves up close and using them to create something beautiful helps you and your children feel a part of the season in a whole new way.

3. Enjoy Some Fall-inspired Writing

Read stories or poems appropriate for your children’s ages that celebrate fall, family, and happiness. If you don’t have any family favorites, check out “The Road Less Traveled” by Robert Frost. Your kids may like to illustrate or act out the poem or story.

4. Have an Indoor Fall Party

Celebrate family togetherness – and avoid letting the chilly days of fall get you down – with a fun indoor party. Apple cider and hot chocolate around the fireplace while enjoying a board game or book together will teach you and your kids to rejoice in how the cold can bring you closer.

5. Throw a Fall Gathering

Invite family and friends to a “Welcome Fall” celebration. Bobbing for apples, leaf gathering, warm seasonal drinks and fall-inspired snacks make for a great celebration of friendship and fall.

6. Get Your Kids Involved in Fall Chores

It might not sound fun – at first – but asking the kids to help with fall-related chores such as raking leaves can lead to family togetherness and celebration of the beautiful world outside. Organize a competition for the biggest pile of leaves raked, complete with a prize. Or celebrate your hard work by jumping in the piles afterward!

7. Teach Outdoor Meditation

Everyone needs to learn how to enjoy some quiet time, and the beautiful pensive atmosphere of fall is a wonderful way for your kids to learn how to notice what’s really important. Quiet times on the porch or in the yard together, bundled up against the cold, can help create peace and give you a chance to encourage your kids to think things through. These types of times together can also encourage great conversation between you and your children, whether it’s about their school problems or their questions about faith, science or anything else they’d like to talk about.

8. Use Fall as a Learning Experience

Your kids, depending on their ages, may be full of questions in the fall: What makes the leaves change? Why do seasons differ from one another? Get a book and read up on the facts, and engage your kids in a discussion about the wonders of nature and how they can tie into a faithful view on the world.

9. Tell Stories of Times Past

Fall, with its sense of renewal and the passage of time, is a wonderful reason to share old memories with your kids. Tell them stories about things you did when you were their age during the fall. Recreate those times with them today – and make sure they understand that the significance of family and spending time with loved ones is the most important part of the activity.

10. Create Traditions

One of the best ways to celebrate family and faith is through traditions. If your kids love the fall, develop some special things you do together every year, whether you take them from the list above or come up with your own ideas. Make these special things that you do every year so your kids will have something to look forward to and, years from now, will be able to look back fondly on the time spent.