Activities to do in Autumn

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Fun Activities to do in Autumn

Looking for some fun activities to do in autumn with your kids? I had a couple of the grandkids over last week and here’s what we did. These are perfect for even preschoolers- short enough to hold their attention and easy enough that they can handle the skills.

  1. Lion pictures with autumn leaves

First of all, we made lion pictures with autumn leaves. Here is the link we used to download the lion’s face. Instead of using real leaves, I used color copies of leaves we had collected. They are easier for little people to handle than the real thing and oh so pretty!

Lion Activity

Directions are easy peasy. First, the kids colored the lion faces while I cut the leaves out. Then I got out glue sticks and showed the kids how to turn leaves upside down and cover with glue. I glued the lion face to the middle of the paper but at first just placed glue in the middle of the face so we could tuck the colored leaves under his face to create a mane. The kiddos learned to glue each leaf and tuck under the face to create his mane.

Art project for fall activity

child gluing on art projectCompleted lion art project

     2. Acorn cookies

This was a fun, simple, and yummy project. Here is a picture of the ingredients needed:

Ingredients for acorn cookies

I had the kids unwrap the Hershey kisses while I melted some chocolate chips in the microwave. Then I showed them how to dip each kiss in the melted chocolate and attach to one of the nutter butter cookies. That’s it! If desired you can dip a mini chip in the melted chocolate and attach it to the top of the cookie. I chose not to, because of the skill level of the preschoolers, but older kids could manage.

acorn cookies

Acorn cookies with child

    3.  Painting Pumpkins

Then we took a trip to the neighborhood fruit stand and the kids each picked out a pumpkin. They got a ride in the little wagon with their pumpkins

pumkin wagon ride

Then we brought the pumpkins home and I let the kids paint them with washable paints.

kids making art projects

 

Painting pumkins

    4. Rice Krispie Pumpkins

Rice Krispie Pumpkin snack

Our last project for the day was making Rice Krispie pumpkins. I had picked up some orange food coloring.

Ingredients:

3 tbsp butter

10 oz package mini marshmallows

6 cups Rice Krispie cereal

Directions:

  1. In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and orange food coloring and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat.
  2. Add RICE KRISPIES cereal. Stir until well coated.
  3. Form into round pumpkin shapes and place them on a cookie sheet. I let the kids unwrap tootsie rolls and I cut them in half. Push the tootsie roll (stem) into the top of the pumpkin and voila, there you have it. The kids took all their treasures home to share with their brothers and sisters. It was a fun day. Hope it makes your fall more pleasurable too!Enjoy these fun activities to do in autumn with your family!

    Other articles you might enjoy:

    The Irritation List (or Keeping Your Sanity)

    Teaching Your Kids to Care

If you have fun autumn activities that are family traditions we would love to hear them. Share them in the comments below!

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 12 Ideas for Fun Summer Days at Home

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collage for summer ideas

Fun Summer Days at Home

When my kids were young, I liked to try to do some fun things that weren’t a part of our normal school year- to make summer days more fun. These are simple, inexpensive or free ideas that really just let kids be kids. There’s no need to get fancy or expensive. Kids’ imaginations are the best toy, when encouraged to be used, and simple fun is usually the most fun!

So- before summer bids farewell for another year, here are some simple, yet fun ideas you can enjoy with your kids.

Continue reading  12 Ideas for Fun Summer Days at Home

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Hand Print Art

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Easy Hand Print Art Ideas that Kids Love!

I LOVE summer! I love having more time to do fun things with the kids- used to be my own home-schooled kids, now it’s my homeschooled grandkids!

Here’s a super fun project I just did with my son Nate’s kids this week. I bought a pack of fabric paints and some tee-shirts at Michael’s craft store. To assure that the paint wouldn’t bleed through to the back side of the shirts, I inserted a big book into each tee shirt.

 

Supplies:

*Colored T-shirts

*Fabric Paint

*Paintbrushes

*Book/magazine/cardboard to go in between the shirts

Hand Print Art Is A Perfect Activity

Hand print art with Grandma

The kids chose which colors they wanted to use and how to decorate their own shirt. With Ella and Lynn, I painted their hands with white fabric paint. You pretty much have to cover their hand with a thick coat. Then carefully, hold their hand and place it on the shirt. Wash that hand up and repeat with the other hand.

Hand print art with kids Hand print art

Then I let each child write their name with color of their choice and add decorations like flowers, hearts, whatever they chose to make. Using Fabric Paint pens for their name is a very special way to make the shirts unique to each child.

Hand print art

When my kids were little sometimes I  added the meaning of their name as well.DIY Kids Tshirts

The finished projects looked so cute and the kids were really proud of what they had accomplished.

(BTW, a great idea for Father’s Day is to get a tee shirt for Dad, paint each child’s hand or foot and make a print on Dad’s shirt. Using a tube of fabric paint, write the child’s name and date below their print. Rick wore his shirt for years! It’s a fun personalized gift! )

This project was simple and a ton of fun!

Pin to Pinterest For Later:

~Marilyn

 

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Learning Hospitality

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Here’s a simple way to teach your kids about hospitality and being sensitive to the needs of those around them.

Recently, we invited some special people from our church over for dinner.  We asked a few of the grandkids to act as “servers” and help me prepare dinner and then serve our guests.

Continue reading Learning Hospitality

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Character Training Tip: Attentiveness

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character-training-tip

What is attentiveness? Simply stated, it’s listening with the ears, eyes , and heart.  It’s paying attention on purpose.

As our kids were growing up we had a family night every Friday night. For a number of years, we would have a “family Bible quiz“. The kids looked forward to this. Dad would simply read from the Bible or Bible story book when they were very young. During or after (depending on attention spans of the kids), he would pause and ask questions about what he’d just read.

The kids would want to be first to raise their hand to answer a question. Sometimes we’d just go around the circle of children so each one had the opportunity to try to answer a question. If they couldn’t get it, we moved on to the next person. Continue reading Character Training Tip: Attentiveness

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“Hidden Sins” Cupcakes (a tasty object lesson)

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hidden sins cupcakes colage

Here is a great and tasty object lesson about sin you can do with your children. It is one of the projects found in our Character Concepts for Preschoolers Mom’s Guide. I found this recipe/idea years ago from an old Bible cookbook for kids that had different Bible lessons with recipes to go along with them.

This one become a favorite. In fact, when our youngest child, Kasey, was a little girl, she began calling sweets ‘sin’ and asking for some ‘sin’ for dessert! That always brought some laughter!

Just last week when I had 4 of the grand kids over for a couple of days, I brought out this recipe to make with them. They wondered what in the world we were doing when Kasey and I suggested making “hidden sins” for dessert!  🙂

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Philippians 4:8 ‘Tell a Good Thing’ Activity for Families

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tell a good thing correct spelling
This is a simple little game we would play to encourage our children to think on what is true, honest, right, lovely, and of good report as Philippians 4:8 instructs us. ( Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. Phil. 4:8)

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A Game of “If’s”

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ifs game “Ifs” is a game we often played with our children to help them learn how to make wise decisions before they were even placed in a position of temptation.  Our grown kids have testified this helped them many times to choose the right thing.  This what would you do game for kids is fun and yet they are learning the whole time.

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Nature Studies – Diligence ~ Preschool Thursdays

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Thursdays-Preschool-AntsTeach your little one life lessons from the ant.

One of my sons delighted in crushing up saltine crackers on the front porch and watching as the ants would come in force to carry the crumbs off to their home.

Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.” Proverbs 6:6

What a great opportunity to discuss diligence. God made the ants diligent.

We can learn from them and choose wisely.

 

 

 

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Training Sessions

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Character Concepts training obedienceYou may have heard me say it before.  Too many parents train their children the same way they train their dogs.  They wait until they mess up, then yell at them.

That’s obviously not a very encouraging or pleasant way to be trained.  What we need to do instead is to prepare our children ahead of time.   Then corrections can be fewer and more gentle.  Everybody will be happier, parents and children alike.  But how do we do that?

Continue reading Training Sessions

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