How to FALL In Love with Your Child: 20 Fall Ideas

The fall season has so much to offer all of us; it’s crisp air, cozy sweaters, crunchy leaves, and warm spices in the kitchen. But even more than that, it’s a season full of opportunities to slow down and connect with our children. As a Montessori parent, I know my toddlers need opportunities for hands-on exploration, movement, and sensory-rich experiences. Fall gives us all of that, right in our own backyards. Here are 20 Montessori-inspired, family-friendly fall ideas to slow down, help you connect with your child, and nurture their natural curiosity during this fall season.

1. Make Fall-Scented Playdough

I love it when we can bring in new flavors and smells into our environment. The fall season offers many opportunities for a variety of sensory expereince, but we can prepare homemade fall-scented playdough in just a few minutes. This is a great way to get your little one involved in the kitchen as well. Try the cinnamon, pumpkin pie, and apple pie playdough recipes, all with simple ingredients you likely have in your pantry.

If you are looking for ways to extend the fun and engagement with playdough, consider adding some seasonal press-ins, cookie cutters, or patterned rolling pins.

2. Read Fall Books

Curl up with cozy seasonal books. I’m sure you know that there are many benefits to reading to your child, but beyond that, it is the perfect way to slow down at the end of the day or a simple start to the morning. There are such beautiful books that show and explain the fall season. Remember your local library when checking out books! Shop a beautiful selection of fall children’s book titles here!

2. Paint Mini Pumpkins

While you are at the pumpkin patch or even your local grocery store, pick up some mini pumpkins. On a tray, offer one small pumpkin, a paint tray with 1-3 colors of paint, and a paint brush.

3. Make a Simmer Pot

Creating a simmer pot is a stress-free way to involve your child in the kitchen. For an older toddler and preschool child (and beyond), they can help cut the fruit for the simmer pot. Apples, oranges, and lemons are great ones that smell so wonderful! Fill a pot with water and add the cut fruit. Then add in some warm smells like cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, star anise, and rosemary sprigs. You can even add in ground spices like ground nutmeg and ginger. Invite your child to drop ingredients in the pot. Your home will smell so wonderful and seasonally fragrant!

4. Play Football

A simple game of catch or running with a soft ball outdoors builds gross motor skills and gives kids that sense of freedom and movement they crave. At least in Minnesota, where we live, this is one of the best times of year to enjoy outdoor activities like this.

5. Rake Leaves

There is wonderful gross motor purposful work to be had in the fall. Raking can be a big job for some properties this time of the year, and your child would be delighted to have the chance to work in this way. A child-sized rake makes this work much more manageable for their small hands. Raking leaves and jumping into the piles will be such a fun moment for them!

6. Go to a Farmer’s Market

Now that we live in a small town, we have a farmers’ market right down the road from our house every Saturday morning throughout the summer and into the fall. It feels like such a special expereince to bike down to the Farmer’s Market, pick up some local produce, and go home to make something delicious out of it.

In the fall season, the boys enjoyed spreading apple butter on their toast that we picked up from a local seller at the market. It is a great place to explore the colors, smells, and sounds of the season. While at the market, let your child help choose an apple or pumpkin to enjoy at home for more fall family fun!

7. Carve a Pumpkin

Carving a pumpkin is an iconic fall family activity. While your young child may not be ready to cut the top of the pumpkin or the Jack o’ lantern face just yet, there is still so many safe parts of the process that they can join in on.

Once you have the top cut, they can begin scooping out the seeds and the slimy insides into a bowl. Once the pumpkin is empty, you can separate the seeds from the pumpkin guts to save for roasting later on.

8. Roast Pumpkin Seeds

After carving and removing the seeds from the extra pumpkin guts, rinse and roast the seeds with your child. They can rinse off the seeds, spread them out onto a paper towel, pat them dry, and transfer them to a baking sheet. Toddlers love to see the full cycle—harvesting, preparing, and tasting their work.

9. Go on a Nature Walk

There is so much fall beauty to observe and enjoy with the changing of the leaves, the fallen acorns, and the change of season that feels so distinct. Find a local walking path or nature reserve and follow your child’s lead—pause to look at a leaf, feel tree bark, or listen to the crunch of gravel. Slow, unhurried walks are a gift to your child and to you.

10. Collect and Count Acorns

Toddlers adore gathering treasures. While out on a nature walk or a visit to the park, you can collect acorns and keep them in a small basket. Depending on the age of your child, you could simply count them together.

If you have an older toddler or preschooler, you can print off this quantity PDF worksheet. I just cut and laminated mine to be an opportunity to show the number symbol and quantity together. Show your child how to place one acorn.

I found that using the acorn tops worked better, and then named the quantity. Keep the acorns in a small bowl or dish. If numbers and quantity are new for your child, introduce numbers 1 to 3 to get started.

11. Collect Items for a Nature Tray or Nature Shelf

Without fail, whenever we are out and about, my boys are collecting things. Rocks, leaves, pinecones, sticks, and acorns. We can create a place in our homes to keep these things for them to look at and explore again. This is a Montessori way to honor your child’s discoveries and give them a place to keep them.

12. Go to a Pumpkin Patch

A pumpkin patch has so much to offer for the young child. All of the different sights, smells, and textures offer a great sensory expereince. Your child can walk, touch, and choose their own pumpkin. But the sensory exploration doesn’t end there, it is just the beginning. From there, you can go on to carve the pumpkin, set up a pumpkin hammering activity that will focus on fine motor skills as well as painting mini pumpkins.

If you want to go even further, consider all that you can do with pumpkins in the kitchen. Making a pumpkin pie was a new favorite at 2 and a half.

13. Go on a Hay Ride

Often at the pumpkin patch, you can find a hay ride to go on. These bumpy rides allow you to see and take in the fall season with a new perspective. Just sitting, holding your child, and noticing what is happening around you is so fun.

14. Walk Through a Corn Maze

At a fall festival or a pumpkin patch, you may find a corn maze or a hay bail maze. Here’s are literal opportunity to follow your child’s curiosity and sense of direction.

15. Bake a Pumpkin Pie

Working in the kitchen is one of my most cherished moments with my children. Our toddlers, preschoolers, or really any child of any age can help to stir, pour, or sprinkle spices. There are many skills to be developed in the kitchen. In my opinion, having the right tools and a learning tower to get your child up to counter height makes it much easier to involve your child in the kitchen.

16. Go Apple Picking

A family trip to the apple orchard is the perfect way to spend a fall weekend. Your child will love to reach up and twist off the apples from the tree. Similarly, after you get home from apple picking, the ideas of what to do next are endless. Peeling apples, chopping them up to make apple crisp or homemade apple pie.

17. Potato and Apple Stamping

If you want a simple fall craft to do, you can cut open an apple or a potato for potato stamping. Cut apples or potatoes in half, brush them with paint, and stamp away. This is a fun way to offer some variety to painting.

18. Wash Pumpkins

You can offer scrubbing and washing pumpkins as a fall practical life activity. I would recommend doing this outside if possible. Fill a small water basin with warm, soapy water and let your toddler scrub pumpkins with a brush. I found that a simple bottle brush or veggie scrub brush worked well.

Alternatively, you could offer a spray bottle and scrub brush. These activities of practical life offer such purposful work for your child that naturally leads to lots of repetition and deep concentration.

19. Go on a Bike Ride

Since our twins have turned 2 years old, they have been loving their Strider Bikes. The fresh air, gross motor movement and the coordination and balance that biking requires are so good for your child’s development. I’m finding bike rides to be one of our favorite ways to spend time together as a family.

BIke Recommendations

Young Toddler: Balance Bike

Older Toddler/Preschooler: Strider Bike

Preschooler/Elementary: Pedal Bike

Enouragement for Your Fall

Montessori is all about following your child’s natural drive for exploration, movement, and connection. I’ve seen how the fall season gives us so many opportunities to enjoy the season with all of its hands-on sensory expereinces. Whether you’re raking leaves, baking together, or wandering through a corn maze, what matters most is slowing down and enjoying your child.