Fall is a wonderful time of year to get outdoors with children. The weather is great and there are usually all types of natural learning to explore. Nuts and seeds and leaves cover the ground and children can find a treasure at almost every turn. Parents can easily make wonderful fun and learning experiences from the outdoors.
Simple items such as twigs and sticks can make for a lot of learning fun. Instead of watching your child run around yelling with a branch, help your child collect branches and organize them by size. Help your child learn some building skills by figuring out how to make a small standing hut.
Give your child a container and let him/her collect small pebbles, nuts, and other items. Empty the container out and examine each item. Ask your child where it might have came from. Talk with your about how squirrels and other animals store the nuts and save them for the long winter.
Help your child collect items and demonstrate how a bird might build a nest from nature’s items.
Collect rocks and use them for trade. As a child, I loved to pretend that rocks were money. Help your child find sugar rocks to use as diamonds.
Put up a bird feeder and help your child make a graph of the different birds that are seen. Be sure to check out some bird watcher books from the library.
Now that the leaves are changing colors, try sorting them. Try to figure out which types of trees the leaves are from. Have your child sort the leaves by color, shape, size, and origin.
Go sit at a park and have a picnic. Keep a record of the various wildlife that you see while you are there. Watch for ducks, geese, birds, squirrels, deer, and more.