Fun Activities for Autumn
Hi all!
Here we are then, it’s half term; the weather is on the turn with an autumnal chill in the air, and Halloween commercialism is in full throttle. To directly quote our last blog: “bring on scarfs, Sunday walks in a leaf-strewn London park and chai lattes from the coffee shops”.
The early stirrings of autumn also means that we have arrived at our October Half Term Holiday Club (still some last minute spaces, by the way, but they’re being snapped up very quickly). The half term holiday clubs are a blast. As much as I love the summer one, it is a full six weeks which, to put it mildly, is exhausting. The half term ones are a bit of a whirlwind: an intense, short and sweet five days and over in the blink of an eye.
The October one is particularly fun because of what it offers thematically; with the trees changing all around us and with Halloween and Bonfire Night just inches away from half term, there are endless options for arts and crafts: pumpkins, bonfires, autumn coloured leaves, fireworks, ghosts, witches etc. So many seasonal activities yet only five days to cram them into!
If your child is attending Holiday Club this week, you’ll be able to see some of their artistic offerings at the end of each day (4:30pm if you want to catch ‘Show & Tell’). So rather than give away our craft ideas in advance 😉, we thought we would put some other autumnal activities your way. These are great for a Sunday afternoon in November and can keep the kids busy for hours!
Let’s start with the obvious: Pumpkin Carving. This is something of an autumnal ritual for me, and it’s not the carving itself but more the tradition of it that is so special. It started at drama school years ago: I and a group of friends bought a load of pumpkins one Sunday, put on a scary film in the background (perhaps don’t do that bit with the kids!) cracked open a bottle of red wine (also not advisable for children) and set to work. We were all totally useless at it of course but it was great fun. 15 years later and we still meet on a Sunday in October to do it all over again. Not all of us can be there every year of course, but we are still going strong. Some of the team are even quite good at it these days (not me). It has remained a staple in our friendship group after all this time and is a great excuse for us all to get together. So there, a simple autumn activity to open with which is less about the activity itself and more about creating a bonding tradition which can last a lifetime!
Autumn Decorations
I have a number of American friends living in London. One thing some of them particularly miss about the US at this time of year (the ‘fall’ as they would call it) are the decorations. I was puzzled when my friend Emily first mentioned this but she explained that in America it really is a thing. Houses are often covered with everything that the autumn natural world has to offer: pumpkins on the doorstep, wreaths of fallen leaves on the door, maple leaf garlands draped over the mantlepiece and piles of conkers everywhere. Pinterest is, as ever, great for more ideas. This is a great family activity as it can take up the bulk of a day and has both indoor and outdoor tasks. Firstly, get the coats, scarves and wellies on and head straight for your nearest park. Find anything you can: dried leaves, conkers, pyracantha berries, acorns (you’ll have to head to the supermarket for the pumpkins!). Collect them all up and bring them home. Now for the creative part: get cracking on the garlands, wreaths, doorstep displays, table centre pieces and window hangings. The options are endless. And it is all done using natural materials. What’s not to like?
When I was growing up, my mum sometimes to used make us a Halloween Meal. These were great fun and my mum would come up with new ideas every year. They can be so simple: some sausages with chives in became ‘mouldy sausages’ or one year they were wrapped in pastry to look like mummies! Mozzarella balls in soup became floating eyeballs (ok, they eventually melt but that adds to the fun) and sliced up olives can be arranged on a pizza in such a way that it appears to be swarming with spiders!
Then of course there are endless cupcake ideas. My favourite Halloween cupcake activity is to cut a hole in the top, and insert a marshmallow. Where to go with this is wide open for interpretation: you can use icing, sweets or fruit to turn the marshmallow into a ghost, a monster or a pumpkin. Yummy!
I hope you are able to give some of these activities a go over the coming weeks. As ever at Nutty’s we aim for children to have fun, to challenge their creativity and nurture their imaginations. And these activities certainly tick all three of those boxes!
As my American friend, Emily, would say: “Happy Fall y’all!”
