Low Waste Fall Activities for Young Children

Happy Fall as of this past Tuesday! I was awakened at the first light of dawn from my four year old running down the hall to my bedroom completely taken aback that there were still leaves on the trees.

“Momma! It’s finally fall!! The leaves are supposed to fall down today!”

Soon, buddy, very soon.

We are lucky to live in an area that usually experiences all four seasons and there are many years that the trees can be absolutely breath taking once they fully change colors. The process has begun this week and so far it looks pretty promising this will be one of those years!

To honor the season change, I came up with a few special activities for us to do last week.

If you’re new to our blog, we are a family of four (soon to be five) with two boys under five. They are rambunctious, inquisitive, and adore being outdoors. Keeping with a low waste (and low cost) theme is pretty important to me when planning special activities so I tried to keep that in mind when planning them out!

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Beeswax Candle Making

Every once in awhile we light candles with supper to make the night extra special for the boys. I found these super neat wax candle kits at an apothecary shop. They just opened in a city nearby and I knew she had some herbs I’ve been looking for! I saw these kits while browsing and knew they would be a hit at home. You get enough wax to make seven cylinder candles, all you have to do is cut your wicks to length!

*No affiliation with Blessing Moon Herbs, but I 100% respect her business practices and knowledge on herbs and on low waste, eco-friendly options!* Feel free to check out their website at:

https://www.blessingmoonherbs.com

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(Naturally, we had to light all seven candles for supper that night!)

Autumn’s Abundance Foraging Adventure

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For this activity, I gave the boy’s their bolga harvesting baskets and tasked them with finding as many colorful leaves, flowers, and fun textures they could find! I love these baskets as their the perfect size for little hands, are washable, and are quite sturdy. (Find the double handle basket here and the single handled basket here)

Not only was this fun for them, but I had a few ideas in mind for the treasures they had found. Only a few trees on our property had started changing colors, but we definitely were thorough in searching for them!

Climbing, running, and sharing their finds were right up their alley for fun and cooperative play. They were delighted to find our oak trees so weighed down with acorns they could pull several off themselves!

Fall Inspired Sensory Box

Sensory boxes have been a fantastic tool with keeping the boys occupied and helping them stay focused. They are my go-to on cold rainy days, if they are overstimulated to help with grounding, or if I’m doing a big canning project that isn’t safe for little hands.

When I make new boxes for them, I try to keep to specific themes that we are discussing during that time. I try to add in different textures, scents, and colors that they can explore and use as they see fit. But the key aspect for me is to find things that are either reusable, compostable, or can be fed to the chickens after we’re done.

How to assemble:

1. Grab your filler ingredients of your choice. I chose the decorative corn we had laying around, and a bag of pinto beans. You could also use rice, lentils, other beans, corn, etc.
2. Add in a few extra fun elements. We went with some of the fall flowers, acorns, cinnamon sticks, and small pumpkins from the garden.
3. Scoops, bottles, bowls, etc. Something for them to sort, fill, and dump with. I LOVE this set my sister-in-law got them for a birthday from Natureskool! They’re bamboo, sturdy, and straight adorable! I also save many of our empty supplement jars that are amber colored to store herbs in, but a few of the smaller ones have been dedicated to the sensory box. Sometimes they get funnels, toilet paper rolls, or anything else that may be fun to explore and use their imagination with.
4. Place everything together in the container of your choice. I used to use a plastic tote but found this old wine box while decluttering the basement and love the warmth it brings.

*I would definitely place the box on a blanket for easier cleanup!

I find our boys don’t need much guidance with these boxes. They have pretty much freedom to be as creative with them as they choose. As I’m writing about this activity, my oldest is shredding the flowers and stuffing them into glass jars. Stirling says they’re going to dry them and store them for tea this winter! While Declan is carefully using the bamboo tweezers to pick up pieces of corn and fill up a glass jar.

Acorn Harvest Water Play

One of Declan’s favorite tasks is very carefully transferring water from one container to another. Stirling was the same way from about 18 months to 36 months. Different forms of water play and transfer have been a big hit for them.

Most of the flowers collected in the Foraging Adventure were used to color water for this activity. A natural, water based food coloring would have worked, but we didn’t have any on hand. Marigolds are used as a natural fabric dye, so I figured they would be a good option to color some water. I did add in a few nasturtiums in hopes to add in extra color.

I used 6 cups of filtered water in a medium sauce pan and filled it with as many flower petals that would fit in. Over medium low heat, and stirring frequently the petals began to wilt and much of the vibrant color leeched out into the water.

This would have been a super fun job for Stirling (who is four) but it took roughly an hour for the petals to become translucent and he decided he would rather lay down for quiet time. I was happy with the color of the water I removed them from heat, strained, and placed in the fridge to cool.

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Acorns were another treasure from the Foraging activity that were used in this water play, and I added a few of the leaves from this gel window cling packet. I found them at Dollar General and thought they would add some extra fun textures and interest into the water. You can find similar ones here!

I didn’t even have to give Declan directions on what to do with this one. He went right away for the gel leaves and apples, and then separated the acorns. He was so intent and focused on his work but would occasionally stop to giggle and make sure I was watching.

Waxed Leaf Garland

One of my favorite signs of fall growing up was when my mom brought out the storage totes full of fall decorations. In just a few hours our whole home was transformed into a spiced pumpkin wonderland in every room.

While I used to store several boxes of synthetic decorations for the holidays, the past few years I’ve been trying to make it a point to give those away to someone who will use them and find ways for more sustainable options that we can make together.

A friend had posted a link to a waxed leaf tutorial and my first thought was fall decorations! Preserving the natural beauty of the leaves late into the fall months long after the trees have gone dormant.

What you need:

• Small vessel to heat your wax. Either a double boiler or a designated crock pot. I prefer to use this 1.5 quart crock pot for wax projects to keep the mess to a minimum. Working with beeswax can be extremely difficult to fully clean up, so I keep ours completely dedicated to beeswax.
• Natural 100% beeswax. I prefer to use beeswax from our bees, but we haven’t harvested any for the year so far. The pelleted options are much easier to work with in craft projects than a block or chunk as it’s easier to measure and melts much faster. The amount you’ll need depends on how many leaves you work with, but keep in mind you can can reuse any left over wax in the future.

Tell me…

Let me know in the comments what your favorite fall activities are to do with your children, or if you have any good memories from your childhood to share!

Please let me know if you try any of these and your experiences with them! Don’t forget to sign up for email reminders for every time a new blog comes out.

Hopefully as the harvest and growing season comes to an end my blog posts will get back on track for a weekly edition! I appreciate everyone’s patience as we’ve been going through quite a busy and stressful season the past several months.