Fall is in the air!

Hi! It's Rita!

The temperatures have dropped and it finally feels like fall here in Houston. Yes, even Houston has fallen leaves, acorns, pine needles, brown grass and other signs of fall. It doesn't last long around here so we have to take advantage of it!

Take your children on a nature hunt. Give them a brown paper bag and encourage them to collect "nature items." After they have a bag full of goodies, try some of these activities:

~ Fall Jewelry: Wrap a piece of wide masking tape, sticky side out, to your child's wrists and have them decorate the tape by sticking the items on the tape. This makes a BEAUTIFUL fall bracelet. ;)

~ Leaf Rubbings: Sort the items into leaves, acorns, hard or soft objects, needles, etc. Tape the items on a table (to keep them still) and cover with large pieces of butcher or manila paper. Give your child fall colored crayons with the paper removed and encourage him to rub or roll the crayons on its side over the paper. "Like MAGIC beautiful images of leaves, pine needles etc. appear." Remove the paper and repeat the process until your child is finished.

~ Leaf Press Painting: Older (than Carter, Luke and Hudson) children love to paint the leaves and press the paper on the leaves for a beautiful fall painting. This too, can be repeated over and over.

**Wow, wooden pieces glued to a piece of wood! Fancy Art! ;)

~ Nature Collage: If you have any old gift boxes, feel free to use the nature items, pieces of fabric, fall colored gems or sequins, feathers, etc, to collage the box to hold precious treasures.

~ Not Sure What to Call This: Arrange the leaves on a piece of waxed paper, cover the arrangement with another piece of waxed paper and iron it on low temperature. You can vary the project by adding shavings of fall colored crayons. REALLY PRETTY!!!

~ Texture Collage: Lay out a piece of contact paper, sticky side up, and let your child go free to arrange his fall findings on the sticky surface. WOW!! ;)

These activities not only encourage creativity but also build organizational skills by sorting and categorizing items. They build fine motor skills, and self esteem.

Important Teaching Moment:

Most of all, these activities bring to life God's many blessings in His creation. We can talk and read until we are blue in the face but when your child can touch it, smell it, see it, hear it and taste it, they will truly understand and appreciate God's gifts.

HAVE FUN and enjoy this short season!