5 Easy Nature Play Activities for Fall

Simple ways to connect kids with the changing seasons — and boost their development in the process.

As the air turns crisp and the leaves begin to fall, nature becomes one big playground waiting to be explored. Fall is the perfect time to get outside, slow down, and let kids experience the wonder of the changing world around them. The best part? You don’t need fancy supplies or big plans — just curiosity, a few minutes outdoors, and the willingness to get a little messy.

Here are five easy fall nature play ideas that work beautifully for children ages 1 to 8, encouraging creativity, sensory learning, and overall wellness.

1. Leaf Treasure Hunt

What to do:
Grab a small basket or bag and go on a leaf hunt! Ask your child to find as many different shapes, sizes, and colors as they can. Older kids can sort them by type or color, while younger ones can simply collect and explore the textures.

Development boost:
This activity supports observation skills, classification, and fine motor coordination. It also encourages mindfulness — kids begin to notice small seasonal changes and appreciate nature’s beauty.

Wellness tie-in:
The act of slowing down and focusing on natural details can reduce stress and improve focus — even for adults! It’s a grounding sensory experience that encourages calm and curiosity.

2. Acorn & Pinecone Kitchen

What to do:
Set up a pretend “forest café” with acorns, pinecones, sticks, and leaves as ingredients. Add a few bowls, spoons, or cups from your outdoor play kit. Let the kids “cook” and create their own forest-inspired meals.

Development boost:
Pretend play strengthens imagination, language skills, and social-emotional growth. Kids learn to cooperate, communicate, and think creatively.

Wellness tie-in:
Imaginative play helps children process emotions and build confidence while engaging multiple senses — touch, sight, sound, and even smell — for a full sensory experience outdoors.

3. Nature Paintbrushes

What to do:
Collect sticks, pine needles, and leaves. Tie (or rubber band) them to one end of the stick to create unique paintbrushes. Use washable paint or mud to make fall art on paper, cardboard, or rocks.

Development boost:
Encourages fine motor skills, creativity, and hand-eye coordination. It also helps kids explore cause and effect — seeing how different textures leave different marks.

Wellness tie-in:
Art in nature is both soothing and expressive. It’s a mindful way to relieve stress and encourages children to find beauty in imperfection and process over product.

4. Fall Sensory Soup

What to do:
Fill a large bowl or bucket with water and invite your kids to add “ingredients” — flower petals, grass, pine needles, berries (safe ones only!), bark, and small stones. Provide spoons or ladles to stir.

Development boost:
Builds sensory awareness, scientific thinking, and language development as they talk about textures, colors, and smells.

Wellness tie-in:
Sensory play helps regulate emotions and fosters a sense of calm. The simple act of stirring and creating can be meditative, helping children (and caregivers!) slow down and tune into the moment.

5. Build a Fairy (or Critter) Home

What to do:
Gather natural materials like sticks, bark, leaves, and stones to build a small home for fairies, forest animals, or insects. Encourage creativity and problem-solving as they design and construct their space.

Development boost:
Enhances spatial awareness, problem-solving, and cooperative play. Building structures promotes engineering and design thinking in a playful way.

Wellness tie-in:
Working collaboratively in nature helps children build empathy — for both living things and each other. It reminds them that they are part of a larger ecosystem and sparks a sense of belonging and stewardship.

A Final Thought

Fall is fleeting — and so are the childhood seasons. Each moment spent outside collecting leaves, stirring a “soup,” or building a tiny woodland home strengthens your child’s body, mind, and heart. The more we connect with the natural world, the more balanced and grounded we all become.

So grab your jacket, step outside, and let nature do its magic — one crunchy leaf at a time. 🍁

Why Outdoor Play Is the Best Classroom for Young Children

As a mama and outdoor educator, I've witnessed firsthand how children truly blossom when they're given the freedom to explore the world around them. Nature offers a rich classroom for young minds—free from screens, packed with learning moments, and overflowing with connection. Here's why outdoor play is more than just fun—it’s foundational.

1. Builds Empathy & Problem-Solving

When children play outside—planting seeds, caring for plants, interacting with critters—they develop compassion, cooperation, and a sense of responsibility. These are the very traits our adult world is increasingly in need of. Learning to empathize with nature and peers this way helps children grow into more considerate, emotionally intelligent individuals, better equipped to navigate the challenges of daily life.

2. Encourages Risk-Taking

Outdoor play teaches valuable lessons in risk assessment—but it doesn't mean letting children do dangerous things. Instead, we guide them gently to recognize the difference between truly hazardous situations and challenges that require courage and perseverance to overcome. In doing so, we're raising kids who can assess, try, fail, and try again—building resilience safely and thoughtfully.

3. Improves Health & Focus

There’s hard evidence behind what we feel: outdoor play boosts both physical health and mental focus. One systematic review found time in nature is associated with better self-esteem, resilience, cognition, and academic performance in children aged 3 to 12, while also increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary time PMC+1.

UNICEF reports that outdoor play improves concentration and school readiness through enhanced social skills and mental well-being UNICEF. Studies also show that nature restores attention and reduces fatigue, supporting the Attention Restoration Theory, which explains how “soft fascination” from natural environments helps renew our ability to focusen.wikipedia.org+1.

4. Creates Family Connection

Caregivers often share that attending our Nature Sprouts sessions has been transformative—not just for their kids, but for themselves. Being in nature with their children, slowing down, playing together, and learning alongside them, many caregivers say they've grown as parents in ways they never expected. Reclaiming space outdoors means reconnecting with joy, intuition, and deep family bonds.

Final Thoughts

Outdoor play isn't just play—it’s the most enriching classroom there is.

• It teaches empathy and cooperation, helping to fill gaps in how our society collaborates and cares.

• It encourages wise risk-taking, not recklessness.

• It supports physical strength and sharp attention, backed by peer-reviewed research.

• It nurtures family connection, healing old wounds and forging new memories.

At Nature Sprouts Adventure Club, we invite your family to step outside, breathe deeply, and rediscover learning—and living—through play. Curious to learn more or sign up? I’m here to help your little sprout flourish in the best classroom there is: the great outdoors.

My Carolina Homestead

Our Urban Homestead Journey: Building a Sustainable Life in the City

When most people think “homestead,” they imagine wide-open fields, barns, and endless rows of crops. But my family and I are living proof that you can build a sustainable, self-sufficient lifestyle right here in the suburbs of Raleigh — with just a little backyard and a big dream.

The most important rule of homesteading? Start where you are. You don’t need acres of land, a flock of animals, or a perfectly laid-out plan to begin. You can homestead in a single raised bed, a few containers on your balcony, or even by changing the way you approach food and waste in your home. Homesteading isn’t about perfection — it’s about progress, mindset, and connection.

Here’s what our journey has looked like so far:

1. Growing Our Own Food

We started with a 900 sq. ft. backyard garden — enough to grow fresh vegetables, fruit, and flowers year-round for our family and even sell extras at the farmers market. But you don’t have to have a lot of land to homestead. You can start exactly where you are, even if that means a few pots of herbs on your windowsill, a container of tomatoes on your porch, or a small raised bed tucked into the corner of your yard.

You’d be surprised at what you can grow with a little dirt, a little sun, some water, and the right attitude. The key is simply to start.

2. Reducing Waste

Homesteading goes far beyond the garden — it’s about creating systems that honor the earth and keep life sustainable. One of the most powerful principles we follow is closing the circuit, a permaculture concept that encourages us to keep as much of what we create on the property, on the property.

That means composting kitchen scraps instead of throwing them away, repurposing eggshells into garden nutrients, and using rainwater to hydrate our beds. Every loop we close keeps our homestead healthier, reduces dependence on outside inputs, and makes us more resilient.

3. Creating Community

One of the myths about homesteading is that it’s a solitary pursuit — just you and your land, “living off the grid.” The truth? Homesteading thrives in community. Being intentional about opening up your space, sharing your abundance, and connecting with fellow humans is a necessity.

Neighbors who swap produce, friends who lend tools, and a community that values sustainability make this life not only easier but more joyful. When we choose connection over isolation, everything runs more smoothly.

4. Teaching Our Kids

One of my greatest joys is raising my children on the land — watching them plant seeds, feed the chickens, and run barefoot through the garden. This is how children should be raised: close to the land and surrounded by love and light, while gaining deeply important life skills.

They’re learning where their food comes from, how to care for animals, and the value of patience, responsibility, and respect for nature. These lessons are far more valuable than anything in a textbook, and they’ll carry them for life.

Final Thoughts

Homesteading is so much bigger than gardening. It’s a lifestyle built on intention, resourcefulness, and connection. And the most important rule of all? Start where you are. You don’t even have to start with growing — you could begin with composting, reducing waste, learning to cook from scratch, or connecting with your community.

Homesteading isn’t about the size of your land. It’s about the size of your vision.

👉 Want to see how you can start your own homestead journey, right where you are? Sign up for my newsletter to get tips, DIY projects, and resources straight to your inbox.

Beginner’s Guide to Gardening in North Carolina’s Piedmont

Gardening in North Carolina can feel overwhelming if you’re just starting out — the heavy clay soil, unpredictable weather, and endless plant choices can leave anyone second guessing. But I want you to know: you can grow a thriving garden here, no matter your space or budget.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through the basics I share with all my coaching clients.

1. Start with the Soil

North Carolina’s Piedmont region is famous (or infamous!) for its red clay. In-ground gardening is absolutely doable, but it will cost you in the long run — not just in money for endless soil amendments, but in the time and energy it takes to keep that soil balanced and workable. Clay compacts easily, drains poorly, and can frustrate even experienced gardeners.

That’s why I encourage most beginners to start with raised garden beds. Yes, there’s an upfront cost to build and fill them, but the payoff is huge:

• You get complete control over your soil from the start.

• Weeds are less of a problem.

• Beds warm up earlier in spring and hold moisture better in summer.

• Success comes faster, with fewer headaches, so you build confidence and momentum.

Think of raised beds as an investment in your garden journey. Do it right once, and you’ll enjoy seasons of success.Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

2. Plant for the Season

One of the greatest gifts of gardening in Zone 8a is that we can grow food year-round with a little preparation and patience. Spring and fall bring cool-weather crops like leafy greens, peas, and carrots. Summer bursts with tomatoes, peppers, squash, and okra. Even in winter, you can harvest kale, collards, and root crops if you plan ahead and use row covers or cold frames.

When you understand our four true growing seasons, there’s always something to look forward to in the garden. With a seasonal mindset, you’ll never have to experience that long “off season” many gardeners face elsewhere.

3. Water Wisely

Irrigation isn’t a luxury in our region — it’s a necessity. Between scorching summer heat and unpredictable rainfall, your plants can quickly suffer from being under-watered or over-watered.

A simple drip irrigation or soaker hose system will:

• Save you hours of hand watering.

• Deliver water right where plants need it — at the roots.

• Keep foliage dry, reducing disease pressure.

• Help you grow stronger, more resilient plants.

If you want to save your sanity (and your garden), make irrigation part of your setup from the beginning.

4. Keep It Simple

The easiest way to get overwhelmed in the garden is to do too much, too fast. Instead:

• Choose 3–5 vegetables or herbs your family loves to eat.

• Make a simple plan that fits your space, budget, and time.

• Stick to that plan for your first season.

Gardening is a long game. You’ll learn so much by focusing on a small, manageable plot — and you can always add more in future seasons. Consistency is where success happens.

Final Thoughts

Whether you’re digging into clay or setting up raised beds, gardening in North Carolina’s Piedmont is rewarding, humbling, and deeply nourishing. With the right start, you can harvest food year-round, save yourself time and stress, and enjoy the process along the way.

👉 Ready to take the next step? Join my free beginner gardener community where I share seasonal tips, challenges, and hands-on workshops to help you grow with confidence.