Pine Cone Toss

Robert’s Age: 3

Success Rating: A nice afternoon distraction!

This is a simple one, but after collection some cones (they were actually spruce cones as we didn’t yet have any real pine cones on the ground) in a basket, placed it at the top of the ramp to our shed, then placed another basket a short distance from the bottom end of the ramp, and Robert walked up the ramp to get a cone, then down the ramp to tossed it in the other basket. This activity bought me the 20 minutes I needed to clean up some trash the raccoons had so very kindly distributed across our yard!

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Disappearing Driveway Paint

Robert’s Age: 3

Success Rating: Fun, but Robert preferred Mommy to do the painting!

How about an art activity with zero cleanup! Now, if you’re driveway is not bitumen, or it is in mint, freshly sealed condition, this activity may not work for you, but a slightly weathered bitumen driveway is perfect for disappearing paint…. i.e., Water!

Don’t have the right sort of driveway? Try this at the park instead.

I used a 1 inch paintbrush that I picked up at a local yard sale for a quarter, and a plastic tub from the kitchen. This activity is best done on a slightly cooler day with not too much wind so the ‘paint’ doesn’t evaporate too quickly.

Robert tried his hand at it for a while, however, admittedly he preferred Mommy to do the painting. A row of circles became a great jumping activity (and I know he has an apple in his hand but I promise he wasn’t actively eating while jumping, I just couldn’t get him to put it down!)

And no art activity is complete in our home without a whale with a blow hole…

Enjoy!

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Planks, Stumps, and a Makeshift See-Saw

Robert’s Age: 3

Success Rating: Great! He’s played with these every nice day this fall!

As our house can be prone to blackouts in the wintertime, my husband likes to make sure we have a good stash of firewood at hand for ‘just-in-case’ heat…. ok, so judging by the piles in the background, maybe he’s a little obsessive about his firewood collection, but the up side for us is that a recent delivery of stumps from the local tree guy turned into a myriad options for play. After convincing my DH that using a few stumps used as temporary climbing structures would not have a significant impact on his firewood supply (they wouldn’t be ready for burning this year anyway) I set to work arranging some stumps in the yard.

It took a few tries to find the right angle/placement before they were level and steady enough for climbing, but much fun followed. Robert had a great time stepping at first…

…then jumping from one stump to the next.

Then we took a smaller round and rested an old plank across it to make a see-saw type structure. It’s not the type you’d want to sit on, as I didn’t attach a piece of wood to the bottom of each end of the plank to keep fingers from getting jammed, however it was great for walking…

He spent some time testing it out…

… but once Robert got the hang of the motion it wasn’t long before he was running as quickly as possible across it became a fun game.

We then tried our see-saw with a larger round, but it was a bit too scary for Robert to scale without assistance, so he tried his hand at rolling the round instead.

And of course, you have to make time for pondering pine needles…

All in all, a delightful fall activity!!!

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