Autumn activities for toddlers

Leaves

The easiest autumn activity is a small basket and a walk. Fill it with the driest, crunchiest leaves you can find, carry it home, and tip it out on a towel in the living room. Scrunch them, throw them, stamp on them, put them back in the basket and start again. A one year old will spend twenty minutes on the sound alone. Older ones can sort big from small or find two the same colour.

Tearing is the next stage. Old paper into a basket, or the dry leaves themselves, torn into pieces and dropped from a height. It is messy in the way that sweeps up in one go.

Puddles and mud

If it has rained, put wellies on and find a puddle. Jump in it with both feet. Practise at home first by laying two tea towels on the kitchen floor and jumping from one to the other, which is a better game than it sounds. A patch of mud, a couple of old bowls and a stick make a mud kitchen for a two year old with no purchase needed. Pat it, stir it, serve it.

The clear-up is the bit people dread. Boots off at the door onto a mat, coat on a low hook, and that whole process is a job the child can own by the end of the season.

The dark

Dark by five o'clock is hard on everyone, so give it a job. A torch under a blanket makes a den. A torch pointed at a plain wall in a dim room makes shadows, and hands become animals. Both of these are calm activities that fit the hour before dinner, when a child is tired but not ready to stop. On a wet evening, sit at the window and race raindrops down the glass. The reflections from lights outside make it better in the dark.

If you can, get outside once after dark with the torch. A garden or a yard is a different place at night and the walk to the bin becomes an expedition.

Getting ready is the activity

In autumn a lot of the day is spent putting things on and taking them off. Rather than rushing it, make it part of the play. Shoes go on the mat by the door, coats go on the low hook, and both are jobs a toddler can be given. The activities below cover leaves, puddles, torch play and the door routine, each with its own page and a switch-up for when the first go wears off.

Try this together

Leaf Crunch Basket from 12 months · 20-30 min Paper Tear Basket from 14 months · 10-15 min Puddle Jump Path from 26 months · 20-35 min Muddy Garden Pat-A-Cake from 28 months · 25-40 min Torch Under Blanket from 12 months · 5-10 min Window Raindrop Watch from 14 months · 5-10 min Hang Coat on Hook from 18 months · 5 min

More play guides

Rainy day activities for toddlers at home Pick one big-movement idea and one sit-down idea. That covers most of a wet afternoon. Screen-free activities for 2 year olds At two, the best screen-free activities are real jobs: pouring, sorting, carrying, stirring. Things to do with an 18 month old at home At 18 months they want to carry, post, tip out and put back. Give them jobs that are exactly that.