When the weather starts getting cooler, the leaves start falling, and the rain starts pouring… you know fall is in full force. But this doesn’t mean that the fun has to stop! Growing up in the United States as a host child with au pairs, I want to share some of my favorite fall activities from when I was younger.
One “chore’ my siblings and I were always excited to help with was raking the leaves. We would have a competition about who could gather together the largest pile and then, at the end, we would rake them all together into one massive pile and then spend a good hour jumping into them. One year our au pair actually found garbage bags that looked like pumpkins… filling those with leaves formed great garden decorations!
On the rainy days we would usually be found inside doing fun
projects. My favorite was making caramel apples. We would find a recipe
for caramel online, usually a healthier version, and our au pair would make it
on the stove, with us watching avidly of course. Once it cooled a bit we would
get to cover our apples on a stick in nice gooey caramel and then roll it in
some treats. We had everything from coconut shavings, to raisins, to gummy
bears. Then our au pair would get a little down time while we started the
sticky and time consuming task of trying to eat our creations. Putting down
some newspaper on the table is highly HIGHLY recommened!
Lastly, my siblings and I were huge arts and crafts fans! We
loved anything artsy. We would often go on leaf walks with our au pair and pick
up the prettiest and biggest leaves we could find and bring them home. After
waiting for them to dry, we would use them to make leaf rubbings with crayons.
We made our own cards out of these, which we would send to friends, relatives,
and even home to the au pair’s family!
So even though it’s sad that summer is over, make sure you
and your host kids appreciate fall to the utmost extent! It’s a wonderful time
of year and you better hurry and enjoy… before the snow comes!
Happy Days!
Camilla 