Fall

It’s here. Fall. Not just because we’ve passed that day on the calendar, but because it’s HERE. The mornings are crisp, the days notaby shorter, the leaves are turning.

Why can’t spring do that? The First Day of Spring appears on the calendar, and outside? Snow up the wazoo, icy winds, sub-zero temperatures. It’s sheerest cruelty, tantalizing us with something that won’t arrive for another full month.

Fall, however, comes right on schedule.

Good thing I like the season. (All but that “harbinger of winter” part.) So out we go to find —“Colour! Look Mary, colour!” — the bright leaves that are beginning to speckle the sidewalks. We bring them home in bags, we bring them home on belts.

Our theme these days? Fall, of course. Mostly the falling leaves. We’re focussing on fall colours: red, orange, yellow, and brown.

The week we coloured leaves, which we added to our tree:

Next week we’ll sponge-paint leaves, in two ways. They’ll sponge on pre-cut leaf shapes, which will be added to our tree, and they’ll also sponge through a template onto a full-size sheet of paper, to make artwork to take home.

The week after? Those shaved-crayon projects I like to do, only leaves this time. Won’t they look nice hanging in a window?

Yesterday, a chill and rainy day and needing some rowdy indoor play, we played squirrels. A dozen blocks become ‘nuts’, and the children the squirrels. While they hide their eyes and DON’T PEEK — “I said ‘no peeking, you!’ ” — Mary ‘hides’ the blocks.

This block is hidden.

Then they run to find them so as to put them someplace safe to eat later. Just like real squirrels.

I may rue the fading of the light, but it sure does give us a lot of activity ideas!