Dear CDA Families,
Family engagement plays an important role in promoting your child’s development, learning, and overall well-being. When families are actively engaged in their children’s lives, it leads to a host of benefits, such as educational success, social and emotional wellbeing, cultural identity, and so on. Take each month of the year as an opportunity for your family to learn and engage in meaningful activities and promote quality time together.
Engaging in themed activities each month can help your child’s understanding of the different seasons, nature, and cultural celebrations. October brings the beginning of fall with its changing colors, harvest, and fun holidays that help create lasting memories.
Here are some Family Engagement Activities for October:
Nature Walk/ Scavenger Hunt:
Create a fall-themed scavenger hunt as you take a walk around your neighborhood or local park, search for and collect items like leaves of different colors and shapes, acorns, pinecones, etc.
Leaf Art:
Use the collected leaves from your scavenger hunt to create leaf rubbing art or collage.
Fall Sensory Bin:
Sensory bins provide children the opportunity to stimulate one or more senses at a time. Fill a container with fall items like leaves, pinecones, dried corn, mini pumpkins, bright colored pompoms.
Pumpkin Carving:
Have a pumpkin carving session as a family and get creative. Discuss the history of jack-o-lanterns and their significance.
Visit a Pumpkin Patch:
Spend a day at a pumpkin patch, selecting pumpkins for carving and decorating.
Baking:
Spend a day of baking fall treats together, such as pumpkin bread, apple pie, apple cinnamon granola, rice pudding, etc.
Outdoor Movie Night:
Set up an outdoor movie screening with blankets and popcorn. Choose a family friendly fall or Halloween movie to enjoy under the stars.
Harvest Festival:
Find a local harvest festival in your area to attend and enjoy as a family.
Campfire stories:
Build a campfire or use a fire pit and take turns sharing spooky or silly stories. Roast marshmallows for s’mores.
Halloween Decorations:
Make spooky crafts like paper ghosts, spider webs, or painted pumpkins to decorate your home.
Family Game Night:
A family game night is always a great way to bond and have fun together. Choose games that everyone can enjoy, like board games or card games.
Gratitude Circle:
Sit in a circle and take turns sharing about what you are grateful for related to the fall season.
Remember, the key to family engagement is to spend quality time together creating meaningful memories. What other activities or ideas can you implement in your family engagement calendar this fall season?
Pumpkin Patches:
Pumpkin Station (various locations)
Carlsbad Strawberry Company Pumpkin Patch
Mr. Jack O’ Lanterns Pumpkin Patch
Upcoming Workshops
We have FREE workshops all year round. Click the button below for more information and register today:
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For individualized assistance with resources or referrals, please contact our Family Resources Team via the contact form on our workshops page: