halloween | Adventures of the Miller Mayers

Keva: Catapult

This was a kit to make a Catapult… It does make a Catapult, but it is hard and slow for kids to build… I ended up having to build most of the kit. While the kit said 8+, aligning the wood straight to make things work is pretty difficult for a single adult… let alone an adult trying to do this with children… Also, many of the steps require applying glue, which means you have to wait 10+ minutes between steps. The kids really didn’t have the patience for that. While the kid was good, it wasn’t as kid-driven as I like some of these activities to be.

Kid Approved? Yes

Yeah, the kids struggled to get into the building and wait for everything to dry. They thought it was pretty cool and enjoyed playing with it and asking questions. This will also have a longer replay value than many other kits or toys. We shot candy out of it to knock over toys, and you would get to eat the candy after hitting a target.

I like to do various semi-education activities with my kids, most often on Saturdays. We call these Science Saturdays activities. I am going to post about some of the successful activities and the less-than-great semi-educational activities.

Free Fall Fun

I mostly have posted about various kits we use for science activities, but there are plenty of free/cheap DIY activities to do. I will collect some of the fall favorites here.

hiking
harvesting
pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins!
cookie decorating
leaf art
costumes

Pumpkins

There are tons of things to do with with pumpkins and they have been a favorite since the kiddos were babies. A short list of things we do.

painting pumpkins
picking pumpkins from farms, fall fests, etc
baking seasoned pumpkin seeds
carving pumpkins

Pumpkins are a simple and easy activity for easy fall fun, starting at a young age…

Cookie Decorating

Fall is a good time for baking, cookies, gingerbread, and of course all the decorating that comes along with it.

Leaf Art

I remeber doing this as a kid myself and thought it made such pretty art. There are a number of leaf art projects. Erin helped the kids collect leaves and then ironed them between wax paper which creates a beautiful stain glass like leaf art.