Where I live, October is a glorious month!  It a time of golden leaves, cozy sweaters, hot apple cider.  I say do up October the right way.  Make it about joy! October is the month of the rosary Plan lots of fun outings: Pumpkin Patches Corn mazes Bonfires Apple picking Hike through the changing woods Hayrides Stuffing a scarecrow! Rabbit Trails: Now that temperatures are cooling down, make cooking a big deal to celebrate the harvest! Learn to make things like applesauce from apple picking Make granola from rolled oats, dried fruits and nuts - it is easy to make and quick and the scent of roasting oats is wonderful. Anything pumpkin flavored from pies, to breads to cookies,  You can expand to to other winter squashes. Make caramel apples! Other possible interests to follow: Native American studies Why some leaves turn colors in the fall and some don't.  You might just study the concept of color itself including light, pigment, learning to sketch and

Monopoly Jr. and Monopoly This is a complete snore for the adult (to me anyway) but it really did teach my kids one to one correspondence, how to follow rules and most importantly how to be a banker!!!! Rummikub A dice game version of rummy.  My oldest two went through a phase where they played this every afternoon during quiet time. Shut the Box A fun game to haul out once in a while which helps practice addition facts. Card games War, Go Fish, Crazy Eights, Gin Rummy. . . and Poker.  My husband taught my kids poker.  Really sharpens strategic thinking and adding to 21!!! Uno We just played the junior version but my kids enjoyed it.  It was something to pull out when kids were bored. Here's a link on how to use cards to teach all sorts of math concepts. Set We went through a brief period where we played this game all the time, then something tragic happened to the deck, I can't remember what.  Something spilled all over it?  T

Various types of books to indulge in this month: Children through history Childhood of American Heroes American Girl series - I don't want to link to this because the website is this massive marketing rabbit hole!  Go to the library and check out the books there is my advice. Read Alouds: All of a Kind Family - this worked for us because we also celebrate Jewish holidays and these books recount the various fall ones that come in September and October Little House books - we loved these and read all of them out loud at least 3 times over the course of the years. Little Women -but especially the sequels where Joe and the Professor run a school for boys. Jo's Boys, etc. The Moffats series In both the Moffats and in Jo's boys the kids decide to make their own museum.  Let your kids work on collecting things to make their own museum.  Besides playing museum, let them play old fashioned one room school house or old fashioned general store. Old fashion