Celebrate Fall Equinox With Kids
Are you are looking for fun ways to celebrate fall equinox with the kids? Here is a Homeschool Lesson Guide that will help you celebrate the season ahead!
I also made an activity book that you can download free, below.
I’ve updated the Fall Equinox Activity book! You can find a free mini-version HERE or get the full version with over 60 pages of fall fun:
What is fall equinox?
There are 2 solstices and 2 equinoxes each year- these four points are wonderful opportunities to celebrate seasonal changes and observe nature through it’s magical shifts. The equinoxes are celebrated on a specific day each year, at one exact moment, world-wide. Night and day are almost evenly split into two 12 hour segments on the equinox. The fall equinox is not on the same day each year- but it is always near September 22-23 in the Northern Hemisphere and March 20-21 in the Southern Hemisphere. This special occurrence has been observed and celebrated for thousands of years. There are historical sites all over the world that mark the equinox- from Mexico to Stonehenge to Cambodia- you can find a cool list HERE.
You will find evidence of ancient people acknowledging the equinox in architecture, writing, story telling, mythology, and art. The ancient Greeks have the myth of Persephone returning to Hades at this time, marking the changing of the seasons. The Mayans built the pyramid at Chichen Itza that creates a “snake of sunlight” glowing down the stairs during the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. The Mid-Autumn festival has been celebrated in China (and other Asian countries) around this time of year since about 1600 BCE. In the UK, the Harvest Moon and equinox have been celebrated with large scale migration ceremonies since long before written history- and we are still learning about all the ways ancient people used the sun and moon to keep track of time and mark the changing of seasons.
Working with the natural calendar of the seasons, even here in L.A. where it’s often t-shirt weather in December, creates such a beautiful rhythm. That’s one of the big reasons we love celebrating the solstices and equinoxes each year. It’s a time to reflect on the season that has just passed and embrace the new season ahead. Here are some ways we celebrate:
Here are 10 things our family does to celebrate the fall equinox, any of these can be added to some history and earth science to make a complete lesson!
Get CRAFTING: Every season is art season! Equinox is a great time to make some seasonal crafts for fall. Craft some decorations, craft with fall colors, craft projects that celebrate autumn. You can find more crafts and ideas on my Fall Pinterest Board.
Get OUTSIDE: No matter what the weather where you are, this is a key point in the year to spend some very connected time outdoors. Go for nature walks, try a new hike, explore local parks and nature centers, visit your favorite outdoor places, and explore your own backyard! Observe the changes from one season to the next and from last fall to this fall. It’s a PERFECT TIME FOR NATURE JOURNALING, collecting leaves and taking photos of all things fall.
Get TOGETHER: As summer wraps up we feel that pull, fall has more gravity to it than summer- doesn’t it? We come together to learn and play. Soccer starts, co-ops and park days resume, and we start field tripping again as the traditional schools return and Tuesday mornings are once again empty at the aquarium. Notice how the shift in seasons brings us together. Discuss how each season differs in this way. Plan some togetherness with some of your favorite folks to have some fall fun with!
Have a FEAST: Seasonal foods are one of the most fun ways to acknowledge the arrival of autumn. Have a “Fall Feast” with corn, apples, squash, nuts and other flavors that celebrate the season. It’s often too hot to shift to soups and sweaters in September here, but when it’s cool enough we love baking some pumpkin muffins, or cooking up some chili with corn bread around the equinox. What are some of your favorite foods of fall?
Build a FIRE: Not that we need any excuse over here, but the equinox is a great time to gather around a fire. Every time we do, we feel a little more connected to ancient people who’s lives were centered around the fire for food, comfort, light and community. Build a fire together and discuss all the things you love about fall!
Have a CEREMONY: Many modern and ancient cultures have stunning ceremonies to celebrate the changing of the seasons. Do some research and create your own ceremony and traditions for your family!
CELEBRATE the summer: As one season ends, a new one begins- we like taking time during this shift to celebrate the season that is ending before we dive into the new one ahead. This can be done through discussion, storytelling, journaling, art, narrative writing, list making, looking through photos, making a photo book, making a slide show etc. Doing this also helps us to feel the joy of our recently made memories.
EMBRACE the hygge - Do you know what Hygge means? This is a great prompt for research, discussion, making colleges, writing, etc. Look it up together and think of ways you embrace the hygge in fall! (We do this for winter solstice too, and if you’ve done it for fall it makes a fun “compare and contrast” the likenesses and differences between the two seasons!)
CHANGE your surroundings- I am not a “Pinterest parent” décor wise. We don’t re-do the front stoop every single month, or own multiple wreaths, but I love seeing photos of people who do this! We have several spaces in our home that we do shift with the seasons, specifically on the solstices and equinoxes. We also go all out in October and December because those are our favorite months décor-wise. the rest of the year the solstices and equinoxes mark a good time to change a few small things that help us see the seasons change around us!
Gratitude, giving and gathering: Fall is the time of the harvest, time for everyone to come in from the fields, it’s back-to-school, it’s a shift in schedules that brings us together more often. More holidays, more special meals to share, more gathering. It’s also a time to honor ancient cultures and indigenous people, those who came and celebrated many equinoxes before ours. The fall harvest reminds us to have gratitude for our abundance and give to others any way we can.
We often use books and videos to add structure to our art and nature adventures. Here are some fall equinox books and videos we love:
Fall Equinox Books:
Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn by Kenard Pak
Hello Harvest Moon by Ralph Fletcher
Possum’s Harvest Moon by Anne Hunter
The Autumn Equinox: Celebrating the Harvest by Ellen Jackson (check the library for this one too- it’s a bit more challenging to find than the others!)
Fall Equinox Videos:
What is Fall Equinox by Hey! Guess What
What is an Equinox by Freeschool
Equinoxes by National Geographic
Autumn Equinox 2022 by LearnTheSky
One of my favorite ways to start ANY lesson is to ask questions and note our answers- this always gives us a good anchor for our curiosity and is also fun to come back to later. For fall equinox I asked the kids what they thought of when I said “celebrate autumn”. Here are their answers from 2022:
“smash a pumpkin and plant and roast the seeds”
“Jump in a pile of leaves, wait, do we have leaf piles? Where can we find leaf piles?” and “We can make some leaves and put them in a pile and jump in them.”
“Gather our family and eat fun things, a FEAST” I asked what would be at the feast, and they said “pumpkins, apples, bacon, turkey, squash, gourds, pinecones and a roasted chicken”
“time for fall art stuff”
We started talking about fall smells and they said, “Pie, spices, the air is “crusty” (crisp lol)”
[celebrate by] making new Lego set ups and characters (one of their 2021 characters was “Johnny Applebean” )
“get the Halloween stuff out NOW!”
“I hope that means it will get cold” …living near Los Angeles, this is a toss up- sometimes we get cool weather in the fall, sometimes it’s 90 on Halloween!!
