Welcome to apple season! To help celebrate the arrival of apple season, I have decided to share an abundance of apple-themed snacks, crafts, mini-lessons, and easy-to-do fun activities for your little one, which all relate to apples. You may get hungry after reading all of this or have a sudden urge to do something with apples later on, beware! All of these activities are excellent ways to get some good, quality time with your little one.
Let’s have some fun!
Oh yes, I cannot forget about the fun crafts! I liked all of these crafts for not only their simplicity (and cuteness!), but also how some of them work on strengthening skills for your child. The Wormly Apple can help work on gross motor skills by grasping the apple while
painting, and also work on the fine motor skills with lacing of the stem. For those who don’t like messes, you can still work on similar skills with this apple lace craft, which helps with practicing using scissors. Preschool teachers will love you for this one. How about having some just plain and simple fun? Try making coffee filter apple sun catchers, an introduction to chromatography anyone? (Good luck getting your little one to say it too!) Does your child have sensory-related issues and isn’t the artsy and crafty kind of kid nor likes getting messy? Try doing a fall-themed sensory bin with apples and acorns! Genius!
If your child does love to just get messy, stamping is usually an easy winner, even for the youngest of kids. Try adding some simple fall décor in your home, with a fall banner which you can put almost anywhere. For some additional art, or décor to showcase your little ones’ creativity, there’s the traditional apple stamping art, which can be put in a frame afterwards, possibly on an end table or hung somewhere in your home. Older toddlers or preschoolers would love to make apple wreaths for anyone, even if it’s just for the mere pleasure of seeing it hung up in their room! (Have to admire the hard work, right?)
Are you hungry yet?
Instead of the traditional snack ideas and apple-related desserts (Apple slices with peanut butter or caramel are still my 
favorites!), why not try something a little different or new? I found a variety of apple snacks on kidsactivities.net which has both super-easy tomake recipes, and also others that your littleone could help put ingredients in for, then let the crock pot to do the rest. Warm, homemade, apple sauce, sounds tempting! After taking a peak at these recipes, I now know you can bake apples in the microwave, who knew?
The following two snack ideas have dual benefits to them, as you can throw in a mini lesson with them. You can work on the theme of Fall season, and also math skills to count how many “stems” and
“leaves” needed for each of these edible apples (True, this sounds silly, but I’m sure you haven’t seen these kind of apples!). Have you heard of the beloved book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle? You can help make this story become more realistic by making your very own ‘hungry caterpillar’, out of apples to go along with this book. These were too creative and tasty-looking to not share with you!
If you’d also like to ‘have it all’, from the lesson, crafts, snacks, and fun aspects with apples, Sarah from Bombshell Bling has you covered! She also includes more creative snacks, even some time-saving ideas, such as “apple fries”. I want to add a handy trick that I learned on how to prevent or slow down the “browning” 
process of your apple slices. As a child, I HATED this, it seriously grossed me out. I’m hoping right now that I wasn’t the only little one who didn’t like to eat “yucky apples”. I typically sprinkle drops of lemon juice over them, but be careful, not too much, you don’t want ruin the flavor of your apples! There are also other “tricks of the trade” to use so that you don’t have “yucky apples”. Try it out!
Johnny Appleseed, fact or fiction?
Forgive me, but this one always had me puzzled from all of the stories I ever heard about him. I identified him within the same 
category of Paul Bunyan or other American folklore. The verdict? Fact. Johnny Appleseed was indeed an actual person from the past, and his story is rather interesting. His real name was John Chapman, and he has his own designated day in honor of him, Johnny Appleseed Day, which will be coming up on Sept. 26th for your general trivia.
Also try your local farm or orchard for any fun apple or fall themed events! Pick your own apples, get freshly made apple dumplings, or any other apple festivities that maybe going on!
