Growing up approaching fall meant more than back to school. It meant apple picking with pies, cider, applesauce, and other tasty treats. We simply headed to the backyard and started grabbing the ripe fruit from trees my great-grandfather planted. Fall also meant colorful trees, raking leaves, and jumping into soft piles of crunchy leaves that crackled as I rolled. Growing up in farm country, we celebrated the harvest season with family gatherings and yummy tastes of the last of the garden vegetables.

Years later, as a mother, I took my children apple picking and to a cider mill to watch the pressing of apples. We also enjoyed jumping in leaves together. When we lived on a small island and gardened, the school classes took field trips to our pumpkin patch!

I extended the fun with books related to the season. The classic Three-in-one A Picture of God that focused on an object lesson with an apple to understand the trinity remained a favorite. We also enjoyed The Pumpkin Patch Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs. Modern books include the Veggie Tale’s Princess Petunia’s Sweet Apple Pie and P is for Pumpkin: God’s Harvest Alphabet. Of course, I sprinkle in some autumn fun in my one year devotional books.

It’s great to combine seasonal fun with books. Consider your plans and then see if there’s a book on the topic appropriate for your child’s reading level. Take photos having fun and reading together to make some autumn scrapbook pages.

The pilgrims planted the first apple trees in America and since that time the US has become the world’s largest producer of apples. Apples grow in all 50 states. Cut an apple crosswise and look at how the seeds form a star. God designed it that way!

Karen