7 Tips to Refresh Your Kid’s Routine for Fall

This post is sponsored by CAPRI SUN. For our sponsored post policy, click here.

With the help of CAPRI SUN, we recently shared how to freshen up that lunchbox, and today we’re sharing more tips on how to refresh your kiddo’s routine for fall. After all, as the weather is cooling down and the leaves are falling (or, at least for us, starting to fall as you’ll see in the photo above — it’s been a slow start to the season!), it’s a perfect time to mix things up to keep family life fun and feeling good. And, let’s be honest: happy, good-feeling kiddos equal a happy and good-feeling mama!

7 Tips to Refresh Your Kid’s Routine for Fall

1. Consider moving bedtime up. Now that it’s getting darker earlier in the evening it’s the perfect time to move that bedtime up a smidge (or four). Daylight savings time helps with this a bit, since we fall back an hour, but try inching your kiddo’s bedtime up by five minutes or so each day for a week or two. Not only will this help them to better adapt to the time change, but also, if you’ve been more lax on bedtime because some summertime sleep habits transitioned into fall (guilty as charged, right here), now is a great time to let Mother Nature help you reset that. And since the kids are going to bed earlier, maybe make a point for you, too, to hit the hay a bit sooner rather than later. We all know how precious and important sleep is!

2. Mix up that juice box with CAPRI SUN Fruit Refreshers. These are brand new and SO FUN. A combo of all-natural fruit juice and filtered water, this has the taste your kids love with no added sugar* you don’t want them to bounce off the walls from. In fact, Fruit Refreshers have 50 percent less sugar than the average leading fruit juices.** And they come in three tasty flavors that really are refreshing: Awesomely Apple, Very Berry Punch, and Orange Pineapple Tango. Orange Pineapple Tango is Gwen’s current fave.

3. Limit screen time. Believe me, when winter comes they’ll have plenty of time to snuggle up and watch movies and play educational apps. Make use of the all of the outdoor time you can get now by limiting that screen time and focusing on playing outside instead. From gathering leaves to blowing bubbles to using your imagination to see what creatures are up in the sky as clouds, the outdoor options are endless. (And remember to include the CAPRI SUN Fruit Refreshers so they stay hydrated when playing!)

4. Involve them in shopping and cooking. Yes, it’s faster if you run to the grocery store solo or cook while they’re playing, but how much fun do they have when they’re involved in the process of selecting and preparing food? So much. Giving them nutritious choices (“Would you rather have green beans or carrots? What flavor of Fruit Refreshers do you want?”) helps them to feel like they have independence and a say, and when kids are part of the cooking process, they’re more likely to eat what they helped create. Everyone wins.

5. Plan special seasonal family outings. Is there a new park you can explore? Does the zoo put on any seasonal events? Could you go pick apples at the orchard, or go to a cultural fair? Hit up your local paper’s listing for family-friendly events and try to hit at least a few of them. These not only help your kids to learn about new things (nature, animals, food, culture!), but they also get you all out of the house and moving.

6. Rotate the toys that are out. If your house is like my house, the toys, they are aplenty. But how many are played with every day, really? Take stock and then store away at least a box or two of those that haven’t been played with much (or have been hidden at the bottom of the normal toy box). Then, set a calendar reminder in about a month to swap them out — it’s amazing what “new” finds kiddos will discover. Oh, and don’t discount the non-toy toys like boxes, straws and other random household items. We recently turned a shipping box into an airplane and even decorated it. It made for quite the memorable afternoon.

7. Go seasonal. Make a point to teach your kids about what’s special this time of year. Let them help put out the fall decorations, talk about what fruits and veggies are in season (and eat them!), and learn all about why the leaves fall and seasons change by hitting up the library for books on the topic.

With so much fun stuff to do, it’s definitely not a time for the kids to feel bored. Refresh, refresh!

How do you like to refresh your kiddo’s routine this time of year? —Jenn

*not a low calorie beverage

**per 6oz, this produce 10g of sugar, leading average fruit juice 20g of sugar