How to Turn Summer Toys Into Fall Favorites

Wondering what to do with summer toys after summer ends? Don't pack away those summer toys just yet! In this episode, I reveal how to transform your pool noodles, beach balls, water tables, and kiddie pools into engaging fall activities that keep kids entertained while sneaking in valuable learning.

Discover my six favorite summer-to-fall toy transformations that will save you money, reduce screen time, and teach your children to think creatively about play. From turning pool noodles into marble roller coasters to transforming water blasters into autumn art tools, these simple transitions extend your toy investment while providing hours of educational fun.

Perfect for parents looking to maximize their summer toy purchases and keep kids engaged during the transition to cooler weather. Plus, I share bonus winter adaptations for year-round play value!

What You'll Learn:

• How to turn pool noodles into engineering experiments
• Creative ways to repurpose water toys for fall sensory play
• Screen-free activities that secretly teach math and science
• Money-saving strategies for extending toy life
• Simple transitions that spark creativity in children

Ready to see your summer gear in a whole new light? Tune in and discover how every "seasonal" toy can become a year-round learning opportunity.

Instagram: PlayroomChronicles

Facebook: PlayroomChronicles

Website: PlayroomChronicles.com

Transcript

Transcript

00:00 Charlene DeLoach: You know that moment in late September when you shove a deflated beach ball into the back of the closet thinking, yeah, see you next June. Stop right there. Hey, everybody. Hey, Play Pals. Welcome back to the Playroom Chronicles podcast. Now, what if I told you every so-called summer toy is actually a fall powerhouse? If you're willing to, think past the kiddie swimming pool.

00:29 Charlene DeLoach: because I want to take you on a walk through that typical summer backyard and how to transition those summer toys into fall fun. Yes, I call it the ultimate toy transition, where you take that summer gear and turn it into autumn gold. Not only does it allow these toys to

00:58 Charlene DeLoach: basically get some extra shelf life and make your money go a little bit further. But it also teaches our kids to think outside the toy box, to realize, oh, hey, I can use this beach ball in July in the backyard, at the beach, at the pool, and it becomes this really cool thing that I can do in the fall. When we introduce toys in those multifaceted ways, we actually

01:28 Charlene DeLoach: unlock something in our child's brain development too. And we give them extra opportunities to play and be off the screens as well. So let me take you through some of my five favorite summer toys and how to turn them into fall fabulousness. Okay. So of course, pool noodles, right? I feel like they are an epitome of summer. All those pool noodles, they're...

01:56 Charlene DeLoach: Right now, especially depending on when you're listening to this podcast episode, at some point they get even cheaper and cheaper, right? And that is the gold. Repurposing what you already have or maybe picking them up when they are on super sale. And what you do is you cut them in half. And I mean lengthwise, not horizontally. So you end up having this long pool noodle that goes from a tube to almost a slide.

02:26 Charlene DeLoach: And then you take the basketball, the marbles, the ping pongs, the golf balls, and you give a whole bunch of those sliced pool rules and those balls and you give them some painter's tape, maybe some other things you find around the house, like empty paper towel rolls and all those things. And you set them outside and you tell them to build a...

02:54 Charlene DeLoach: marble or ball roller coaster with those summer pool noodles. And not only just they having fun trying to figure it out, taping things together and, oh, if we do this and, hey, if the ball goes down, we can actually crash it into whatever, knock over the blocks, right? But when they're doing all this and keeping them entertained, so maybe you can get that email out or that dinner on the table, but they're also learning.

03:24 Charlene DeLoach: Not only learning what they can do with pool noodle, but also learning educationally too, right? Slope, friction. They're going to be arguing about angles like civil engineers. And it's super fun. So another summer staple are water blasters.

03:50 Charlene DeLoach: right? Those super soakers, those backyard battles that a lot of people have. So you're like, okay, Charlene, how do I turn that into fall fun? Like I'm not using those in my house, of course. But what you can do is you can slightly scent the water with cinnamon or cloves, right? Just a couple of drops of essential oil. And then they can go outside when it's still a fall day and blast the leaves.

04:19 Charlene DeLoach: Right. And then you can take the leaves and put them in a bowl. And now you have this really nice scented little bowl of leaves on your outdoor deck that smells amazing. Or what's really fun is you buy those wooden maple shaped leaves like you can get at the craft store and you use some high end food coloring.

04:48 Charlene DeLoach: and put it into the water and you have the kids go outside in a space safe space and you know with the right type of clothes and all the things and you have them used their water blasters with the hollared water to blast those wooden craft leaves next thing you know they have these really cool colorful wooden craft leaves that you can use

05:16 Charlene DeLoach: to decorate around the house. And you got an extra afternoon out of those water blasters. And you can use the same thing in the winter too. Just put some food coloring in to the water and have the kids go outside and blast the snow in different colors for some snow art. All right, let's see. Number three is also a classic for many of you, and that is the kiddie pool, right? So

05:46 Charlene DeLoach: Basically, that baby pool can now be a leaf jump lagoon, if you will. You dry it out and then you can put, yes, you can put plastic balls in there for a makeshift ball pit, but instead to make it fall themed, get a whole bunch of craft leaves, the soft ones that you can get a whole huge pack of them off of Amazon.

06:15 Charlene DeLoach: And you can dump it in the kiddie pool and the kids just can have fun just tossing these faux leaves around. You can even use real leaves if you like. Or depending on the age of your kids, you could actually put those leaves in there and little fun trinkets that they have to then go around with. Spoon or.

06:53 Charlene DeLoach: Ongs to go try to fish out the little acorn or like the little knickknack that they have in this leaf lagoon. Or as the kids are helping you out raking in the backyard, they can put all of the leaves and acorns and pine cones that they find into their little lagoon, and then they can go have some fun playing around with it.

07:27 Charlene DeLoach: All right, so another classic summer toy staple are sand pails, right? Well, now they can become harvest hunt kits. So go on a hike carrying that pail, that little shovel and the little sand sifter. Now they can collect nature's loose change, the acorns, the curled bark, right? The seed pods. And see what they can find.

07:57 Charlene DeLoach: And then what they can do is they can come back, maybe they can weigh their inventory, figure out how much the pine cone prices are going to be, and get some sneaky math facts in there. They can count how many acorns they got compared to their sibling, and maybe they win a prize. And now they're learning math that they resisted on paper in living color, and nobody even notices that they're...

08:23 Charlene DeLoach: practicing their addition and subtraction and maybe even their decimals and fractions. Now another summer staple, yep, you guessed it, the water table, right? But now that water table that's still parked on the deck, scrub it, line the bins with trash bags, or if you don't care about getting a little messy, don't worry about it, and drop two open pumpkins inside and let them

08:52 Charlene DeLoach: dig and extract the seeds in the pumpkin guts, right? And have them just have this sensory experience with all the pumpkin guts inside that water table. They can even use little plastic tweezers and try to get the little pumpkin seeds out of it. Maybe they even do a little seed count to work on their math. Of course, that's fine motor work at its finest right there.

09:26 Charlene DeLoach: And then they can rinse out their pumpkins and do a whole bunch of fun sensory play using pumpkins. And of course, you could always use that water table as a sensory table too similar to that baby pool, kitty pool. Put acorns and pine cones in there and the faux leaves that they have to go find and seek and hunt.

09:51 Charlene DeLoach: In the winter, of course, we all know that you could put in some dried beans or rice in there and also have it as a sensory play table. But it's really fun in the fall to do something with pumpkins in it. And lastly.

10:21 Charlene DeLoach: That classic beach ball. So inflate that beach ball one last time, break out a permanent marker, and let's have some fun with it. So the first thing you can do is put some random words all over the beach ball and then have fun tossing it back and forth. And whatever...

11:15 Charlene DeLoach: Your hands land on the word, right? Let's just say you tossed it to me and I caught it and my hand landed on bedtime and landed on TV. Maybe I have to tell a story about how one time I went into the forest and I decided to watch TV before I went to bed. I don't know. Just come up with some really fun, silly story. Or for kids who need a little bit more help, say with sight words, you could put sight words on there. You could even put

11:47 Charlene DeLoach: the entire alphabet on there. So when your hands land on it, let's just say my hand, left hand, lands on the letter H. I have to say a word that begins with the letter H. And then if my hand lands on O, I have to say a word with the letter O. You can even

12:14 Charlene DeLoach: Elevate this a little bit more for older kids. And let's just say my hand did land on the letter H and I tossed it back to you and your hand landed on an H and an I. Well, you can't use the H because I already used it. So now you have to be, you know, I have to use the I. And eventually at some point you're going to be tossing it back and forth, getting some energy out until finally someone's hand gets to land on that last letter.

12:36 Charlene DeLoach: And of course, you can use numbers too. So now my hand lands on a two and a four, I have to add it or I have to subtract it or I have to multiply it or divide it, whichever level that your child is in. You can go outside, get some energy out, get some exercise in, as well as some sneaky educational learning too. So needless to say, whether it's a water blaster, beach ball, water table, kid pool,

13:04 Charlene DeLoach: sand pail, pool noodle. As you can see, summer toys can really turn into some fabulous fall fun. So hopefully this episode sparked some play ideas for you. And if I did, I appreciate a subscribe so you can hear more ideas that I have in the next episodes. And of course, head to playroomchronicles.com, join my email list. It's free. It's got some pretty cool stuff in there.

13:33 Charlene DeLoach: And of course, always follow me on Instagram or Facebook at Playroom Chronicles. Till next time, everybody, keep playing and take in those last days of summer, but then jump in to fall fun and family. Till next time.