Toddler Friendly Autumn Movie & TV Show Watch List

Happy Halloween weekend!!

Our first family “costume”—a quickly pulled together It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown inspired set.

With Halloween quickly approaching, I thought I’d share my toddler-friendly Autumn watch list!

We’ve been having fun re-connecting with old kiddie-movie classics this Halloween and even wore a Halloween movie-themed family costume.

If you’re interested, here are some fun movies, classic specials, and new TV shows to get you and your little one in a spooky spirit!

Best,

Julia

A Little One's First Fall Library

One of my core memories is of walking into a school book fair and spotting a fall display table. Every book cover displayed fall scenes in warm oranges, yellows, browns, and reds. There were stories about pumpkin patches, piles of leaves, trick-or-treating, and thanksgiving feasts.

It made my little kindergarten heart soar. Already, fall was my favorite time of the year. I was so young, I’m not sure I understood that it was even possible to create a collection of books that were all about your favorite thing, but after that moment I knew.

Every holiday after, I would scour my bookcase for the “relevant” books, and spend an afternoon reading them all as part of my personal holiday traditions.

Charlie is currently 4 months old, but I believe it’s never too early to introduce a little one to not only all the joys of autumn, but to the joys of seasonal reading.

We’ve been reading Halloween books for the past couple of months now, and I thought it would be nice to share some ideas for “A Little One’s First Fall Library”—books perfect for babies under one year old all about autumn, Halloween, and Thanksgiving.

I’ve tried to focus on books with bright colors, short and simple text, and interactive elements (like touch and feel or lift-a-flap). It’s obviously not a complete list of seasonal picture books, but the great thing about starting a collection this early is that there’s nothing but time to build it up.

Autumnal Picture Books

1. Little Poet Robert Frost: Two Roads

2. Disney Frozen II: Touch and Feel Forest

3. Biscuit Visits the Pumpkin Patch

4. One Leaf, Two Leaves, Count with Me!

5. Duck & Goose Find a Pumpkin

6. Little Acorn

7. The Leaf Thief

8. Lift-a-Flap: Autumn in the Forest

Halloween Picture Books

1. You’re My Little Pumpkin Pie

2. B is for Boo: A Halloween Alphabet

3. Mr. Pumpkin’s Tea Party

4. Disney My First Halloween Bedtime Storybook (and Yoto Card)

5. Dracula: A BabyLit Counting Primer

6. One Black Cat

7. Room on the Broom: A Push, Pull, and Slide Book (and Yoto Card)

8. The Little Kitten

Thanksgiving Picture Books

1. Biscuit is Thankful

2. I Love to Gobble You Up

3. There Was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Turkey

4. T is for Thankful

5. Llama Llama Gives Thanks

6. Mother Bruce: Thanks for Nothing

7. Peanuts: Be Thankful, Be Giving

8. Pookie’s Thanksgiving

If you want to create a fall display shelf or shelves for your little one—even if they may not be old enough to appreciate it yet—here are some decoration recommendations:

• Paper Bats

• Fall Leaf Garland

• Tassel Ghost and Bat Garland

• Spider Web

• Floating Candles

• Felt Pumpkins

Since Charlie is only 4 months and can’t really appreciate holiday décor yet—but definitely enjoys looking at wall decorations—I dug around in our Halloween boxes and found some homemade foam bats and glitter spiders from Michael’s to dress up his nursery’s small Halloween book display this year.

As we get ready for Halloween, our favorites are You’re My Little Pumpkin Pie and B is for Boo! You’re My Little Pumpkin Pie was the first book he ever made me read again (by way of some fussy tears when it closed!) and reached out to interact with, so it will always be special to me.

What are some of the first fall-themed books you remember reading? Let me know in the comments below! For me, it’s Arthur’s Halloween, Trick or Treat Little Critter, and a bunch of Clifford books including Clifford’s First Halloween, Clifford’s Halloween, and Clifford’s First Autumn.

Happy reading,

Julia

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And as winter approaches...

So this morning, I woke up at 3a.m. which might not seem like an accomplishment to you, but it has been the most human-like time I've woken up in the past few weeks. I might have gone slightly (completely) nocturnal, bu tI'm getting more in the swing of things, now. I've been keeping up with my NaNoWriMo word count. I've been almost keeping up with all of my coursework. And this morning, I even had enough time to write a few postcards for people back home.

I only sent out four postcards, in this batch, but I had a lot of birthdays to get through. I'll send out some more soon.

I won't rant about how much I love writing letters to you today.

But I love writing letters.

I.

Love.

Writing.

Letters.

In other news.

In the past week I've come upon the INSANE realisation that there are only a few weeks left in this term. But the trees are pointing me true. Most of their leaves are lying in brown heaps on the ground. Fall is coming to an end and winter will soon be at hand.

In about a month, I'll be heading back home for the holidays. (And all of my coursework will be due, including an essay I haven't 100% started yet). How strange is that?

It's been a wonderful term. I'll be pretty sad to see it come to a close.

And pretty stressed. (re: the essay).

This is only going to be a small update. I need to head to the post office before class, but I'll leave you some pictures I've taken recently before I go. Would you like some more pictures of Corsham? Of course you would. It's beautiful.

All my best,

Julia