Turn, Turn, Turn

October 8, 2026

When I was growing up in Cranford, NJ, I was a serious leaf-pile jumper: I didn't consider fall really to have arrived until the silver maple in our front yard turned yellow and dropped its leaves into rake-able piles. The problem was that ours was always the last tree in the neighborhood to turn. A month is forever when you're six! It didn't seem fair that our neighbor's trees blazed red and orange while mine stubbornly remained green right into November.

Nowadays, of course, I feel perpetually in hyper-drive: If I'm not careful, I'll blink and it will be 2027. I've been thinking about that difference, lately, especially as the big holiday seasons are just around the bend. Kids experience time partly through anticipation: Is it too early to put out decorations? When are we carving pumpkins? How many days until trick-or-treating? Having something on the horizon makes them notice the space between now and then. It works on grownups, too.

The trick isn't to cram October with activities until every weekend is booked solid, it's to choose a few things worth looking forward to. Check the KidsOutAndAbout calendar not just for this weekend, but the next one, too. Pick a corn maze, a fall festival, an orchard, a Halloween event. Put it on the calendar. Mention it at dinner. Let everyone anticipate it. Our Master Guide to Local Fall Fun makes that easy: It's packed with pumpkin patches, corn mazes, festivals, Halloween happenings, and other ways to make October feel like October wherever you live. Planning doesn't just help us do things; it helps us notice the season while we're in it.

And if there's a tree nearby getting ready to change, keep an eye on that, too. A watched leaf won't turn any faster. But somehow, watching it makes October last a little longer.

—Debra Ross, publisher

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