Fall Fires and How to Safely Involve Your Kids

Make dryer lint starters 

These are so easy and a great way to reuse two things you would normally throw away – toilet paper rolls and dryer lint! I keep a small basket under the bathroom counter and throw all the empty toilet paper rolls into it. When it is full, Fletcher stuffs them with dryer lint from the laundry room.

Help clear the area

This is especially important if you’re building a fire in a new area. You want to make sure that the fire area is completely clear of anything that shouldn’t be involved in the fire, so ask your little ones to help get the area ready for the fire by clearing away items that shouldn’t be burned. Fletcher is so helpful at moving chairs back if they’re too close!

Gather tinder and kindling from around the yard

Fletcher loves gathering handfuls of leaves to throw on the branches to get the fire started, more so than collecting sticks and branches themselves. He starts out by gathering the leaves and throwing them into the fire pit, while I start gathering sticks. If we go on a long walk prior to making a fire, we’ll also collect fallen pine cones! They are great fire starters.

Make them “safety officer”

It’s always wise to keep a bucket of water or another water source nearby just in case things get out of hand with the fire. We involve Fletcher by making him our fire safety officer and telling him to notify us if the fire starts getting too crazy. Of course, that can be subjective for a kid, so if you have a ring of rocks around your fire, tell them to notify you if the fire goes outside those rocks.

Putting out the fire

Teaching your kids how to put out a fire is an important part of being involved with fire building. If they are old enough, you can have them put out the fire themselves. Keep a shovel on hand to be able to scoop some dirt into the fire and stir it around. Fletcher will scoop the dirt and we’ll take over stirring it around until the fire is put out.