My parents have a TON of leaves outside their house! After a couple hours of raking and seeing the ridiculously huge piles of leaves they created, they thought, "Brian would love playing in the leaves!" So the next day I brought both kids to play in the leaves. What little boy wouldn't love a 3 ft pile of leaves?! Well, my son apparently. We (gently) tossed him in the pile thinking he would laugh and started playing around. Silly us. He just kind of sat there looking at us. After much coaxing and convincing him that a hug pile of leaves is fun, he just looked at me, held up his hands and said, "blech". How could I forget?! My son hates being dirty. I didn't realize how filthy freshly fallen leaves are. Fortunately, he is open to reason and we were able to convince him leaves are actually pretty fun.
First, I showed him how to sit in the leaves without touching them with his hands. He seemed to like that.
Second, teach him how to rake leaves (aka clean up the blech).
Third, show him the joy of running through a big pile of leaves.
Fourth, let him experience the joy of a leaf fight!
Cassidy's not quite ready for a leaf fight, but I think she's set for a leaf eating contest.