Personally I would wait until spring to seed and fertilize. This will give you an idea of what needs to be addressed. In the meantime water your yard twice a day for at least 15 to 20 min a station on a sprinkler system every other day until the freeze since it is September. Grass has a tendency to bounce back with care. Also fertilize within the next couple of weeks with a winter fertilizer. Again, wait and see what it looks like next spring and then seed and fertilize only after it has established a fairly thick growth. Sounds like your neglect is the only thing that has caused your grass damage. My suggestion for the future is to water deep when you do water. Meaning once you have watered, water again within an hour or two. Do this every other day.

Agray123,
Thank you for your advice. I want to get clarification on what you said. You said to wait until Spring to seed and fertilize yet you said in a couple of weeks to fertilize? I have a lot of bare patches in my lawn where there is no grass you can just see dry dirt. I still put fertilizer on that? When I do go to fertilize and seed say I do it in the spring time, do I do it early spring? Also I have read different things as in to seed and fertilize at the same time and also not to and to do seed and then fertilize once the grass is coming up? I am a beginner on lawn care but want to stop being neglectful and get it better looking. It's also hard because I have a daycare so we use the yard every day.
Thanks and to anyone else I welcome your opinion on this too!

Everything agray said seems to conflict with what we have learned in these forums over the past 10 years. Rather than reply to that I want to focus on your situation.

The best time to seed is right after the summer heat breaks. Usually there is a cold front that comes through. For you that might have been sometime last August. Since this is, essentially, October, you missed the best window for seeding. When you seed early in the fall then you have time to evaluate how well the seed took and whether you will need to seed again before the frost hits. You could try to seed now but even without having children running over it, it would be a poor showing.

In your situation I would dispense with grass altogether. I would cover the ground with at least 6 inches of chipped tree mulch. That stuff will remain mud free for several years. Kids can kick it up and you can rake it back. If they fall it hurts less than hard ground. You might be able to get a truckload of it for free from an arborist who hauls a chipper/shredder around on the job. They usually blow the chips into the back of a boxy looking truck. That stuff is exactly what I'm talking about. It will decompose over the years and then you can replace it. It will also get the occasional weed, but since there is no soil for the weeds to root into, all you have to do is hoe up the weed and it will die. Maintenance is easy.

I have to be honest, I'm far from an expert but I come to these forums primarily to see dchall refute all the bad advice given here. Before I even scrolled down after reading Agray's post i knew dchall would be down there. Also, Agray's advice is so contrarian, I almost think its a troll post...

Shortstuff, please don't make southern Ontario out to be a polar region.....we had a pretty good summer and right now its in the mid 70's....and for the first week of October, that's not bad. And the color...oops...I mean colour...is fast approaching.
Our forests are putting on their annual show.

Many people are still associating air temperature with soil temperature. Its the soil temperature that matters where seed is concerned and the soil is fast cooling off.
Generally in zones 3, 4, 5 & 6....you can use the period mid August to mid September as the time to stop fertilizing our lawns and perennials....they should be allowed to go dormant naturally.

You, unfortunately, will always be fighting your attempts to gain a lawn. The children....bless their little hearts...are the enemy. they are compacting the ground and no self-respecting seed will germinate in ground that is hard and compacted. Your operation of a child-care center ..oops...I did it again....child care centre....will prevent you ever having a decent lawn. That's a fact of life.

If you can get rid of the cause of compaction, then you can try over seeding the area....but to save you anxiety...and the cost of cleaning muddy shoes and clothes.....I'd suggest you think to sod the area.
That though entails you to remove what grass you have ....sod will not grow on top of grass...it has to put down its own roots. You can try to sod where there is no grass and later....when the children are not there any more....try to grow a lawn with seed.
So.....unless you can keep the children off the ground, you had better accept the fact that you will never have a decent lawn.

agray132's post is a troll