How To Design A Fun And Interactive Backyard For Kids
Kids by nature require free space to play, discover, and explore their environment. Through such activities, they develop their muscles, senses, and creativity. You don’t have to enroll your kids in specific classes to promote such development, although if you can, that would be beneficial as well. However, the space you already have, such as your backyard, could be transformed into a suitable area where your kids can thrive.
Here are some ways you can design a fun and interactive backyard for your kids.
Build A Sandbox
A sandbox is a pit full of harmless sand in your backyard. Your kids can spend hours building sandcastles and getting creative with the toys they bring into the sandbox.
Sand is one of the materials that can help kids discover various textures, such as rough, smooth, or dry. They also get to stretch their imagination by pretending to cook using sand or building a fortress. You get an idea about your kids’ interests as you observe them playing in a kid-friendly backyard.
- Include A Small Pool
If you don’t have a swimming pool, you can include an inflatable pool in your backyard. Some people prefer to use an inflatable pool as the water isn’t too deep. However, it’s advisable to keep a close watch over kids whenever they’re in the pool, especially if they’re toddlers.
This addition to your backyard may help your kids get comfortable in the water. It’s also refreshing for them to take a dip, especially on hot, summer days.
- Grow A Plant Box
Growing a plant box in your backyard enables your kids to enjoy nurturing the plants. Including them in the planting process gives them a sense of accomplishment when they see their plants grow.
They also learn skills such as caring and paying attention to the elements required to keep their plants healthy. When they play outdoors, they can include watering the plants and weeding as part of their activities.
Grow A Fruit Garden
Growing a fruit garden enables your children to develop responsibility by watering the plants daily. In addition, it helps them understand science concepts like germination and photosynthesis. They’ll also surely enjoy picking fruits while developing their fine and gross motor skills in the process.
Harvesting fresh produce from the garden could encourage them to eat more fruits. You can then swap out lollipops for fruits when they need a snack break.
You may find that their playmates will enjoy playing with them in the garden because of the fruit picking. This helps your kids learn the value of sharing, an important social skill.
- Place Random Objects
Don’t fret if you can’t afford a swing set as you can use random objects to keep your kids entertained. Placing an assortment of discarded materials such as cardboard boxes, wooden planks, empty milk cartons, tin cans, bottle caps, buttons, rubber bands, and yarn in your backyard can encourage your kids’ creativity.
You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how creative your kids can get with these items. Their creations will show their resourcefulness and imagination. You can take pictures of their recycled art or makeshift toys and show these to them many years later.
Hide Objects In The Backyard
You can play a treasure hunt with your kids wherein you hide objects in the backyard, and the kids have to find each object with the help of some clues. Such an activity helps them exercise as they run around the background searching for the objects.
It’s also a mental game because they have to figure out the clues to find the missing objects. And as they physically explore the backyard, they enhance their sensory skills as well.
- Create A Picnic Corner
You can design a picnic corner where your kids can enjoy some of their meals. You can pick outdoor pillows and plonk these in a corner, or you may decide to purchase a picnic set. Either way, such settings encourage kids to appreciate nature and socialize as they enjoy the art of eating.
Conclusion
Making your backyard more fun and interactive for your kids can motivate them to engage in outdoor play rather than playing video games all the time. Aside from promoting your toddlers’ physical development, playing in a backyard also enhances their emotional, social, and cognitive development.
As you can see from the suggestions given above, it doesn’t take a lot of effort to make your backyard more engaging for outdoor play but the benefits to your children’s development are beyond measure. What’s more, you don’t need to spend huge amounts of money to achieve this.
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