Spring is upon us and it is about time to create the backyard the entire family can enjoy by making it safe and inspiring. Start by putting up a fence around your yard and move onto creating content within.

The ideas will start rolling and each year your garden will be better and more customised to make your family, particularly the kids, happy.

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Basic Landscaping

Your basic landscaping choices are the first step toward an activity-rich backyard. A flat lawn with beautiful grass is like a clean carpet your children can freely run on barefoot. However, it can appear boring and limited. Include a variety of greenery, something they can explore. Leave parts with tall grass, shrubs, and trees. They will enjoy having to fight their way through the greenery. Another perk of such areas is that they attract living creatures you won’t easily spot on a lawn. Allow them to look for bugs, caterpillars, snails, slugs, lizards etc.

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A Basic Playground

Include some or all basic features of an average playground. These are swings, slides, and seesaws. They now come in great varieties and prices, but some of them you can easily make on your own. Perhaps one of the most popular DIY solutions are swings made of old tires. You can have a number of them at a minimal price, all you need is a reliable tree or a sturdy frame.

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Kids need privacy, too.

As an adult, you may interrupt the flow of imagination with your presence. Let your children wander off to the imagination land freely by providing them with private nooks. Build hideaways they can use as retreats. This can be a nice kid-size bench in the bushy area, a tent or a teepee, a lonely hammock, or a playhouse. You can make one, or all of these, there is no limit. When selecting the best hideaways, mind the age and the dexterity of your children. You can even make it themed to suit the interest of your children e.g. building a fairy house or setting up a boat-shaped bench.

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Sports

Create a backyard which can support a variety of sports. You do not need to build a designated basketball court, but you can hang a hoop in an area of your patio without furniture, or at least a flat area of your backyard. Alternatively, you can provide putting green for a game of golf. This is something everyone can enjoy, regardless of their age, and the number of people involved.

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Sand and gravel

A sandpit is an excellent choice for any garden hosting children, even if they are at a very young age. Include sand play tools, buckets, and moles with the kit. The type of activities, that is games, they play in the sandpit changes with time, but children of all ages will enjoy it. Gravel is a nice addition to your sandpit and it provides a further variety of activities to do. Bear in mind that babies and toddlers may be tempted to chew and even swallow individual pebbles, so this could be hazardous for very young children.

 

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Water fun

There is something about water kids find exciting. A regular swimming pool, depending on its size and your children’s age can be a bit of a hassle for safety reasons. A portable kiddie pool is a better choice, but always make sure you have your children where you can see them if they are playing in the pool. A regular garden hose and some balloons can contribute to this type of fun. Supplies companies such as Hoselink have those portable outdoor showers that can be quite useful in creating backyard which is more exciting for your kids.

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An Adventure Park

If your children are old enough to have a full control over their body, you could treat them with an adventure park or certain features of it. You can build a climbing wall on the side of your house. Also, you could set a tightrope and a ninja climbing rope for some additional fun. Get portable obstacles      they can arrange whichever way they like each time they play.

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A Vegetable Garden

Tone down the excitement with an interactive educational feature in your garden. Create patches your children can populate on their own and help them with maintenance. Not only that they will spend time outside being active, but they will also learn about growing plants. A vegetable garden might be the best option as children often dislike eating vegetables. If they grow their own veggies, they may be more likely to eat them.

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Creating an environment which boosts activity will make your children prefer playing outside, rather than inside. Choose the age-appropriate activities and try as much as you can to create a safe environment for them to play. Whenever it is possible, be there, relaxing on the patio, reading a book, working, or socialising, but supervising them from the corner of your eye.

 

*This is s guest post written by Lena Hemsworth.

 

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