Outdoor Play for Kids - Keep It Simple!

This month’s messy play group in St Bees had a gardening theme. Our little gardeners had fun potting up vegetables, squelching in a mud bath, pouring sand through funnels, painting with fruit and vegetable pigments and sticking petals and herbs. So while there aren’t any recipes to share for homemade sensory materials but wanting to keep with a similar topic, I thought it would be interesting to think about outdoor garden play.

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What do your tots play with when they’re outside? My little boy was given a slide and toy lawnmower, and I haven’t felt the need to add to his outdoor toys, other than buying him a set of kids’ garden tools. He likes nothing more than playing with a watering can, plant pots and generally exploring our garden. Fair enough, he’s only 20 months, but long may his enjoyment of the simple things that the garden has to offer last. If he’s anything like the kids in a survey by Randy White, a playground designer, he may well continue to enjoy the items that are naturally present there. When children were asked what they’d like to see best in an outdoor play area, elements like water, greenery and sand were top of their list, rather than swings, slides and other playground equipment. Why might this be? Although play equipment is good fun, it’s easy to tire of activities that aren’t open-ended, whereas things like a sandpit, tub of water or trees can be used more creatively and played with in numerous ways.

A list of items to include in a natural play environment compiled by the playground designer include:

• Water: You don’t need a water table or a paddling pool, simply fill up a bucket, large pan or a plastic storage box. Then supply items from your kitchen for play such as cups, scoops, funnel, colander, ladle, balloon whisk, or anything else that your little ones can use for filling, pouring or stirring.
• Sand: Again, a sandbox isn’t necessary, just fill any large container you have with play sand and supply some utensils for scooping, pouring and sifting.
• Vegetation: Even if you don’t have any trees or borders for shrubs and flowers already, you can always use pots to grow flowers, herbs, veg or fruit. If you have a patch of spare ground and you’re looking for something low maintenance to try, get a packet of wild flower seeds and enjoy the butterflies, bees and other insects they attract.
• Natural structures: Trees can potentially give youngsters somewhere to sit on or under, lean against or climb, as well as offering shade and shelter. Alternatively, you could try your hand at willow weaving to create a den. However, you can keep things simple with some logs for seating or clambering over, or some stepping stones. If you’re struggling for a shelter though, you can’t go wrong with a sheet draped over the washing line and secured to the ground for a makeshift tent.
• Sensory opportunities: While these are all around your children in the garden, you can always set up a sensory station by filling up containers with natural materials from sand and bark chippings to stones and shells to let your little ones explore a range of textures and colours.
• Opportunities to appreciate the seasons and weather: You can pick up items like a thermometer and wind chimes cheaply, and have a go at making your own garden sundial and water butt.
• Items that can be used in many ways: Kids are well-known for their love of household items, so let them have fun with pots, pans, safe utensils, brooms and anything else you think they can play happily with.

Something not mentioned by White, but is becoming more popular, is to put aside an area of your outdoor space for a play garden. Although you’ll see some impressive examples of play gardens online, it doesn’t have to be flashy; simply use natural materials to fence off a patch, plant some greenery, add stones and pots, give your tots some little tools and a watering can, and away they go. Even if you don’t have time to make your kids their own garden space, let them have fun in an area of the garden you’re not bothered about. Turn the hose on the soil to make a natural mud bath and it’ll keep them entertained!