A Peek OUTSIDE, Our Play Garden!

Spring is in the air! Outdoor play and exploration is so vital for children and adults alike. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of hours spent outside in our backyard digging up worms, making mud pies and leaf salads and playing pretend. My mother had a vegetable garden and designated a small plot just for me and my sister. Gone are the days of being tossed out back only to come home for supper (and I often came inside reeking of the bundles of freshly grown chives I'd picked to eat!) but our children can still learn and gain so much from less supervised outdoor play. This does not mean that we allow our children to be in any way unsafe outdoors, but rather that we minimize our adult-dialogue and input and allow for child-led exploration and discovery. One way to encourage this is to strategically set up an outdoor space to be child-accessible and play-friendly.

Zip ties and plastic shower curtain rings are a great and inexpensive way to affix shovels, hula hoops, baskets, bubbles, even a broom for sweeping to the rails of a stairway or deck...

We love our little water table for water/sensory play. We've also used plastic bins with snap-on lids in the past for sand and water play outdoors--even messy artwork! Plastic baskets are great for storage and drip-dry access. Just like our indoor area, I swap in and rotate what's inside. We're set up for play-gardening right now, but perhaps we will fill them with plastic dishes and kitchen utensils for a mud-kitchen down the line. Or maybe some toy animals for a pretend jungle. Or cars and shovels for a construction site! Anything that can withstand getting wet/dirty indoors can be brought outdoors for play as well. You needn't buy all new toys/materials. Even household items like colanders, containers, cups and scoops can be used for water and garden play. And if they get a little dirty? Washing them is half the fun! 

We live in an apartment complex, so our outdoor space is somewhat public and rather small. We do have a great plot for a small play-garden and the ability to creatively work with the small amount of space we have.

Bubbles are always a huge hit here. I zip-tied a couple of store-bought tubes to our railing, but you can even make your own bubble solution at home. Imagine filling a basin or watertable with bubble solution and exploring different household utensils for blowing all kinds of bubbles!

Ok, focus on the happy bubble-blowing kid and not the piles of post-Pesach trash in the background! We also love using plastic baskets ziptied to our railing for storing/drying toys between play. The only caveat is that when your entry/exit way is playfully inviting, you may have a harder time getting in and out without your little ones wanting to stop and play! 

With a little bit of creativity and imagination, I was able to set up our little yard on a low budget (think Dollar Tree, Walmart and items found around the house) using inspiration from some of our favorite outdoor spots around town. We have a lot of fabulous public parks nearby and a great botanical gardens. I have big dreams of a yard where we can have a permanent sand/sensory box, a mud kitchen, a music wall, a wood-working center, an edible garden and places and spaces to discover, store and explore nature's many treasures. That said, I am quite content with our little play garden and treat it much in the same way I treat our play space inside: we rotate toys/materials and keep things easily accessible and easy to store between play sessions. Our small water table is a great place for waterplay and pretend gardening right now. Down the line, it may become a mud kitchen or a sand table. We might add some shaving cream and toy cars for a car wash. We might add in some ice on a hot summer day. My son loves rocks, so perhaps we will collect and use it for rock observation, decorating or washing... The options outdoors are as endless as the imagination itself. Sometimes I will supply a prompt in the form of an object, a picture or a verbal idea. Other times, the experiences in this space will be entirely child-led.

I spent a good chunk of time and energy scrubbing our watertable clean after a winter season left outside. In about five minutes, my very satisfied little gardener had filled it with dirt and mud! All part of the play process and I didn't want to hinder that. Good thing he also loves cleaning and scrubbing--that may be another activity in and of itself if all of the rain we are having right now doesn't take care of the issue first!

Some materials are best not left outdoors--like chalk! We keep a bucket or two packed and ready to grab-n-go for when we head outside. 

Play is a huge part of our outdoor time. Learning happens as well. Gardening together is a great way to incorporate science, math, language development and more into your family routine. Even bringing "indoor" learning activities outdoors can be a novel way to spice up a homeschool or homework experience. Art and messy play activities brought outdoors can eliminate some of the stress of cleaning up indoors! Spring has sprung and we are eager to get out there and smell (even plant!) the flowers. We have big plans for observing the life cycle of a butterfly, creating our own "wormery" and planting some delectable vegetables. For now, we are busy digging, discovering and, as always, happily playing!

Exploring water...and gravity!