The Outdoors: A "Living" Room for Children

This has been one heck of a rainy day here and as I stepped out from the warmth of my living room into our play garden to dispose of some cut hydrangeas that had past their indoor prime but are in the prime of their life for outdoor exploration by one very short botanist in training, I thought to myself--this is going to be the perfect afternoon to play in our garden and mud kitchen. Yes, it would be warmer and cleaner to stay in the warmth of our living room, but a child's living room should be just that--living. Mud washes off, children come clean (and dirty again just as quickly) but these are the memories that will last a lifetime--well after the laundry is done, hands and nails are scrubbed clean and the children are bathed.

Outdoor spaces are also great for "indoor" messy activities, like
painting a wooden play castle!

I have some incredible childhood muddy memories of my own. I loved digging up worms and making potions and mud-pies and eating fists full of fresh grown chives straight from the whisky barrel my mother used as a planter. I'm pleased to say the onion stench has nearly worn off after about 30 years, but the memories have not. We had access to a variety of outdoor toys and trinkets, but my very favorites were something for digging and something for gathering and transporting. Everything else I needed was already there: dirt, water and life. And it was all abundant; no sharing! There was always enough dirt and water and worms and weeds to go around. Perhaps to me this was all child's play, but there was immense learning and growth happening as well. Gross motor and fine motor skills were developed through collecting, gathering, mixing, transferring and transporting. Spacial awareness, number sense and mathematical concepts were developed through measuring, sifting, filling and pouring. Language skills emerged as I learned the names of creatures great and small, animal and plant. Science happened in every moment. I still remember the fascination I experienced when we moved from our home in one neighborhood to a new one about 20 minutes away and the soil was entirely different! Our new yard was full of natural clay and the art, sensory play and experimentation that happened was invaluable. 

Y explores sound, rhythm, color, texture and fine motor coordination with a selection of tin utensils from the Mud Kitchen, a DIY ribbon kite, a plastic rake and a wooden toy rocking horse that S selected for him to play with.

As a classroom teacher, some of my favorite moments were ones in which I was privy to join in a child's natural sense of wonder and astonishment at finding a snail on the sidewalk or discovering a caterpillar under the slide. Waddles through the parking lot in the rain led students to question the puddles that formed and why the water dripped down the slope of the lot to gather in one place. Sure, I could demonstrate and teach about gravity and trajectory indoors, but how much more did these children gain by discovering it for themselves? 

Something about things that are tiny instills a natural sense of
wonder and curiosity--almost magic! S returns again and again
to our outdoor "dollhouse" to play out dramatic stories and scenes
in our play garden. He especially enjoys including natural
loose parts into the scene, like rocks and grass and wood chips.

Now that we have revamped our play garden and incorporated a mud kitchen in our own small front yard, I have seen both my boys' curiosity and wonder re-emerge. We took a family day trip to Washington DC and back to see the festivities for the Chinese New Year. Of the many exciting things we did, one of S's favorite parts was stopping to run at a rest area off the highway and picking up a stick and a seed pod to bring home to our play garden. When I first set out a selection of loose parts in our yard including a basket of secondhand metal cookie cutters that had been all but collecting dust inside while waiting their turn for use with play dough or paint, a friend asked me what they were intended for. I sheepishly but eagerly admitted that I had no idea! I came up with some thoughts on how they might be used outdoors, but I was certain my boys had their own--and they did! S collected small pebbles and gravel in a tin pie pan and then observed how he could gather them inside the parameter of a cookie cutter in the shape of car. Y used a flower shaped cookie cutter with a small handle to practice grasping while banging it rhythmically against a copper cake tin. Then he reached his other hand to pick up a spade shaped cookie cutter and observed the sound that it made from the inside of a metal bowl when he shook it. Both boys made developmentally appropriate discoveries and neither one needed my input to do so. 

These cut hydrangeas had their time in the limelight of our dining room table. Now they will experience a second life being explored in our play garden before being returned to the earth.

Over the years we have lived here, I've had a surge of energy to create a play space outdoors only once the spring came. I worked within a budget and purchased standard outdoor toys and accessories: bubbles, shovels and pails, sidewalk chalk, hula hoops, perhaps some balls and other toys. We planted seeds with gusto and in the heat of the summer, I tended to lose that gusto. The space was wonderful and S had fun no matter what when we were out there, but I saw it as a space I needed to care for and maintain rather than as a space I would empower my children to care for and maintain. I also tended to limit its use to when the conditions were most comfortable for me. We had some great times in the play garden and wonderful discoveries, but we all ended up cooped up back inside or perhaps focusing our outdoor time more on visits to the park instead of our own front yard. 

Yarn, ribbon and fabric can all add a "more natural" splash of color to natural elements...

A selection of DIY ribbon kites hang on our banister made from ribbons tied to shower curtain rings in a variety of colors and textures. Y can explore them by grasping them from below or they can easily be removed for him to play with (as well as Y) and used in action rhymes and songs.

This winter, I realized I had somehow transformed from the teacher who got her students outside no matter what into the parent who never took her kids outside at all. I set out to revisit and resolve this issue and this time, did so with the vision that our outdoor "living" room should be one that reflected everyone who uses it--the adults and the children. It should be a space that we all can enjoy being in and exploring, not just one for a preschooler while the baby is in a stroller or for the children while the adults are checked out on our cell phones. In creating this vision, I also recognized the importance of being thoughtful to how I can empower my children (especially S) to maintain the space as well as to navigate what we do there and what goes into it. Sometimes S's ideas are easy and simple to accommodate. He loves to cut with scissors, especially to cut on novel surfaces, like blades of grass, leaves or wilting flowers. He asked to keep a couple of pairs of his scissors outdoors and I quickly obliged. Do we really need to have four pairs of scissors inside? No! He also wanted to add water to his play on a dry day a couple of weeks ago. We do not have a hose or water access outside here and while at first I didn't mind helping him to open the door and get what he needed independently from inside and carry it back out, after a  while I was tiring of the muddy footprints in the house and our apartment being left open like a barn! In revisiting the idea, I realized I can easily purchase one of those large spigot jugs of water and refill it as needed for S to use outside. He is more than happy to fill containers and transfer the water himself.

Containers for gathering, transporting and collecting are a must in our own outdoor space and on the go. Here S is collecting small objects at the park inside a recycled baby food jar to make a "nature grogger" for the upcoming holiday of Purim!

I often joke about my parents' refusal to put up a swing set for us when I was growing up. We certainly had the space for it and rumor has it that they were too worried we would get hurt. As a teacher, I have been on many school playgrounds. Many of them had incredible equipment and toys and many did not. What I have learned is that children inherently know how to have an incredible time playing outdoors whether or not they have access to play equipment. For sure, their experience is optimal when the adults are also engaged and when they are able to safely explore the environment at their own whim and pace. Nonetheless, I also think there is a certain draw to "toys" that are not toys! By the end of the summer season, plastic shovels and pails are other outdoor toys are often broken and no longer functional. These materials may be financially more disposable (it's easy enough to replace a $1 rake and shovel) but they are not so friendly to our outdoor environment. Including materials and loose parts found from nature, collected from indoors, rescued from trash/donation piles or purchased secondhand is both aesthetically more pleasing to the eye and more environmentally sound. And the proof is in the [mud] pudding. Last week on a warm and sunny afternoon, many of the neighborhood children were outside playing. When we got outside, we saw children riding bikes, throwing balls and taking toys for walks along the sidewalk. S joined in the fun on his tricycle and also enjoyed walking a hula hoop down the block and pushing his doll stroller. Then he and another little girl abandoned their colorful, plastic toys (and please know that these, too, have a place in play--I am by no means diminishing their value in childhood experience) and joined in our mud kitchen to make some "pasta" and a "salad" using metal bowls and spoons, mud/dirt, rocks and bits of cut up grass. 

A mud kitchen can be set up very inexpensively. We like to use our water table as a "kitchen set," but really you only need a few metal kitchen utensils--real ones in adult size are really best and can be brought from indoors, purchased second hand or rescued from the rubbish pile. If the thought of mud is a major turn off, you don't have to actually have mud! You can work with sand, on cement with just water, with gravel or control the amount of water added to your dirt. That said, mud does wash off! I also think there is great benefit (and convenience) in children being able to access water on their own. If you don't happen to have a spigot outside or a rainy day to fill your cups, a jug of water can be brought outdoors and refilled as needed for children to access as needed.

I could write extensively on the topic of creating an outdoor space that nurtures curiosity and there are so many incredible resources already out there on the topic. I have also posted here previously on some of the ways we incorporate nature based play. When I think about the outdoors as a "living" room for children, I am reminded that living things are always evolving and adapting. So, too, do we need to be mindful that our outdoor spaces and experiences must evolve and adapt. When we look at our indoor play spaces, both home and in classroom settings, we are mindful of the space being accessible to children, maintaining their focus and reflecting their interests. We recognize when a child loses focus in a space that perhaps the toys and materials in that space are no longer engaging or perhaps there are too many things out and we need to put some away. We rotate materials, we add things in that are reflective of the season, a holiday, or our children's current interests. So, too, should our outdoor spaces be set up to engage our children in focused play and exploration. Our outdoor living spaces should also reflect the seasons and traditions we embrace indoors. When there is a lull in attention or interest, ask what might be behind it? Are there too many toys and objects out? Not enough? Have the children lost interest in what's out and, if so, what could reignite their interest? The addition of something else? A change in its location or display? Just as we assess the intention and function of materials indoors, so, too, can we do this outside. And many times, it is the adults in my house who have lost that spark to be out in the yard, yet again. How can we work with the environment to make it also more inviting to us? Perhaps it means bringing a basket of knitting outside or a book, a journal, or a refreshing beverage. Or maybe a cozy blanket for sitting on or a lawn chair is more comfortable than the grass. (Incidentally, comfortable and dry places to sit are also an important factor to keep in mind for little ones.)

Finally, in both the indoor and outdoor scenario, I find it helpful to reflect on what the adult role might be when play becomes a bit stale. Are we over-involved and directing too much? Under-involved and distracted? Particularly when it comes to the sensory experiences of the outdoors--mud, dirt, bugs, heat, cold, moisture and more--there can be a variety of reactions and responses. Children intuit very strongly when adults are not comfortable even if we say nothing at all. I encourage my sensory-sensitive peers (I'm right there with you) to take off your gardening gloves and get dirty right there with your little ones. There is so much to be gained by playing in the mud! Since re-vamping our own little outdoor space, I have noticed my own sense of curiosity and creativity reawakening. So, too, have my boys re-engaged with nature. They love our own yard and S is even more eager when we visit parks and other outdoor areas to grab our "gathering basket" or whatever his two hands can carry and bring back something special for our play garden. This is truly a sign that he reveres our space as well as the natural world at large. I, of course, keep in mind that we collect only what we can use and what is not still attached to a living plant or in a preserved area. These lessons are also important ones for my children to learn. 

Early moments of symbolic play in action!

Well, it's just about time to wake up my napping beauties and head out into this Muddy Monday. I have a mat set up for sitting on and towels at the ready to collect the muddy footprints and shoes that will inevitably stomp back inside. May your day be filled with wonder whether or not the sun is shining and may your play inspire memories that last far longer than the mud stains on the knees of your jeans!

Happy Playing!