You don’t need a huge backyard to make a great playspace for your kids. With the right natural elements even a small backyard can mean BIG adventure. A natural playground or natural playscape,is an area where kids can play with natural elements such as sand, water, wood and living plants.
In studies of natural playspaces, kids tend to:
Be more active
Exercise their imagination
Jump, run, hide, seek and all sorts of bone-and muscle-strengthening activities
Spend more quality time being a kid
So what can you do to create an awesome playspace in your yard? We’ve gathered some great DIY backyard playground ideas.
King of the Hill
Leave a dump truck sized load of fill dirt in the yard. Raked smooth and sodded, it can become the center of childhood play. Riding bikes up and down, sledding in the winter, or using a tarp to make a water slide in the summer. It can also be a great springboard for imaginative games, transforming from a castle to a fort or a rocket ship. If you can add only one thing to your family playspace, make it a hill
Adventure in the Woods
Add stones and tree stumps to your yard. These can usually be found completely for free, from your city’s tree-cuttings or a country friend’s rock pile. A single stone or stump can be a quiet place to sit, or an impromptu table. A series of boulders or stumps are great for jumping or stepping. Burying at least one-third of each below ground will ensure that it is stable and won’t tip over as someone skips from one stump to another
Plant Tall Grasses – Perfect for children to run through or hide and seek in without being so obscuring as to prevent you from keeping an eye on them. Plus these grasses are often low maintenance.
Play the Imagination Game
Lay down an area of soft sand or playground mulch, gather various loose items, palm-sized stones, pinecones, leaves, different-shaped pieces of wood or whatever you can find. Choose items with no defined use that can be moved, adapted, controlled, changed and manipulated. Most importantly – NO instructions! This is often the most valuable element of any playspace. Allow children build their own “toys” and make changes to their playspace, which gives them an amazing sense of ownership and confidence. You can even let your kids help you select and find the items. The most important part is to create a space where your kids can exercise their imaginations!
