How to make a backyard truly enjoyable for kids?
If you have children, your backyard should be their playground and their kingdom. As a parent, you need to encourage the kids to be creative, play and explore – and it all begins behind your house. If you still haven’t created a slice of youngster heaven you are not completely content with, read on for some tips on how to make a backyard truly enjoyable for kids.
Chalk it up
The kids tend to channel their inner Picasso on concrete pavements and walkways. In order to avoid such innocent feats of vandalism, you can help them channel this spirit the right way – on the chalkboard walls in your backyard. Soon after you’ve installed these chalk-friendly surfaces, your backyard will turn into the most vibrant mesh of shapes and colors, and your children will enjoy having a legitimate place to draw their mega-sized art projects.
Camp out
Putting up a tent in the backyard is one of the most beloved activities of every child. Building small forts and tents can be an exciting endeavor, and you can encourage it by purchasing all the necessary equipment for kid-friendly tents. However, don’t keep all the fun of setting it up for yourself. Involve your kids in the activity and teach them how to build a camp themselves. They will be immensely grateful for this knowledge and enjoy the process of tearing it down and setting it up over and over again.
Swing it like a pro
If you want to set up a backyard that spells out kid heaven, swings are the obligatory element. If you have several big and sturdy trees in your vicinity, you can use the branches to hang the tire swing, a chair swing or your regular run-of-the-mill swing. If you don’t have the (big enough) trees, there is always an option to purchase the metallic framework for the swings. Just opt for the highest one you can possibly can – the kids will appreciate it.
Snack corner
Children will spend a lot of energy in the backyard and they generally tend to “forget” things like hunger and thirst when the game is in full swing. This is why you should create a small snack corner equipped with comfy chairs and a wicker table where you can leave cold lemonade and homemade bites, and protect it all with adjustable cantilever umbrellas. You can even put up a mini-fridge filled with ice-tea bottles under the table.
Keep it theatrical
With a snack bar in one corner, you can put a jolly summer stage in another. Setting this up is much easier than you’d think – just buy a strong clothesline and hang two sheets of red burlap on it – curtain rings with clasps are the best workaround to make this setup gel. You can either spread several blankets in front of it for the faithful audience or put down a few folding plastic chairs. Encouraging this theatrical creativity in your children can work wonders.
Stump around
It is really easy to get your hands on a bunch of cut logs these days and you should use this to your advantage. You can create stump steps – a balancing-act trail on which your children can safely practice their agility. This is also an amazing tool for games like “lava floor”.
Treehouse
And once again we roll back to the big and sturdy trees – if you have one in your backyard, you can build a treehouse which can truly serve as a home-away-from-home for your child. This is a place where children can have a “time out” and learn how to appreciate privacy. As far as the building part goes, you can find some truly awe-inspiring sources of inspiration online. Tree houses have never been such wondrous creations as they are today.
There is a reason kids enjoy summer more than any other season of the year – they get a chance to spend most of their time in the wide outdoors. If the backyard is set just about right, you will turn it into a wondrous playground and soon have the whole neighborhood running around, exuding positive energy.
Author BIO
If one thing is true about Lillian Connors, her mind is utterly curious. That’s why she can’t resist the urge to embark on a myriad of green living/home improvement projects and spread the word about them. She cherishes the notion that sustainable housing and gardening will not only make us far less dependent on others regarding the dwellings we inhabit, but also contribute to our planet being a better place to live on. You can check her out LinkedIn.