thoughts on outside play



one of the things that i dislike about urban parenting is how outside play is almost always connected to playgrounds. although the playgrounds in our area are great and offer possibilities for hours and hours of free play, i do prefer children playing in a natural setting. like a park, in a wood, by a creek or possibly a garden. when we go to our favourite park, i turn right when we enter it, taking the longest possible way to the playground. we bring a blanket and have a drink or read some books on it, while watching birds and rabbits. then we collect a few sticks, find a tunnel through the bushes or try to climb a tree. that's what outside play is about for me. after that, we can still visit the playground!

i remember my sister and me playing for hours and hours in our childhood garden, with nothing more than a swingset and some very few toys (if at all). and now i immensely enjoy watching my own children discovering outside play in that garden. there is a sandbox, with enough sticks and rocks and water for any building or cooking project. spencer loves taking tours around the outside of the house, and knows where he planted bulbs with his grandma, where the tomatos grow and where exactly the perfect parking space for his pushcar is.  i am gathering more ideas for natural outside play on my outdoor spaces pinterest board, as we will spend a lot more time in that garden in the future.

are there any ideas you'd like to share regarding outdoor play spaces???

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Kim has a great outdoor space for Reece. I so understand this urban parenting thing. For the past two months we've lived in the village in a tiny apartment. So every day we go down the street to the park/playground. But the girls only have a really good time when we go out to woods. On Saturday we are moving to a new house with a backyard and I am so happy to set the girls free to explore the grass the trees get muddy and such!

Kim said...

I so agree with you...natural spaces to play are so important for our kiddos. They need to connect with the earth through play, and playgrounds just don't offer that. We love our outdoor time.

Kim said...

Thanks for the shout out KC, if you are interested Sylvia, here is a link to our play space http://www.motheringwithmindfulness.com/2012/07/outdoor-play-space.html

sylvia said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
sylvia said...

Thanks for your thoughts KC and congrats on getting a bigger place! Looking forward to reading about it!
And thank you for the link Kim! I'll go and check it!

Anonymous said...

I feel you on this!! I love hearing and watching my kids play in the backyard and don't like feeling like we always need to go to a playgroudn. We've got a rock box http://buzzmills.typepad.com/blog/2012/06/the-rock-box.html and an outdoor "drum set" http://buzzmills.typepad.com/blog/2012/07/backyard-drum-set.html that we play with. Last year I made a make shift teepee...http://buzzmills.typepad.com/blog/2012/06/its-teepee-time.html but haven't put that up yet again... But we've also got empty plastic flower pots, sticks, makeshift bow and arrows made from sticks in the yard...and several tree stumps, we've added a long board this summer so that they can make a makeshift seesaw with one of the smaller stumps lying on its side...

sylvia said...

Thanks for your ideass, Jane! I'll check your links as well!

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