If you understand the importance of playing for your children, you might wonder how you should design your yard so that it can be an ideal playground.
Image Courtesy: tinytinyshopshop.com.au
Well, children get attracted to places of a variety of types. For them, even a junkyard, a wild forest grove or a well-maintained lawn can be an ideal playground.
In that case, what are the components that you should add to your yard to make an amazing playground? Here are a few ideas.
1. Offer Various Types of Play
Kids need various types of play to get an insight of their surrounding world and acquire life skills. Most playgrounds are seen to focus on physical types of play.
But an ideal playground provides opportunities to play multiple kinds of games.
So, you should design your yard to accommodate various types of play and elements with which children can use their bodies and minds to communicate with environments as well as others, like:
- Active Play: Running, climbing, jumping, kicking, swinging, twirling, spinning, rolling around
- Creative Play: Painting, colouring, crafting, drawing, dancing, singing
- Sensory Play: Handling various textures, smelling various things, tasting various plants and fruits, seeing various angles and perspectives, hearing nature’s sounds and music
- Social Play: Talking, cooperating, following rules, taking turns, sharing
- Imaginative Play: Pretend play, make-believe, dressing up, playhouses, pretend ships, costumes, props, dolls, building, moulding, scooping, sifting, combining, pouring, altering, manipulating
- Reflective Play: Reflecting, watching, daydreaming, staring into space, thinking
And there are many types of play found out by play researchers. Try to include as many elements as possible that will provide children an opportunity to engage into these different play types.
But don’t forget to keep ample empty space which can offer children a sense of freedom. Don’t make your yard crowded with too many different types of playthings.
Fortunately, there are places like Tiny Tiny Shop Shop which are one-stop shop to get a variety of toys and playthings to allow almost every type of play.
2. Make it a Place
It needs a special understanding and perspective to create a sense of a place in a playground.
For example, you can include shops and houses in the yard which will immediately create a sense in your kids and their friends of a market or village in a bedtime story you tell them.
Similarly you can create a landscape, jungle or any other place they would love to play in.
Image Courtesy: tinytinyshopshop.com.au
3. Create Spaces for Mysteries and Surprises
Children are fascinated by small wonders in life and everything is a mystery for them. And they love to have surprises too.
A workman returning from his work, a bird flying from its nest to the ground and back, a bee building its nest in a crevice or even a pebble dropped from an earring can be fascinating for children.
Let your yard have spaces for such surprises and mysteries. Let there be ample spaces to hide (but they should be safe), peep holes, levers and handles, talking tubes and similar things with which they’d be fascinated.
Buy quality child play sets at Tiny Tiny Shop Shop that will provide ample fascinating playthings.
And when you’ll prepare your yard this way, you’ll be amazed to see the happiness in your kids’ eyes.