Nature Kids: Our Backyard Nature Play

ByChristie Burnett Updated on

We have been slowly deconstructing the sad excuse for a backyard of our new-to-us house over the past few weeks; pulling out a whole lot of pointless bushes and cutting down quite a number of trees (don’t ask me what actual plants any of them are as I have absolutely no idea). All this hard and messy work will be worth it in the end as we will have plenty of space for what I hope will become a fantastic family backyard.
Part of our plan for the new backyard included a nice, big purpose-built sandpit however Immy has been having so much fun playing in the soil and dirty sand that I am starting to think a nice, dirty digging patch might be a better choice!
She is loving the demolition process and happily pulls out weeds and role plays cutting down trees, oh, and taking her giraffe to eat the leaves of fallen trees! Because that is what giraffes do, you know?!?
We have collected a heap of seed pods off the fallen trees and they are proving useful for all sorts of play.
And with all of this time playing in nature it is inevitable that we will come across all manner of backyard beast. Fortunately so far we haven’t come across anything more sinister then the odd bee buzzing around and more then our fair share of snails. Snails who then have the privilege and full enjoyment of playing in a toddler made obstacle course.
And with all of this time to study snails, why not draw a picture of them also? This was Immy’s spontaneous drawing made after a morning involving lots of snail observation and backyard nature ‘play.’

What have your children been enjoying outdoors this week?

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Christie Burnett is a teacher, author and mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to find engaging, high quality learning ideas.

7 Comments

  1. You know I love this, Christie! I'm all for leaving a pile of dirt for your daughter to play in. Sometimes it's the simplest things that provide the most fun, right?! This weekend we're going strawberry picking & I'm not sure who's more excited — me or the boys! 🙂

  2. Raising a Happy Child says:

    Exciting. Our backyard is piled up high with construction materials, since we are replacing siding on our house. I cannot wait until it's done, so we can reclaim it again. In the meantime we've been learning to make mudpies – very entertaining 🙂

  3. Busy Brissy Mum says:

    Immy's snail drawing is delightful Christie. Good thing you took a photo to keep the memory forever.

  4. My girls love snails after rain they will run outside and see how many they can find and how many they can stick on their arms or legs – Last time i ended up with a punnet full

  5. Hear Mum Roar says:

    It's funny, we're going through the exact same thing here! Have moved a few months ago, and our yard was an absolute eyesore. So bad in fact, that I have only just gotten it to a point where it's safe enough for the kids to play in the half that is closest to the house (think prickles, broken glass, rusty nails, etc..)

    We hired someone to just rip all the nasty stuff out, and we're left with a blank canvas and a lone apple tree in the middle. We plan to have a sandpit (getting rid of the one that is currently there that neighbourhood cats pooed in! Urgh) and a mud pool. I want to somehow line the mud pool with plastic at the bottom so as to conserve water usage and make the mud stay wet longer.

    My kids have found a lot of grasshoppers, moths, butterflies (so many of them, and they sit on the grass, so the kids get a really good look), slugs, these little red bugs, and these insanely huge brown cicadas (I think). Also spiders.

    They play with their cat outside, and before the fence was put up, enjoyed watching the chickens from next door whilst they ate dinner inside. Soon we'll get our own chickens and a dog.

    We're planning to grow a lot of fruit trees, because I want my kids to be able to climb up and pick different fruits, and sit on the grass and eat them happily:)

  6. We had a barbeque down at the park yesterday and it was probably the longest period of time that Max had been outside for. Even though he's only little I think he really liked it 🙂

    I really don't like bugs of any description so I was worried about a whole lot of things, ants crawling onto his blanket, bee stings, him getting bitten by something whilst I was letting him 'stand' on the grass. But nothing bad happened at all. Maybe the outdoors aren't such a scary place!!

  7. Just though I would share my comments with you all. The two things my child loves is playing in the mud which is hilarious and attending his infant swim lessons. Again want to say thanks for the great blog 🙂

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