A peek inside a reader’s play space…
We’re a family of four. As Early Childhood professionals, my husband and I are always working on some project for our girls. This spring, we transformed our outdoor play space to make it more child-friendly.
One of the biggest challenges we faced as townhouse dwellers was making the backyard a fun play space for our four-year-old daughter. We have a decent sized backyard for a townhouse but with a space of eleven feet by thirty feet, we needed to be creative with making our outdoor area an enjoyable space for the whole family.
The beauty of a small space is that you can’t rely on the big swing set or playhouse to make the yard “child friendly”. We were forced to get creative with our outside play space. Here’s a few things we’ve incorporated into our backyard to make it an appealing and inspiring place: A mud pie kitchen, a balance beam, a play garden, an easel, a basket of books (which stay out year round), a water table, blocks, many movable pieces, lots of dirt, functional “tools”, bubbles, and numerous plants to care for.
We love our backyard! Many more pictures of our outdoor playspace can be found on my blog, The Deliberate Mom – In My Backyard: Playspaces For Children To Love.
Thank you to Jennifer of The Deliberate Mom for sharing her courtyard play space with us. Do you have a play space to share? Submit your play space here and you too could be featured on Childhood 101. Be sure to visit the previous Our Play Space posts for more playful kids decor inspiration!
Christie Burnett is a teacher, presenter, writer and the mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to access engaging, high quality learning ideas.
Mud pie kitchen (or chocolate mud cakes) is usually my little ones favourite as well as gardening in her play garden.