The garden is your child’s most important playground, and a lot of what is learnt about life is learnt playing there.
Building cubbies or tree houses, digging holes, damming streams, etc are all very positive and worthwhile forms of play, but at the same time they are activities which are best tempered with commonsense if permanent damage to the backyard is to be avoided. Never discourage children from playing with their environment, but do educate them to understand the implications of what they are doing.
There are a number of different things children can find interesting in the backyard:
1)Animals - everything from microscopic protozoa, through snails and spiders to the more complex vertebrates such as birds, lizards, dogs and cats.
2)Plants - again, from the simplest microscopic bacteria, to the mosses, fungi and ferns, shrubs and trees. Play can be centred around complete living plants (e.g. growing a garden) or parts of plants (e.g. arranging flowers or making a whistle from a piece of bamboo).
3)Earth - stones, rocks, sand and soil, etc are all commonly used in play.
4)Manmade objects - toys and playground equipment are the most obvious manmade play objects however things such as buildings, walls, pavements, fences, etc have tremendous play potential and don’t cost any extra. Too often, however, instead of exploiting the play potential of these things we discourage or even ban play around them. For example:
Brick walls can become rebound walls.
Fences and walls can be used for murals, or a lean-to cubby house.
A play space is made up of surfaces, play structures (equipment etc), plants, earth shapes, fences, walls, seats, steps and perhaps other landscape features. Think about how the following can become part of a child’s play space:
Different levels - mounds, slopes, embankments, steps, cliffs.
Different surfaces - grass, earth, sand, gravel, mulch, rubber.
Things that enclose spaces - fences, walls, cubbies, other buildings.
Water - ponds, fountains, streams, drinking fountains.
Landscape features - statuary, bridges, pergolas, arbours.
Furniture - seats, tables, rubbish bins, BBQ’s, lighting.
Plants - hedges, mazes, topiary, trees, windbreaks.
Play structures - slides, swings, see-saws, climbing frames.
Other play facilities - games courts, rebound wall, bike trail, skate area, animal enclosure, etc.
When catering for kids you have the job of selecting and combining these components to achieve an appropriate environment which will enhance play in the area being designed.
If you want your backyard to be good for the kids to play in, you need to consider the following:
What are the children’s ages? Toddlers enjoy exploring and learning about their physical surroundings. It is important to include variety in textures, smells and surfaces. Older children interact more with each other so the backyard needs to be designed to allow them to play with each other rather than with things.
How much will the garden be used? Things which can only be used by one child may create conflict. Crowding makes accidents more likely so design safety becomes more critical. Leave room around playground equipment and make sandpits big enough for all the children. Heavily used play areas need stronger construction and more frequent maintenance.
How much time will be spent in the garden? A child’s attention span is short. Some play activities are only suited to playgrounds which are to be used only occasionally or for short periods of time. Don’t expect a child to use the same swing all day every day, but they might use a sand pit more often.