5 Ideas For Turning The Backyard Into a Playground

Parents often accuse smartphones and video games as major culprits for the lack of their children’s ambition to play outside. Nevertheless, with the right incentive, you can easily lure your kids outside and encourage them to engage in some healthier activities. So, instead of forcing them to go outside, try making a playground of their dreams and watch them make this shift on their own. With this in mind, here are five awesome ideas that you might want to try out as soon as possible.

1. Children-grown garden

Instead of having to teach them not to run around your garden, why not teach them by example and let them grow a garden of their own. Think about it, all you need to do is set aside a small parcel of land, frame it, and show your kids how to plant certain vegetables and care for them. Sure, high-end gardening takes a lot of skill and technical prowess, yet, this doesn’t have to be what you aim for at all. To make this experience even better for your kids, you might want to help them make a taco or a pizza garden. What this means is that you should make a garden in which they can grow (almost) all the ingredients that go into their favorite food. This is both fun and an educational experience. 

2. A golf course

While making something for your children to enjoy, why not use this opportunity to make something for yourself, as well. A mini-golf course doesn’t take that much space, investment or effort to make but why restrict yourself in this way. Why not make a smaller replica of a real golf course (or at least a part of it) and practice your swing? In theory, this would take too much space, yet, it needn’t be so. For instance, by purchasing and installing a perfect golf machine on your porch, you can easily get all the space you need in your very own backyard.

3. Boot camp

The best thing about building a boot camp is that you don’t really need that much investment in the first place. After all, most of this can be made with items you have lying in your basement, attic, or garage. Make the wall for your kids to climb, rubber tires for them to hop through, and a course on which they can run.

You can even gamify their experience by installing a blackboard on which they can mark their performance and even award them ranks and medals for exceptional results. In this way, you’re praising effort and not competitiveness, which is incredibly valuable when it comes to raising a child. One last thing, when designing a boot camp, try to avoid ropes, and remove any unwanted trees with thick roots that the kids could trip on with the help of Louisville tree expert for maintenance.

4. A sandpit

The next thing you need to understand is the fact that expensive toys can never replace imagination and creativity. With that in mind, a single inexpensive, simple-to-make sandpit can give your child hours and hours of amusement. As for the making of such a pit, all you need is some sand, a couple of boards for the frame and there you have it. The downside of this particular idea is that your kids might grow out of it in no time. Still, when you look at the effort-to-effect ratio, constructing a sandpit is worth it even in a situation where your kids aim to use it for a single season.

5. Sunken trampoline

Finally, there’s nothing more fun to a kid than a trampoline, yet most parents fear this piece of play equipment for its height, metal edges, and shaky construction. However, what if there was a way for you to fix all of this. Well, by digging a hole in your backyard and placing a trampoline in it, you can already achieve quite a bit. To maximize this level of safety, you might want to surround the trampoline (well, all play equipment actually) with some protecting surfacing.

Aside from being space-efficient, the dark grey or black of the trampoline seamlessly mix with the grass around, giving you a unique-looking garden. Furthermore, all of your kids’ friends and their parents will be more than a little impressed with the level of ingenuity that you’ve achieved.

In conclusion

At the end of the day, safety has to be paramount, which is why we focused on the above-listed five items. If done properly, all of the above-discussed ideas can come to hook-, cable- and exposed concrete-free. Nonetheless, sharp points, tripping hazards, and uneven surfaces might emerge when you least expect them. This is why you need to be on a constant lookout and inspect the playground as frequently as possible, in order for your child not to be hurt due to your own negligence.