Kids’ Outdoor Play Area Ideas

There is an array of great reasons to encourage your kids to play outdoors. While kids’ outdoor play area ideas help promote physical health, they are also beneficial for their mental health. Whether you want to engage your kids in building mud houses or bike rides or just want to lessen their screen time, those small garden play area ideas are essential to your child’s growth.

 

However, encouraging your kids to play outdoors can be challenging, especially if you don’t have a great outdoor space. So, here’s one of the effective ways to make your kids love the outdoors. Think up some kids’ backyard play area ideas that would make them beg to be outside.

 

Another huge benefit of providing your kids with great outdoor play space right in your backyard is this. You won’t have to get out of the house to fetch them, say, from the community playground, or your neighbor’s home. In addition to that, these kids’ outdoor play area ideas don’t require you to spend hundreds of dollars on pricey playground gears and materials.

 

That said, I’ve created a kid’s bucket list of the top small garden play area ideas they would want to enjoy during their childhood. They would make you wonder how simple suggestions can provide tons of hours of excitement for your kids.

 

Benefits of Kids Outdoor Play Area Ideas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s kids spend about seven hours daily in front of the screen, such as tablets, smartphones, televisions, and laptops. It means they are swapping a few hours of healthful active outdoor activities for a more deskbound lifestyle., Which may potentially affect their overall well-being, and might contribute to severe health consequences.

 

Parents would agree that they want their little ones to be well-rounded, healthy, physically active, and independent. So, encouraging your children to spend more time outdoors and have a break from technology help promote their physical, mental, emotional, and intellectual health.

 

A few benefits of kids’ backyard play area ideas include:

 

·         Outdoors Develop Advanced Motor Skills

 

One of the /major and significant benefits that kids’ outdoor play area ideas offer is that they leave your children with advanced motor skills. Kids who enjoy a lot of time outdoors are more likely to move in ways that challenge their mental and physical endurance. When they are having fun outside, they will have the opportunity to walk, run, jump, and throw.

 

Moreover, allowing your kids to test their physical abilities helps strengthen their bodies and boosts their confidence. For children who are athletes, outdoor activities can also help them practice and enhance their skills like catching, kicking, and batting.

 

·         Outdoor Play Improves Muscle Strength

 

Another benefit of adopting kids’ backyard play area ideas is that they improve your kids’ muscle strength. It also helps diminish the risk of obesity which can cause long-term health problems. Remember that obese kids are more at risk for health problems, such as asthma, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and sleep apnea.

 

However, letting your kids play outdoors increases their exposure to sunlight which helps strengthen their immune system and improve their mood. In addition, outdoor activities are also beneficial as they help kids with ADHD by providing an outlet for workouts and energy that often create problems indoors.

 

·         Outdoors Reduce the Risk of Becoming Nearsighted

 

Heredity is critical in determining whether a child develops myopia or nearsightedness. However, time spent outdoors can reduce the risk. According to studies, kids who spend most of their time outdoors are less likely to develop nearsightedness.

 

Moreover, another experiment shows that outdoor activities as a prescription can eliminate or delay the risk of developing nearsightedness. For instance, in a randomized study, a six-year-old assigned to have an extra forty minutes of outdoor activities daily is less like to develop nearsightedness over the following three years.

 

However, researchers aren’t sure about how it helps to reduce the risk of myopia. One of the possibilities is that outdoor time helps your eyes to take a break from “close work,” like using a smartphone. Another possibility is that outdoor time exposes the eyes to bright daylight. Either way, kids’ outdoor play area ideas are a beneficial prescription for reducing the risk of nearsightedness.

And here’s a tip. Our eyes have the opportunity to gaze at distant sceneries like the sky, landscape and mountains, trees, cityscapes, and many others. Like looking out the window in our homes. They may be distant but our eyes can benefit by looking at them, probably with protection from the strong sunlight, to balance the times when we have to look at or read things up close. That would prevent the onset of nearsightedness that could happen even to kids. If it’s possible, gaze at objects near you then gradually shift it from nearby objects to those at a distance, gradually increasing the distance. Then reverse the process.

.

·         They Encourage Independence

 

Knowing that your kid is safe, kids’ backyard play area ideas allow your kids to explore and discover. Generally, an outdoor play area is larger than an indoor play area. This well-ordered freedom advocates that kids will learn to be more comfortable when they are away from their parents and encourages independence.

 

·         Outdoors Sparks a Child’s Creativity

 

One of the main benefits of small garden play area ideas is that they enhance a kid’s imaginative and creative skills. For instance, your kids will have the opportunity to create their games with their own rules, elaborate on stories, and play make-believe within the framework they have.

 

Moreover, when they are having fun outdoors, the toys and other distractions are often limited. They play with natural materials and generate their new ideas, which help fuel their innate imagination and creativity.

 

·         They Develop Social Skills

 

The less strict and more unsupervised outdoors makes your kids feel more accessible and less intimidated. They are more likely to develop social skills and join groups, allowing them to make friends easier. Having kids’ backyard play area ideas in place is the best way to build social skills for kids.

 

Moreover, it also builds confidence which helps your kids learn and understand social cues faster as compared to the classroom environment.

 

So, these are a few benefits your kids could have. Now, let’s discover some simple yet exciting kids’ outdoor play area ideas.

 

Top Inspirational Kids Outdoor Play Area Ideas

 

1.      Hula Hoop Hideout

 

Hula Hoop Hideouts are among the best small garden play area ideas. Especially when you want to play with your kids outdoors in summer, these hideouts hanging down the trees are so much more fun. They are wispy, gorgeous tents blowing in the breeze, letting your kids plan an adventure with their besties or curl up with a book.

 

These hideouts are incredibly easy to make using a hula hoop and a few bed sheets. One of the fun parts is that even your kids can help to build these hideouts. So, who needs to go to those summer camps far away from your home when you can make one from scratch?

 

2.      Craft a Climbing Space

 

Creating a climbing space in your backyard is a great activity and an excellent exercise, allowing your little ones to use their brain and every muscle in the body. Remember that climbing is one of the most beneficial activities for a kid’s body, mind, and coordination. Since little ones love climbing, including some sort of climbing space is one of the most exciting kids’ backyard play area ideas.

 

While a climbing frame is a good idea, you could also create an exciting climbing space using old chairs, wood pallets, or old tree trunks. Moreover, if your backyard has a strong fence wall, let your little ones climb on it. You can also set up a rope climber or a tree climber. Using climbing holds is another excellent alternative for creating a climbing wall along your backyard fence.

 

3.      Build a Mudpie Station

 

Do your children like playing in the dirt? My little ones do, but I must admit the mess they create is hard to fight. It is not easy, though, to convince them otherwise. They just love to be messy – as they sometimes should. So, providing them with a Mudpie station is one of the smart kids’ outdoor play area ideas.

 

With this cute but clever idea, you can build a dedicated mud station and let your little ones get their dirt outside the house. While parents keep their sanity, kids have their fun. To create a Mudpie station, you will need to choose a corner of the patio or turn your yard into a blue Mudpie-making station with an enormous metal tub burdened with soil taken from terra cotta pots.

 

However, plastic buckets are a good alternative if you don’t have a metal tub. That fence board with all the necessary tools is genuinely inspiring, and a rough-shaped old table with scuffs and paint will make lovely mud pies.

 

Moreover, you can also use a wooden drawer to hang on the board as a beautiful spice rack for decorating or mixing mud pies.

 

4.      Create a Digging Space

 

Providing a digging space is one of the best ways to let your kids immerse in imaginary worlds. It will make them pretend they are making fairy houses and sandcastles or digging in Australia. Besides providing fun, the physical act of digging also helps strengthen your kid’s hands and muscles while also improving hand-eye coordination.

 

What’s more, including a simple digging area in your backyard also help make your garden more fun for your kids. In addition to creating a digging space, I highly recommend including a sandbox with a few buckets and shovels. Alternatively, you can include a muddy digging area with a few toy trucks and cars.

 

Furthermore, while creating a digging area, choose a place where your kids can dip up the weeds and plant veggies.

 

5.      Hopscotch Garden Stepping Stones

 

While colorful stepping stones are undoubtedly excellent decorating pieces for a backyard, the hopscotch stepping stones project is among the best backyard play area ideas to engage your little ones outdoors. Including these colorful stepping stones in your garden will provide your kids with a perfect outdoor playing area.

 

Personally, I’m so in love with this small garden play area idea. It would give your little ones a permanent hopscotch place and a fantastic pop of color in the yard too. Even if you don’t have kids to play the game, I think it would be a cute little addition to your yard.

 

6.      Tires Defining Outdoor Play Area

 

Tires can be pretty valuable and chic when creating an exciting early childhood play area in your backyard. A set of tires arranged in a cone-like shape helps define that garden’s space as dedicated to your little ones.

 

You will be amazed to see how these old re-purposed vehicle accessories work as an exceptional wall display with an industrial appeal, without any construction work to get it all done. Additionally, if you are willing to work out something a bit brighter, you can line the tires with cushions to turn them into comfortable seating. Alternatively, you can paint the tires with your favorite spray paints to make your project more aesthetically pleasing.

 

7.      Build a Water Space

 

One of the greatest pieces of advice I ever got was to “just add water” whenever your kids are getting grumpy. Whenever my kids feel restless, I just ask them to grab a squirty bottle of water and water the plants. This straightforward task becomes an attractive, unstructured play that engages them for hours.

 

It is evident that kids would love any kind of water area in a backyard. To keep your kids engaged for hours, adding a bucket of water and a few pots for mixing and stirring to your backyard is one of the most superficial kids outdoor play area ideas.

 

Moreover, if you have a spacious backyard, you can add a hose and let your kids wash their toy cars. Similarly, adding a kiddie pool, plastic sandbox filled with water, or a sprinkler can also help keep your kids outdoors.

 

8.      Setup a Creative Space

 

Incorporating art into your backyard play area makes so much sense because it’s less messy, easier to clean, and sparks your kids creativity and imagination. Spreading out a sheet and letting your little ones go wild with paints is among the most innovative kids backyard play area ideas. You just need to put the pigments in a paint spray bottle and let your kids squirt or turn mud into color by adding some food coloring to mud.

 

Another quite effortless and great alternative is to get them a cardboard box to paint on and let your little ones get creative outdoors. In addition to that, if your backyard has a fence, you can also let your kids use washable chalk paint, and when they are done with their masterpiece, you can wash it away using a hose or a paintbrush.

 

9.      Setup a Music Wall

 

Install a music wall to create another inspirational kids’ backyard play area idea a reality. It is an excellent move to let your innovation loose and grab a few household items as well as a couple of percussive instruments that can produce appealing sounds when plucked, rubbed, or struck.

 

Since it is among the most straightforward play area ideas in the garden, all you need to do is to fix them to your yard’s fence, creating an exciting music wall for your kids. Some of the most surprising yet unique installations include an old bicycle wheel for making exciting sounds, a xylophone with a few missing bars, and lots of plates and pots from your kitchen.

 

Likewise, other additional items you can include are a metal lattice, a bunch of old container caps, an ice cube tray, and a simple wooden rolling pin.

 

10. Incorporate Slides

 

Another thing that can keep your kids busy all day long is sliding down on slides. While it is easy to DIY a slide, I recommend buying it from a store. Additionally, installing a slide in your backyard means you should have enough space. In addition to adding a slide, incorporating a treehouse and a playhouse into the structure will give your kids more fun.

 

You can attach the ropes or stairs to help little ones climb the house. Alternatively, you can also build a mound and use stumps to add a slide, which is mainly a great idea if you have a sloping yard.

 

11. Installing a Biking Ramp

 

A biking ramp is yet another kid’s outdoor play area idea that you can add to keep your little ones active and let them learn. You can build a homemade ramp using wooden pallets to give your kids challenging bike rides.

 

You will be amazed to see how such an easy-to-build structure can make bike rides full of adventures and learning. There are maneuvers like making turns, cycling up the ramp, keeping your back wheels away from the edge, staying straight, or being aware of splinters. So, homemade biking ramps provide kids with know-how, practice, and experience for them to enjoy and be good at it.

 

On top of that, you can also add a few larger tires and lay them down at the bottom of the ramp to let your kids achieve a perfectly curved shape.

 

Kids Outdoor Play Area Ideas

Outdoor activities are essential for kids, and there are so many great reasons why you should encourage your little ones to play outdoors. For instance, time spent outdoors lets your kids use all their energy, learn new things, and be creative. While the above kids’ backyard play area ideas are great for creating an exciting recreation space, they are also great for those working in early education settings. Add to that experience by allowing your kids to participate in outdoor school activities with their schoolmates and teacher.

 

You Might Also Like: