Child friendly garden activities
Child friendly garden activities
Do you love to spend time in your garden? Do you want your children to share your love too? Or maybe they like being outside but have become bored with their outdoor space. If this sounds like you then read on and I will share with you some great activities to get your children outside and enjoying outdoor learning.
Being outside, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic has so many benefits to health and wellbeing.
Activities
Mud kitchen
This is an outdoor pretend cooking area with pots, pans, cutlery. Where your little one creates things from mud! It needs to be said that if you’re not a fan of your children getting dirty then this might not be the activity for you. Make sure your little one isn’t wearing their best clothes for this as they are bound to get dirty!
The kitchen could be made from old pallets and wood and utensils and pots and pans could easily be purchased from the charity shops, secondhand stores or you might be lucky and find someone is giving them away for free.
Butterfly Garden
You could also create your own butterfly garden. Not only are these really pretty but they also attract other wildlife like bees. Many of the butterfly’s natural habitat is being lost due to building of new houses and other groundwork.
First of all, you need to know which butterflies are native to your area. This will help you to know which flowers to plant.
Consider the size of the plants you choose and make sure you have allowed enough room for them to reach maturity.
Both butterflies and the plants they love are attracted to the sun so make sure you pick a spot in your garden which gets a lot of sunlight.
Ideally, you need to plant vegetables and herbs in your garden to give the butterflies a place to lay their eggs. Plants like carrots, chives, sage or parsley are good choices.
Add stones that are flat to give butterflies a place to rest and spread their wings.
Sunflower growing
Growing sunflowers is a great way for children to learn about seeds and plants and most children will find it both fascinating and satisfying to see a seed they planted grown into a beautiful sunflower!
Make sure you plant yours where there is plenty of sun and protect them from slugs who sometimes like to feast on small plants.
Rock painting
This is a lovely idea for children who like paining and art and craft activities. There are loads of ideas on Pinterest too for design ideas. This is an activity my daughter Kyla particularly enjoys doing. She hides them in various outdoor locations for people to find. This has become quite a growing trend now. You don’t have to hide them though, you can display them in your garden to give it a bit of colour and a personal touch. Checkout the ideas on Pinterest HERE.
Windchimes
These are a great make. Not only do they look and sound lovely in any garden, but they are super easy to make.
These can easily be made from recycled items such as tin cans, lids from tin cans (although you do need to make sure there are no sharp edges), old CD’s which you can decorate with paints and permanent markers, beads and buttons, unwanted cutlery, old keys, plastic lids, coat hangers and sticks.
You could also purchase some bamboo sticks, shells, beads, little terracotta pots, plastic shapes and much more. Take a look at my Pinterest board for some inspiration.
You can find loads of other bits and pieces to make your own wind chimes HERE.
Sundial
This is a wonderfully simple thing to make on a bright sunny day. You can use a paper plate and a stick to make the dial. Your little one can decorate it however they would like. When it’s finished, they will be amazed that it can be used to tell the time. Check out my Pinterest board for some inspiration and instructions on making one.
Bird feeders
These are really easy to make and can attract lots of different species of bird to your garden. These can be made out of all sorts of recycled items like milk bottles, cartons, fizzy drink bottles, orange peel, tin cans, glass bottles and used food trays. Bird seed is easy to source from places like Amazon, supermarkets and garden centres.
To see some of the ideas I have found for the above activities, please visit my Pinterest board HERE.
Garden Games
I have compiled a list of great garden games and accessories you can enjoy with your child, these were all under £10 at the time of writing this too!
