Backyard Play in our Daycare

When the weather is nice, the Hooligans and I spend most of our time outdoors, in our backyard play space. Quite often we’ll be out from the time they are dropped off in the morning until afternoon nap-time.

I’d like to share some of our favourite backyard play ideas with you today.

Fun and Easy Backyard Play Ideas for Toddlers and Preschoolers:

We have our snacks on the deck, and our lunch on a big blanket under the trees.  The kids love eating their lunch outside, and I love how easy clean-up is when we’re done.

Fun Lunch Idea for Toddlers and Preschoolers:

I normally pile a tray up with sandwiches, drinks, fruits/veggies/cheese etc and carry it out to the blanket under the tree, but today I’m loading up ice-cube trays with veggies, cheese, berries, plain pasta and cubed ham. Each child will get their own tray filled with finger-foods to carry to the picnic blanket.

Outside is where we want to play when the weather co-operates. Winter is too long to not make the most of the nice weather when it’s here. There’s a ton of fun to be had in the yard, and the hooligans like it best when we keep the play simple and unstructured.

This fence is great for chalking on or painting with water.

In the fall, we come up with all kinds of cool and creative ways to play in the leaves.

We have our basic outdoor art supplies like chalk, spray bottles, homemade finger-paints, paintbrushes etc,

And a huge collection of beach stones that we do all kinds of things with.

Water play is always a huge hit.

and we muck around making concoctions…

…and the hooligans love any kind of muddy activity. Below, the kids are troweling bricks with mud, and stacking them.

Check out our mobile mud pit!

Our homemade water wall provides hours of entertainment

We are fortunate to have a good-sized back yard, and our neighbourhood backs on to a ravine and forest.  The Hooligans refer to this area as “the jungle”. In the spring, before the undergrowth gets too high, we spend a lot of time exploring, hiking and “rock-climbing” in the jungle.

On a hot day, a rubber boat filled with water at the bottom of the slide provides a whole day of fun.

So many hours are spent here in our sandox, digging, building, working together, and problem solving.

We are also blessed to have a pond in our backyard.

It’s small but it provides us with countless hours of entertainment, and opportunities for learning.

The children watch the fish and get excited when they discover that the fish have had babies.  They learn about life-cycles as we watch tadpoles develop into toads every spring, they scoop out algae, they hunt for snails, and they observe the birds and dragonflies that come for a drink.

The pond is a wonderful feature of our yard; I’m so thankful that we have it.  It’s a place to splash your feet on a hot day…

…or to sit and quietly reflect with a friend.

Thanks so much for touring “our big backyard” with me.  It’s actually been quite a nostalgic little journey for me.  Please feel free to share pictures of your own outdoor play-space with us.  I’m always looking for new out-door play ideas, and I’d love to see how your little people spend their days!

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