Remember those long summer days of childhood when children played outside all day -- playing freeze tag, bike riding and finally ending the day chasing fireflies. Sadly, those days are rare for a child of today.
Today’s children spend most of their time indoors. A recent survey of mothers found that 70 percent of mothers played outside every day of their childhood compared to 31 percent of their children. [Rhonda Clements, An Investigation of the Status of Outdoor Play, Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, Volume 5, Number 1, 2004.]
Yet, exposure to the natural world is essential for a child’s emotional health. Nature inspires in children a sense of wonder, which is the forerunner to a love of learning.
Backyard Adventure
One of the best, most convenient, and safest places for children to get to know nature is in their own backyards. Creating a space full of wonder and adventure in your backyard does take a bit of imagination on the part of parents and the ability to digress from the mainstream standard of beauty -- manicured lawn and off limits gardens.
Research of children’s preferences shows that playgrounds designed by children would be “fully naturalized with plants, trees, flowers, water, dirt, sand, mud, animals and insects, but also would be rich with a variety of play opportunities of every imaginable type,” write Randy White and Vicki Stoeklin. [Children's Outdoor Play & Learning Environments, March/April 1997 Returning to Nature White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group, Kansas City, MO]
But don’t be intimidated, you don’t need to hire a landscape architect; you just need a little imagination.
Wildlife and Natives
One of the best things to do in the backyard is to plant a native garden with a variety of plants such as purple coneflower, queen of the prairie and native grasses. A native garden will attract butterflies, birds and beneficial insects for nature study. Bird watching is a great way to teach children about the natural world.
For children, wild (what adults might consider unkempt) gardens are much more intriguing. Parents with the space might want to convert part of the yard to native prairie and cut a narrow path through the prairie for children to explore. Wooded areas are also intriguing, just be certain to explore the woods first to remove any glass or unsafe objects.
Ponds are becoming popular landscape features and children love water, although the very young ones need to be watched closely near water. Or, parents can just let the children play under the sprinkler.
Sand doesn’t have to be in a box; consider creating a more natural, sand play area by digging out a hole and lining it with landscape fabric or placing a baby pool in it, filling it with sand, and surrounding it with large rocks.
Don’t remove those logs and tree stumps. Children love to use logs as a balance beam. Arrange different sized tree stumps in a circle or semi-circle and they become a place to sit and dream, powwow, stand tall or jump from stump to stump. Consider building a treehouse or other natural dwelling for children.
Nature Sparks Imagination
Natural play objects utilize a child’s imagination. Keep a pile of pinecones and a pile of stones or rocks in your backyard; in the mind of the imaginative child, these can become food for a restaurant, trading money, decorations for a sand castle and much more.
Also, provide children with child-sized garden tools, so they can dig for worms, rake the leaves and imagine they are farming.
A magical world exists just outside your door, and with a little imagination and a little perspiration parents can turn the backyard into an adventurous, creative play space that will live forever in children’s memories.
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