Create a friendly garden for your child

Children love the outdoors. During school holidays and weekends, you will find them exploring nature and engaging in fun outdoor activities.

They will either be playing with mud, making toys using recycled materials or being involved in a tug of war game with their siblings or friends. Children’s love for adventure is of great importance for their growth and parents need to take more interest in the garden and make it fun and safe for them to play in.

With technology and video games that are turning kids into couch potatoes, it’s upto parent to ensure that their children are drawn out of the house into the outdoors by having creative things for them to do out there.

Below are simple ways of making gardens, whether small or big, an entertaining place for children to hang out.

Garden

Set aside a small area in the garden for children and make it their responsibility to weed, water and prune the flowers. Let them choose the type of flowers to plant and the layout design. The activity should serve the purpose of instilling virtues like patience on kids.

Make the idea more appealing by getting them to have their favourite theme in their special area. They are more likely to be dedicated to the garden when the theme appeals to them. You can also incorporate a bird bath out there where they can have fun naming the birds that come to feed and splash around.

Play kitchen

Girls like mimicking their mothers in the kitchen and it can sometimes get messy. A clever way of ensuring that they stay out of the house but still practice and perfect their kitchen skills - while having a fun time - is by setting up a play kitchen in the garden. Toy kitchen sets are available in local supermarkets. 

The play kitchen will be a good distraction especially when a meal is being prepared and the child wants to hang around.

Chalk or white board

Learning never stops once the class is over, it is continuous. Install a board in the garden and allow children to practice what they have learnt in school. The chalk or white boards can also be a platform for children to practice their art skills. There are not expensive and you can have a few so they are not fighting for their turn.

Art studio

Art is a way of expressing emotion and skills. Help children discover and refine their artistic skills by encouraging them to paint and make sculptures by creating an art studio in the garden. Set up the studio in a corner and fill it up with water-based paints and other art tools like crayons, coloured pencils, play dough to make sculptures and papers for drawings.

Tree house

A tree house is an ingenious way of keeping children busy. They will most definitely appreciate having their own special room outside the main house. Siblings can bond over different activities and games that can be done in the tree house.

There are enough do-it-yourself designs in the Internet but families can make adjustments to fit their needs. Depending on its size, parents can have some basic furniture there where the children can play and write.

Wall climbing

To children, wall climbing is an extreme fun sport and is a perfect way to introduce them to climbing exercising and also a way of building their confidence. Climbing walls comes in different styles. The climbers can be free standing or be set against the garden wall. They take up a small space making them ideal for small gardens.

Swings

Swings bring so much joy to children and it is an activity that they can take part in at any time of the day.

There is no need to break a bank to have a swing installed because you can just fix an old a tyre with two ropes on the sides on a tree.

There are also pre-made swings on sale for gardens that are without trees that you can buy in many places around the city. The best would be to get a fundi to install something inexpensive but sturdy for you in the garden.

Zip line

Introduce children to adventurous activities like sliding on a zip line from the backyard. Zip line is a strong rope on which people slide from a height to the ground for fun. It can be installed between two trees and makes it possible for children to swing from one end to another - giving them an endless fun time in the garden. 

As a precautionary measure, however, do ensure that the children have helmets on to protect them in case of a fall.

With all these different ideas, do not forget that these are children and they need to be supervised when they are playing. Have someone keep an eye on them wherever it is they are keeping busy.