Ideas to Encourage Imaginative Outdoor Play

This is a collaborative post with Fatmoose

Like many families across the UK, over the last 12 months we have spent way more time outdoors in our back garden than we have ever done before. I feel very lucky to have access to such a lovely child friendly outdoor space in which the girls can play, run and stay active at a time when we’ve had to stay at home much more than usual.

One of girls’ favourite features of our back garden is our climbing frame and swing set and over the last year its been great to see the girls getting imaginative and bringing to life a whole host of adventures via their outdoor play.

Here are some ideas to help encourage creative outdoor play with your kids in the garden:

1. Dens – Building a den can create literally HOURS of fun for your children. Whether it is something as simple as a large sheet hung over the washing line or ropes, or in our case a big blanket covering the entrance to their climbing frame, children love hiding and using their imagination to create a little fantasy world. During the summer last year we created a den using blankets and sheets over our climbing frame and the girls turned it into a restaurant – I then got the VIP job of acting as their waitress, taking their real life orders for lunch and delivering it straight to their den door. The Den could also become a shop, a sleep over, a tent – you name it! Super simple – but super effective!
2. Assault Courses – If you want the kids to keep active, assault courses, making use of any climbing frames and swing sets you have in the garden can be really good fun. We set up a number of different assault courses during the4 summer that included climbing the climbing wall, sliding down the slide, doing ten spins with a hole hoop, skipping 10 skips with the jump rope and stepping over a number of stepping stones before running to the swing which was the ‘safe zone’. It took literally minutes to set this up and the girls well and truly wore themselves out – they certainly fell asleep early on those occasions!
3. Add Mirrors / Accessories – Something as simple as having accessories and mirrors on your climbing frames or play equipment can make a huge difference to how your children play and respond to their environment. Our climbing frame has a look out point and ships wheel, so their play regularly centres around becoming a pirate adventure or princess captured in a tower! Sometimes it’s great to sit back and let children come up with their own ideas – you’ll be amazed at the stories they come up with!
4. Tuff Trays and Sandpits – Many modern climbing frames like the Fatmoose TikatakaTown XXL pictured belowcome with a small sandpit area or space for tuff trays at the bottom – these are a wonderful way to bring imagination into your children’s play time. My girls are big fans of reading, and at times we compliment this by creating fun activities that are based around a set theme or story. Not only does this encourage siblings to play nicely together, but also helps reinforce the knowledge they’ve learned in the story, reenacting scenes or facts that they’ve learned in the text.
5. Nature / Window Boxes – Another creative activity in the garden is planting – particularly in the summer months. The girls love planting their own seeds, and adding small window boxes to play houses or climbing frames can be a great way for children to take responsibility for caring and nurturing for their own seeds and watching them grow.

One thing is for sure, as a family we can not wait for the weather to improve and to get back out enjoying our garden again!

What other fun ways to you use too help encourage imaginative outdoor play?