Creating an Outdoor Play Area Your Kids Will Love*

If you’ve been trying to figure out exactly how to make your garden as useful and enjoyable as possible, then the following tips should help to inspire you. There’s nothing better than providing your little ones with the perfect outdoor play area for them to enjoy. It’s also a great way to utilise the garden space that you have available to you and help to keep them active and enjoying the great outdoors.

Create Zones
There are lots of different ways in which your kids can enjoy themselves outdoors, with different play ideas to keep them entertained throughout each season. By splitting your garden into different zones, you can create certain sections for each type of play. For example, you can have an area of the garden dedicated to wet play, such as having a water table and sand pit to have hours of fun with. You could then have a section for active fun, such as a swing set, trampoline and football nets. Then you could dedicate an area to quiet play, where your little ones might want to read a book, look for insects or just play with their toys in a nice area of the garden. These zones will also help to make sure you have plenty of practical space for yourself too, such as a BBQ area, positioned away from the children’s play and so on.

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Practical Changes
When you decide to introduce certain methods of play into the garden, there are always going to be issues that come with it. When you add a giant swing set, you want to ensure your little ones are safe and going to be protected if they fall, so you might want to think about Fake Grass. Artificial grass seems to offer a softer landing that the read deal and it won’t get worn down like real grass and dirt. Similarly, you don’t want to damage your grass when you introduce a water table, so you may want to look at making some practical changes to that area of the garden too. The best way to keep a water table from damaging any of the garden due to large amounts of water would be to lay some paving stones in one area, as this will help drain water away from plants and grass, as well as drying really quickly instead of causing a mini swamp on the lawn. Similarly, you may want to make sure your sand pit is positioned on top of a tarps sheet too, as this will catch all sand that is thrown around the pit and you can simply throw it away or pour it back into the pit after the little ones have finished playing.

Safety Precautions
Whether your child is playing indoors or outdoors, there needs to be a set of safety precautions to ensure that they are kept as safe and secure as possible. Whilst outdoor play is hugely beneficial and very good for your child’s health, there are a lot of things that come with being outside that may cause some issues. The first main thing that needs to be addressed is how secure your garden is. Whilst you may intend to keep your eyes on your little ones at all times, we all know this can become difficult, so it’s important to make sure that you have safety features such as a locked gate or fence to prevent your children from wandering out of the garden and down the street. It’s also important to make sure that the garden is child friendly in the sense that any dangerous items such as BBQ’s, gardening tools and equipment are kept out of reach or sight whilst the little ones are playing outside, placing them in a shed or in the garage would make it much easier to keep them away from playful minds!