Yesterday, we talked about cleaning and child-proofing your backyard. Today, I’m going to show you how to turn your backyard into a learning environment.
During the spring and summer months, my children spend hours each day entertaining themselves in our tiny, suburban backyard. If you prepare the environment, you can turn even the smallest of yards into place of discovery and adventure.
Here are 8 ways you can create a learning environment in your backyard:
1. Feed the birds.
Birds are interesting to watch and delightful to listen to, and best of all – they’re everywhere! Here’s some information about creating a backyard bird habitat to attract birds to your yard. Here are some instructions for building kid-friendly bird feeders.
2. Welcome other little critters.
Watch insects scramble around in a bug jar. Place tadpoles or lizards in an old aquarium. If you’re ambitious (and local ordinances allow), raise baby ducks in an old, plastic swimming pool. Or, keep it simple and purchase an ant farm, worm farm or butterfly kit.
Feeding the Butterflies
Butterflies in Their Habitat
Released Butterfly on Flowers We Planted
3. Plant a garden.
Gardening is a great hands-on teaching tool for the entire family. Follow this link to learn more about how and why to grow a victory garden. If planning a garden seems as overwhelming to you as it does to me, simply buy a few flower pots, some seeds and some soil, and plant some flowers.
4. Create your own science station.
Provide your kids with a rain gauge, jumbo thermometer, prism, binoculars, magnifying glass, microscope and telescope. You don’t have to plan specific projects using these items. Just teach your children how to use the materials safely, and let them explore.
Jumbo Rain Gauge
Jumbo Thermometer
5. Create an outdoor workshop.
If you have older children, create an outdoor workshop with scraps of wood, a hammer, nails, sandpaper and other building materials. For Christmas, we bought our 10-year-old son a Build-It-Yourself Woodworking Kit and a Young Woodworker’s Project Kit, and he wowed us with his creations. One of his favorite projects was this treasure chest:
Wooden Treasure Chest
Inside of Treasure Chest
6. Create an outdoor art center.
Set your children loose with sidewalk chalk and sidewalk paint. We also use tempura paints and watercolors outside. When my kids paint outside, I don’t have to worry that they’ll l make a mess on the kitchen table or floor. We’ve also found that wooden fences make great art easels.
7. Use an age-old sensory bin.
Buy a cheap sandbox or plastic pool, and fill it with sand, shovels, buckets, toy cars, dump trucks, plastic dinosaurs and other treasures. We’ve had the same sandbox since my oldest was a toddler, and I’m still amazed that a little bit of sand and a few cheap toys can keep my children busy for hours.
Fun in the Sandbox
The Fun Isn't Done 'Til You're Covered in Sand!
8. Encourage active play.
Make balls, hula hoops, jump ropes, a soccer goal, a basketball goal, and flag football flags available to your children. In addition, consider creating a hideaway your children can use for pretend play, such as a clubhouse, teepee or sunflower fort.
Spruce Up the Rest of Your Home
Tomorrow, I’ll show you how to create your own backyard hideaway to use for relaxation after the kids are asleep. In the meantime, be sure to check out all of these great ideas for sprucing up other areas of your house:
Sprucing Up the Laundry Room | Mama’s Laundry Talk
Sprucing Up the School Room | Homegrown Mom
Sprucing Up the Craft Room | Many Little Blessings
Sprucing Up the Bathroom | Feels Like Home
Sprucing Up the Playroom | …Life’s About a Dream
Sprucing Up the Garage/Storage Space | A Slob Comes Clean
Sprucing Up the Master Bedroom | Raising Arrows
Sprucing Up Your Homeschool | Jimmie’s Collage
Sprucing Up the Kitchen | So Happy Together
Sprucing Up the Garden | An Oregon Cottage
Sprucing Up the Backyard | Successful Homeschooling
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
great ideas:)
btw, those are some adorable kids!!
melidna oops melinda
Great Post!!! We are starting to get ready for Spring here too and the outdoors is a favorite place to learn. Love to see kids outside! Thanks for sharing your ideas
This is wonderful! My kids love playing for hours in our back yard and now I’ve got a lot of ideas to keep them back there longer
.
What great photos and wonderful ideas! An especially great list for those of us grandparents helping out with homeschooling grandchildren! Sidewalk chalk has long been a favorite with all my grandkids. And my senior mom is studying up to add butterfly plants to her gardening plans. My grandkids and I are already planning on more fun with The Sunflower House (or maybe even houses?
). I’ll have to share some of the new-to-us ideas with them and see what else we can come up with. Thank you so much!
Carletta, I stumbled upon your blog through an old comment of yours on Kathleen’s Catholic. Now, after the kids are put to bed tonight, I’m going to be up late going through all your old posts. So, I laud you and semi-curse you at the same time.
LOL! Thank you for visiting. I hope you enjoy them.
I love to feed the birds- more than my kids nowadays- they roll their eyes at my joy at the birds. Gotta love teens…
Ooh, great ideas! I particularly like the science center and outdoor workshop ideas. That will give my kids some new things to do outside this summer. Thanks for sharing!