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I would love to know what everyone has for outdoor play. Also if you have an area or table for dirt for kiddos who like play planting/gardening, how do you keep the kids from taking dirt away from that area?
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I have cozy coupes, a slide, balls, bubbles, basketball goal, and a large sandbox. #1 sandbox rule is that the sand stays in the sandbox. #2 is no throwing sand. I don’t give chances….if they don’t follow those rules, they’re done in the sandbox for the day. My group LOVES the sandbox, so it’s not even an issue. -
I have three sandboxes with different themes, one is sand and water. They do carry it out, a bit at a time, to the play kitchens, I refill with about 5 bags per year, $4 per. Not too bad.
The mud area is next to the creek, so it cleans itself up when there are bad rains to wash it all away.
There is always some raking and debris cleanup for them to do later.
There are four children's gardens. One is flowers, one a pumpkin patch, one a raised bed for rooting cuttings, and one a big vegetable garden. They are sick of squash, zucchini, green beans, okra, blueberries, plums, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant by fall. Then the pumpkins come, they really like those because we make cookies from them. I get excited about the greens, then 
The playground has a couple of climber/slides, a couple of playhouses, a couple of kitchen/grills, a dome climber, basketball hoop, hoppers, balls, dump trucks, water mister, and the above sand/water tables. The backfield is where the ball games, sensory activities, bubble mowers, hula hoops, and relay races take place. Sprinklers, egg hunts, and inflatable water slides go in the front yard a couple of times per year. Sidewalk chalk, scooters, and scooter boards on the paved driveway.
The rest, I make up as I go along. I am pretty good at coming up with ideas, it's the energy to do it all often that gets me these days.
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Wow those sound amazing. We only have grass where they play. I have climbers, rock climbing structure, slides, playhouse, balls, bubbles, teeter totter and some other random things but I really want to do a play dirt area but this group I have I know it would be an issue right away. I am really wanting to take my swing set down, I'm so tired of it for a thousand reasons.Comment
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This reminds me of a local story:
A year back, our area had a big hoopla about a daycare center who marketed themselves as a nature based, drop in preschool. It was such a huge deal when they opened, because nature based is THE latest trend in the SAHM world here and drop in care was coveted.
Eventually, it got a lot of negative attention regarding their sand and dirt play. Apparently, a child (around 3) there would regularly go home and poop out lots of sand and small pebbles. We all know that even the best and most diligent of us providers can't always be on the littles who constantly put things in their mouths that they know they're not suppose to. Especially in a large group care setting that is designed to be dirty.
Well, this created a backlash in the mom's group world that sparked a couple others to speak out about pebbled poop and how terrible the supervision must be there, since it's happened to apparently 3 kids. About a month later, the story was on the local news.
6 months later, daycare is up for sale because enrollment tanked.
Personally, I hate sand. It ends up everywhere and created too much cleaning for me. I stuck with water play attached to my fence. I attached squishy tubes, funnels and buckets with zip ties to the fence and they use cups to fill and dump.
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Snowmom Water play attached to the dance sounds cool Can you post a picture of your water play fence? -
Alwaysgreener I have since closed and taken down all my fun stuff. But this is what started my inspiration: https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com...er-water-play/
I purchased sound tubes (the accordion type) to use instead of pipes because I liked the color and texture. I also bought hanging metal flower buckets on Amazon and character sprinkler cans.
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Swing sets are a royal pain. 18 inches of mulch is just one of the issues. I always wanted to get a dump truck load of dirt, like at construction sites, and let them have at it. The problem is then the possibility of a cave-in when it is tall, stray cats using it as a litterbox, groundhogs, snakes, etc, etc.
Every time I have a fun idea, George Lass, Mason and Rube get in my head.. look for the clues and gravelings.
Last edited by Cat Herder; 06-21-2022, 07:50 AM.Comment
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I have a swing set, small trampoline, basketball hoop, baseball set, a sand box with buckets and sea shells, a raised dirt bed with trucks and dinosaurs, tricycles and those Little Tike ride on toys.
I have a water table on the way and I’m looking at little splash pads for them to play on. I’m just not sure if it’s a good idea to have that out all the time or if it should be something special we do every now and then.Comment
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I have a sandbox, a couple ride on toys, some scooters and a dome climber for each age group (toddler/bigs) and a swing set for big kids only.
No Cozy Coupe cars as they simply initiate sitting and I want the kids to run not sit outside
No swings for the under 4 age group as they have zero clue how to actually swing and I am not pushing anyone or looking for belly riders to put their teeth through their lips.
No trampolines as they are WAY too much of a liability for my comfort level and I HATE them…. my own kids were never allowed to have one either.
Lots of balls, sidewalk chalk and games/activities available to encourage actual movement outdoors. I hate taking kids out just to have them sit.
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MissCait my DH wanted to get my kiddos one too and we probably would have but right around that time, a neighbor had a birthday party for their 10 yr old DD. Her and all her friends were jumping and having a blast when one of them landed wrong and ended up breaking her arm pretty badly. They had all the netting etc and were being safe other than having more than one kid at a time on it.
Not long after that, my DD went to her BFF's and they were jumping solo when her BFF also happened to land wrong and broke her collar bone. My DH changed his mind pretty quickly after that.
I remember having a trampoline in gym class when I was younger and it was a blast but as a parent, I just couldn't get past my fears. lol! As a daycare provider, I won't take on the liability. Too many horror stories for my comfort level. -
Blackcat31
Health insurances will sue you too even if the parents don’t want to sue. At least this is what i was told. I remember playing on them too when I was little. We had no net and it was our neighbors. Thankfully no one ever broke a bone but we came close quite a few times! Back then though parents didn’t worry about liability like they do now.
When my girls jump I tell them “don’t break a bone!!! Be careful!!!” Lol I scare them haha! my oldest already broke her elbow and had to have surgery falling off our slide. Lord, I don’t want deal with anything like that again.
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I have a couple of trikes, a little scooter ride on toy thing, a playhouse, a slide, a jungle gym climber thing, a basketball goal, soccer balls, basketballs, bouncy balls, tons of sidewalk chalk, lots of bubbles and bubble machines. And even with all of that I still take the kids out and some of them are bored and ready to go in after 10 minutes. 🙄 Some of these little kids are so used to being entertained by their parents or the TV that they have no idea how to play at all. One DCF even told me they really didn’t need care but their 3yo is so addicted to TV and has no interest in playing or being around other kids and that’s why they wanted to enroll her 😳 how?! Why?! It makes me a little crazy. I have a big splash pad/sprinkler thing coming tomorrow and I’m hoping it will encourage the kids to do some running and get some energy out. One of my DCG hates getting water on her or mud or literally anything so I’m sure she will be loads of fun 😂Comment
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I had a daycare child that hated going outside too. I don’t know if it was parents fault or not because her little brother (who I kept from infancy and maybe that’s the reason) loved outside. I know when they started with me and she was 2 and he wasn’t born yet, they told me they never let her play with dirt. Lol So at first, she had a ball getting into all the dirt at my house. I allow it and I allow them to look at bugs. But she got older and it was just meh. Wanted to watch TV or be on a tablet. But I can’t talk, my kids love their electronics too. But I make them put them down to play after a little bit. Whether inside or outside, you need to play or do crafts or read. I made her play too. Eventually she’d stop whining and join in. -
The funny thing is that DCM told me she was a total outside kid. DCM said she hates to go outside but DCG makes her go outside all the time because she just can’t get enough. I don’t know what she does outside though because she always seems bored. I don’t know if DCM plays with her and entertains her outside and that’s why she likes it or what. She seems to like the new water table I got but even that only lasts about 5-10 minutes and the other day DCM sent her in crocs and as soon as water got in her shoes she freaked out and wanted to take her shoes off and go inside 🤦♀️ DD is 4.5 and she loves her tv shows and movies but when she goes outside she’s a total wild child, trying to climb trees, running around playing made up pretend games, pulling these little wagons from one end of the yard to the other picking up sticks and rocks and bugs - she’s the polar opposite of all the DCG I have and all the boys are infants. 🤣
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My yard is divided by low fences into sections. We swim (wading pools) or ride trikes in the front yard, never at the same time. Wading pools are of various sizes, including dishpans for sitting-up infants, a 42" pool with 3-4" of water for older babies, up to an 8' pool for when I have a big group of older preschoolers. I set up one or two depending on ages and numbers. We use everything from squishable sea animals, to slides, to cups, funnels and pumps, to diving rings to swim rings in the pools. Variety keeps it interesting. Different combinations of toys are out on different days. If it's not hot enough to swim, we use water toys in dish pans on the grass.
My side and back yards have playgrounds built for various ages. Each has a playhouse, sand area, climber and swing set. I like starting my toddlers on swings, but it's on a custom built, toddler-size set with very flexible sling-type swings that hug their rear ends snugly. My one and a half year olds typically learn to sit, hold on with two hands, balance, and finally to take several steps backwards, lift their feet up, and 'swing'. They learn to use their bodies to keep the motion going longer. Then pumping is learned the following year, and then they move to the preschool playground.
We use vehicles, animals, dinosaurs, cups, buckets, shovels, funnels, etc in the sand. We have balls, hoops and baskets to throw them through/into, chalk, bubbles, etc. The usual stuff, rotated through to go along with interests. We set up fairy gardens with craft stick bridges between the gardens, flowers planted around them, little bowls for fairy pools, aquarium gravel and pretty rocks to make paths, etc. When I find a good deal on those tiny animals in a tube (frogs, horses, dinosaurs, gnomes) or pretty rocks, seashells, sand dollars, I sprinkle them around the preschool playground to be discovered. Anything tiny usually finds its way to the fairy gardens.
We take our shoes off on the back step and shake the sand over the rail into the sandbox before going inside.Last edited by SignMeUp; 06-21-2022, 03:53 PM.Comment
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I have a couple of water tables, a large sandbox, a toddler size basketball hoop, swing set/slide/climbing structure, 2 other climbing structures, a playhouse, small picnic table the kids use mostly to climb on, a small slide the toddlers use. a Tuggy sandbox that I leave empty because I found the kids played with it more when it was empty than when it was full of sand. I have trucks, balls, dinosaurs and play food to play with out there, too. I have a fleet of cozy coupes that I use mostly in the winter when the snow is too high for the kids to move around in the play yard. We go out to the driveway and while the big kids climb and slide on snowbanks, the younger kids sit in the cozy coupes. As they become able, they "drive" up and down the driveway once the snow has melted enough on the blacktop.Comment
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Swings, slide, sand, riding toys. Had a water table and need to get a new one. Had a playhouse and need to get a new one of those too. That’s a good idea to bury stuff in the sand. Sprinkler and bubbles too.Comment
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I have a wooden swing set with tire swing plastic that are low to the ground. Swings set has a fort where they can go up and play and then go down one of two slides. In the fot there is three musical instruments attached to the side along with a bell they can ring. Underneath the fort is to play kitchens, sitting side by side most of the time they're full of dirt, pine needles pine cones, or even bark. There's also a food truck that I got for $5 it did not come with accessories so I bought toy food from the dollar store. I have a play house/workshop it comes with tools if you take apart the fence and nails to hammer in the side. Picnic table, Gus the caterpillar tunnel, whale shaped seesaw, a car bed with steering wheel and chairs, a set of steps from simplay3 that flip over and turn into a seesaw. Other things like bikes wheelbarrows lawn mowers shopping carts hula hoops buckets toy trucks shovels toy phones that get rotated in and out of the shed throughout the year.
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So we have a bunch of cars and bikes. The biggest hit? A bin of play food, some babies and a random rummage sale table. the kids teach the "babies" how to ride the bikes, take them for wagon rides, drop them in the mud and water table.. Our kids never liked sand.Comment
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I agree i hate sand you can't get rid of it. I only kind of thought a dirt box would be fun for them but I also don't want dirty kids coming into the house.Originally posted by Snowmom View Post
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