Playing in the garden... suggestions please!

[MrsPlugThePlumber]

Hello!

I am seeking play suggestions for my DD age 4, in the garden. I'd love for her to be more enthusiastic about the outdoors, but she struggles to know what to do out there! I have suggested the usual ball/water paint/make perfume but she still doesn't last long.

What do your kids do in the garden? Help please!

Sand put

Chalk drawing - hopscotch, big murals, targets for ball throwing

Insect hunt- go digging for different insects

Mud pies!

Water play if nice and sunny

Picking flowers to press

Do you play with her?

Play house or cheap pop up tent?

Or even chairs and blankets secured with pegs :)

Ds is 2 and loves making mud pies and running in and out of tents. He also loves looking for bugs with a magnifying glass (with my help of course) and also I give him a little spade and let him dig up the flowerbeds!

Sorry, posted too soon. I find if I play with me kids and then withdraw once they've got into it, they play much longer.

Have a messy area which you don't clean up so she can make mud Pies, collect snails, dig holes etc.

Trampoline and climbing frame have been a godsend.

Eat meals outside if possible so she doesn't have to stop and clean up.

Stripytop - of course! Sometimes.

But sometimes, I'd like her to be able to pop out without me, and potter happily in the sunshine.

Thanks for the suggestions, we have done most but forgotten, will make more of an effort with dens/chalk. :)

My kids

I can really remember that feeling of just wanting them to occupy themselves for 20 mins so I could just get on with something.

At 4, mine had a playhouse with a doorbell. That and a plastic tea set kept them busy for ages.

Another good one was a small bucket of water and paintbrush. Ds used to paint all the doors and walls over and over again.

I've also set up a treasure hunt for DS (4) with those tiny fluffy chicks you get on cakes at Easter. hid 10 in the garden and got 10 minutes to myself while he hunted for them. you could always be peevish and swear there are 10 hidden when you have one in your pocket

DS also has a trampoline and a few random balls that he kicks, throws or pushes around with a broom . If she has dolls, can you give her a picnic rug and get her to do them a tea party?

A pot of water and a paintbrush (proper decorating brush not kids one) and let her 'paint' the path, walls, fences etc.

It's great on a hot day as it dries quickly and they have a fresh canvas to start on.

She can paint designs on paths and walls by blocking in some bricks/slabs, paint pictures or just randomly paint whatever.

My DC used to love it!

Yy to the treasure hunt. We did that using big bags of plastic insects and plastic dinosaurs bought from qualitysave. It was a good party game too.

It's probably less fun if she's on her own but I used to have a big wicker hamper full of fabric (old sheets, curtains etc) which mine used to take out and use to build dens or make magic carpets etc.

DD used to like washing socks or dolls clothes in a bowl of soapy water and hanging them on a string washing line I set up for her.

My boys had an area which they could do whatever they wanted with. The thing they played at most and for the longest time was creating a 'habitat' for their box of dinosaurs or animals. This would include a watering hole, cave, shady trees (leaves and branches stuck in the mud)

They would end up fairly muddy and messy of course but then the fun of cleaning up and bathing the dinos in a bucket of soapy water.

Oh and if they found any real live beasts they would make a little home for it in a seed tray, on the promise they returned it to the wild and didn't bring it indoors of course.

Mine always loved washing dolls clothes - bowl of soapy water, tie a clothes line at their height and let them get in with it.

Often good to strip them down to pants and a tshirt tho - they get WET!

Great ideas... thank you to everyone who's come up with something :)

Sheets pegged onto chairs to make tents.

Blanket, lots of teddies & play food for pretend picnic.

I have a pebble area and my two are fascinated by this - just moving the pebbles around, filling up buckets and pretending they are other things.

Fairy houses (cardboard box filled with dolls furniture and flowers picked from garden) .

Little pair of scissors and a flowering bush they are allowed to snip at to fill a vase.

Chalk keeps them quiet for hours.

Gardening? Growing things- sowing seeds, try things that grow really fast like radishes or nasturtiums. Does she have mini tools/ Rake, spade trowel, watering can. ASDA and Poundland have some good stuff. A bug hunting kit, magnifying glass etc.

Dolls/bears and a toy push chair. Big bear and her real light weight buggy from 4ish.

Dolls/bears and a toy push chair. Big bear and her real light weight buggy from 4ish.

Dolls/bears and a toy push chair. Big bear and her real light weight buggy from 4ish.

Take a look at a book by Dawn Isaac called 100 things to get kids outdoors - there are some great ideas in there

One word of warning. I did feel guilty when I realised DD2 wasn't mucking about. She'd managed to do up the buggy harness and was stuck.

Dolls/bears and a toy push chair. Big bear and her real light weight buggy from 4ish.

More great ideas, thank you.

Will definitely get hold of that book, I see my library has it in stock. Thanks!