What is the best fun you can have in a backyard on a budget? I have been asking myself that a lot lately with my 4 + 3 more daycare kids. We have a fort DH built that needs modification. We have a garden. But thanks to a recent tornado we have no trees and somehow that just makes the yard unbearable.
So I have been scouting for ideas for inexpensive thinks for the littler kids to do as the fort is just not for little people. SO what do you do?
1. Get D-I-R-T-Y!
AS I said we have a garden and I have learned over the past few weeks that these little kids LOVE to weed! So I let them!
We'll be planting a few saplings we saved to replace the ones torn down by the tornado. One is from my grandparent's yard in upstate NY, the other we started from seed last spring. Watching them grow should be fun!
I have just added a sandbox to our yard thanks to Craig's List (actually I am picking it up today). Play sand is costly though (nearly $4 a bag!) so we'll be filling it with potting soil. Over the next few weeks I will have the kids help me plant things using the potting soil. By then I should have enough play sand to put in there for them. Just have to remind them play sand is not for plants!
Of course once the play sand is in place the sandcastles and sand cities we usually build at the beach are sure to follow at home. And let's not forget buried treasure. Every now and then I gather up dollar store toys and bury them in the sandbox for the children to dig up. My budding archaeologist LOVES that!
We salvaged old windows from a neighbor and have been collecting wood from others to build cold frames for the fall. It seems eons away in the heat of July but fall will be here soon enough and we'll be ready to plant our herbs and lettuce in there. The children will be helping with that as well.
What do you do when the kids have to go outside (because they are driving you nuts, or vice versa!) and play but the heat is too intense?
2. Bring on the water!
A favorite summer past time around here is to fill the "crabbie" pool with water and let the kids loose. It's really a sandbox but don't tell my kids that. We keep it around just for summer "swimming!" The older ones love dumping buckets of water to help keep the little ones cool.
Water balloons provide great fun and can be prepared ahead of time for battle between adults and kids. Just make sure you get the kind that degrade or you'll have lots of cleanup to do!
We purchased a large roll of thick plastic as a vapor barrier for under the house. We had a ton left so my husband decided to use it to make a water slide. Now we have the biggest water slide in the neighborhood and everyone can play together.
