We’ve had a couple of years of making our own fun in our own homes, and creating an outdoor space for the entire family to enjoy has been an important factor in people’s wellbeing. Even now, when parks and recreational public spaces are back open, people have still readily embraced the benefits of creating an enjoyable outdoor environment closer to home.
In this article, we look at the new fun ideas to consider when making an outdoor space the entire family can enjoy. Let’s take a look…
Outdoor Toys
The garden is the perfect place to enjoy outdoor games. We all remember enjoying activities such as swing ball and badminton, but there are now more fun games available designed for use in your garden, including outdoor Jenga blocks and chess boards. Your lawn is essentially a soft play area, much for suitable for children to have fun away from the sharp corners and slippery floors of a modern home interior.
A top tip for easy cleaning is to use an outdoor rug on top of a patio or decking area. This way, you can bring indoor toys into your outside world that would normally be a hassle to tidy, such as LEGO bricks, dominoes, or board game pieces.
An Outdoor Cinema
Pass the popcorn! Have your own movie premieres by creating your own outdoor cinema area. All you would need is a projector and a plain sheet to use as a screen, with some garden furniture or bean bags serving as your cinema seating. Adding solar powered fairly lights to a pergola can create a perfect, cosy environment to watch the latest blockbusters in.
Making an outdoor cinema is just one of the inventive ways to treat your garden more like an outdoor room and an extension of your house rather than a separate space. With a permanent or even temporary shelter above your projector, you can make a tradition of watching movies outdoors, no matter what the weather.
Nature and Wildlife
Rewilding your garden, the process of simply letting your garden become more overgrown, is a fantastic way to encourage more biodiversity in your outdoor space. If grass is left unmown, different flowers are allowed to grow, attracting different species of insect. There’s plenty of fun to be had from identifying the wildlife that can visit your garden if encouraged properly.
Add more bird feeders, either using table feeders on once that can be hung from fencing. Alternatively, adding water features like ponds can be a great breeding ground for frogs and toads. Inspire the next generation of botanists and naturists by making your garden a haven for fauna and flora.
Grow your own!
A great way to engage the entire family with the natural world is to grow your own produce in your garden space. There are many flowers and vegetables available suitable and easy enough to grow by even the youngest emerging gardener.
Having your own personal vegetable plot can be a powerful teaching tool as a way of explaining where our food comes from. On top of this, it can create a real sense of cooperation and teamwork for a family dynamic.
Making Artwork
Creativity with children is something that needs to be cultivated and encouraged. Thankfully, water soluble paints or chalks are the perfect solution for budding artists without permanently damaging your garden.
Children making mess is an inevitability, and whilst nothing can contain such a force of nature, it is always worth considering garden materials that can be easily cleaned once the outdoor fun has ended for the day. Composite decking is extremely low maintenance, requiring only a basic scrub every few months.