Children in development are full of imagination, tireless enthusiasm and a unquenchable thirst for life and adventure. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t need to be nudged in the right direction, or that you shouldn’t provide them with the necessary tools to grow their little minds on their way to becoming happy and thriving adults.
Children need to be inspired to go outside, leave the PlayStation behind, and experience the wonders of outdoor activities, and an empty backyard can only be interesting for so long before your kids turn their attention towards something far more stimulating.
Fortunately, you don’t need to spend a fortune creating Disneyland in your backyard, you simply need to implement several wallet-friendly and creative ideas to build an amazing backyard playground your kids will love.
Create an enchanting setting
Humans are visual creatures, and so are your little devils. The first thing you need to do is to inspire their imagination to run wild and free is to create an enchanting setting filled with interesting visual treats. Luckily, there is nothing expensive about a project like this, and the rewards can be great and long-lasting.
All you need is to think about shapes, colors, and lighting. You can easily create interesting shapes out of cardboard or other soft materials, whether they are animals, cartoon characters or dollhouse features, and let your kids paint them any way they like.
After that, you can hang warm lighting in the form of lanterns in the trees, greenery, and around the backyard. Introduce some affordable ground lighting as well and decorate the surroundings with colorful ribbons and voila! Your kids have a beautiful fairy tale setting to play around in.
Climbing and sliding
There is no need to spring for the latest slide or monkey bar models on the market, as you can buy these essential playground features for cheap at your local home centre complete with detailed assembling instructions.
You don’t even need to hire professionals to mount the fixtures or do the digging, as you can finish the entire project in one afternoon or less. Providing your kids with climbs and slides is a great way to spark their love for physical activity and exercise.
Fun obstacle courses
Depending on the size of your backyard, a fun obstacle course might just be the thing that will inspire your kids to get outside and spend the day roaming around the yard, being silly, competitive and most importantly, active.
The best part is that you can make an intricate obstacle course for as little as $20 or even for free if you go to a salvage yard and dig around a bit. Traffic cones, tubes, tires, sturdy ropes, wooden panels and other features can be found at your local stores or the local salvage yard. Be sure to repaint and clean everything that needs to be spruced up and you have yourself an amazing obstacle course!
Don’t forget safety measures
Safety is essential when building any kind of playground in your backyard. Be sure to smooth out any sharp edges, eliminate rusty areas and use a durable line marking paint that won’t fade over time in order to clearly mark the edges, routes, trails and any hazardous features so that your kids can play safely. Be sure to make safety your number one priority.
Introduce an arts & crafts area
Finally, your backyard needs an area where your kids can sit back, relax, and exercise their minds. You can make this possible by creating an arts & crafts nook in between trees where they will have the chance to read and fill out coloring books. For an added touch of excitement, be sure to equip the area with fun DIY tools your kids can use to create birdhouses, dolls, feeders or anything else their thriving minds might come up with.
Creating a backyard playground doesn’t have to be a costly project, rather it can be a fun and rewarding venture your kids will cherish forever. Be sure to keep these affordable ideas in mind when planning your backyard playground and you will have no problem creating a fun-filled setting your children will love.
Author: Lillian Connors
