I was reading Sweets' thread about what to play with in the garden and have been really interested in Manjay's comments about having a more naturalistic play space outside..... http://childmindinghelp.co.uk/forum/...ight=gardening
I found (and have subsequently lost ) an interesting article which said the reasons children tend to take lots of risks in playparks is because we've removed from them the movable bits, the natural elements like sticks and stones, so they need to enhance their play by taking more risks, like running up the slide....
Now my garden needs a revamp but I'm not exactly flush and with the VAT increase and petrol increase and my new job I can't see that changing any time soon.... I have sooooo many things I want to change this year so all my changes have to be within a very tight budget.
So I was thinking of buckets of big sticks, buckets of big stones, camouflage material, stuff like that. I want to get rid of the trampoline (the outer is all cracked and broken) and the big slide (terrifies me them going down it). The playhouse floor has had it so that needs to go too I'm going to end up with hardly any big play equipment in my small garden. But do you think this matters if there's lots of exciting naturalistic stuff for them to do? Or do you think it might put off parents who will be expecting an army of plastic stuff in the garden? And any more ideas for very inexpensive natural play ideas? We're on a slope, the garden is tiny and the 'patio' is two paving stones wide....
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