Paint a playhouse: Design your Villa Villekulla
Your garden can offer these possibilities for children
1. A sandbox promotes creativity
There are various ideas for an appealing garden for children. A sandpit in the garden is suitable even for the little ones. Here toddlers can dig, build, muddy and have fun. It is recommended to plan the sandpit near the house so that you always have the little builders and diggers in view. It also makes sense to think about a cover for the sandpit so that the sand does not get dirty so quickly.
As an alternative to a sandpit, a sand pit in the play garden is also possible for your children. It offers a sheltered building site for the children, can be planted with herbs and wildflowers all around and thus blends particularly harmoniously into the garden. If your children are out of the sandpit age, the sand pit can also be easily transformed into a pond or fireplace.
To build a sand pit, dig a hole 3 to 4 m² in size and about 40 cm deep. The shape can be irregular, which really gives the children the feeling of playing in the great outdoors. The bottom of the pit is then covered with weed fleece and a layer of gravel. Last but not least, fill the play pit with play sand and attach a border made of wooden palisades, stones or tree trunks.
As a planting around the sand pit or sandpit, it is best to choose flowers and grasses that your children can tear off in the sandpit to "cook" or "decorate" the sandcastle. This additionally stimulates creative play in the sandbox.
2. Water awakens the urge to play and explore
Another idea for exciting garden design for children is to create small watercourses and water features in the garden. These are particularly popular with children from kindergarten age. It is important that the water is not too deep, as in a pond, because that would be a source of danger for children. Completely shallow waterholes, on the other hand, are relatively harmless and offer numerous opportunities for children to keep them occupied.
Alternatively, you can also install a swing pump, a child-friendly water connection or a closed rain barrel with a tap in the garden so that the children can help themselves and prepare the most beautiful mud for themselves in the sandpit, for example. Building spill castles, sifting through mud in search of "gold" – there are no limits to the possibilities.
But what can older children do with water in the garden? For older children, a pond can also be created. If the pond is planned correctly, even fish can be introduced or perhaps even frogs and water striders move in or dragonflies are attracted. A pond can serve as a wonderful starting point for animal observation and awaken your children's urge to explore.
3. Hiding places stimulate the imagination
Children love to hide. Then they have the feeling that they are gaining the upper hand, at least somewhat. Densely growing plants and bushes can serve as natural hiding places, in the protection of which children can explore secret passages, tunnels and caves.
Another option for an exciting hiding place is to build a willow tepee from flexible willow rods. In spring, simply stick 2-4 m long and 2-3 cm thick sturdy willow rods about 30-50 cm deep into the ground so that they touch each other at the upper end, and numerous flexible rods are looped around crosswise. The willow house is ready, which invites you to numerous adventures. If the willow tepee is created together with the children, it is an exciting project in the garden that older children will also enjoy.
Alternatively, self-built tree houses or stilt houses also offer a good hiding place for children - and also a great starting point for imaginative games - whether pirate ship, princess castle or home of father, mother and child. For a tree house, a healthy tree with a stable stand, such as oak, lime, maple or hornbeam, with spreading, stable branches is needed in a suitable place. If there is no suitable tree, a stilt house is a possible alternative.
If you prefer it down-to-earth, you can also build a wooden children's house or convert a garden house into a children's house. The garden house can then serve as a playhouse in summer and as a shelter for garden furniture and potted plants in winter. In this way, young and old alike benefit from it.
4. Climbing, swinging and balancing train motor skills
Children love to move and test their limits. Embankments and hills therefore encourage you to try out your physical skills and train your motor skills at the same time. If it doesn't work the first time, further attempts will follow until it finally succeeds. How proud the children look is priceless.
A climbing hill is quickly created in a playground for children, for which about 15 m³ of excavated material is enough. A climbing rope is then simply attached to the summit, and the way down is quickly made via a slide. A tree can also become a climbing paradise with a climbing rope or a rope ladder, or a swing can be attached to a strong branch to fly high into the air and enjoy the world from above. If there is no suitable tree, a climbing or swing frame is the best alternative.
To train children's motor skills by balancing, a lying tree trunk or a small garden wall is also an option. It is best to have soft lawn all around so that the children fall on soft ground if the worst comes to the worst.
5. Children's beds teach responsibility in a playful way
Horticulture is very popular with children. Digging in the ground, sowing seeds, watering the bed, watching the first shoots – many children love to help out in the garden. For this purpose, it is best to create a special children's corner in the garden, where the children get their own bed. Here you should plant plants that grow as fast as possible so that the little ones see success quickly. For example, cress, radishes or sunflowers are recommended. The children can be responsible for their own bed - according to their age - for example by watering the plants themselves or pulling weeds. This can already be done at preschool or primary school age. In this way, even younger children learn to take responsibility in a playful way.
At the same time, you can teach the kids about growth, nutrition, and sustainability while guiding them in gardening and giving them tips. When the first flowers can be picked or radishes can be ducked in their own bed, pride is written all over the children's faces.
6. Play surfaces for ball games train dexterity
Instead of just filling the garden with attractions, you should also think about spacious green areas for ball games. Ball games such as football or badminton train dexterity and sportsmanship. To ensure that the lawn survives the bolt, you should use hard-wearing or play lawn mixtures, while ornamental lawn is unsuitable as a playing surface. Trees sometimes form a natural gate, but swing frames or climbing frames are also often used as goal posts. And if necessary, buckets and other playground equipment are also sufficient to mark the playing field. The main thing is that the lawn offers enough freedom of movement and there are as few glass windows as possible in the immediate vicinity ...
Safety in the garden – the right planning makes it possible
At home, children should feel safe and secure. This also applies when they play carefree in the garden. Even when designing the garden, you can do a lot to ensure the safety of the little ones when playing in the garden. If the family garden is planned safely, parents can also relax better.
Planning and designing family gardens
1. In order to plan the play garden in a child-friendly way, you should first create a scale measurement plan of your garden. All existing elements such as terrace, garden shed, trees, stairs, etc. should be drawn here.
2. Then you should put together a list of which play oases your garden should contain later on. In the case of older children, they can also be asked about their wishes.
3. Then you can distribute the elements on the free areas. It can be useful to take true-to-scale pictures of the individual elements (e.g. swing, sand bag, garden shed) and move them around on the plan to try out several possibilities.
4. When arranging it, make sure that safety is guaranteed. Climbing frames or tree houses, for example, should be surrounded by soft ground and not directly next to the terrace, where children can injure themselves if they fall down on the stone floor. Play facilities for smaller children are more likely to be close to the house, while older children require less supervision, etc.
Planning a garden for children in the long term
Sensible garden planning also depends on the age of the children. Small children need even more supervision and should accordingly get their play area near the terrace. Older children prefer to play in undisturbed garden corners, where they can experience their adventures in peace.
When planning your family garden, you should also think about the future. For example, a children's bed can later become a normal flower bed or the sandpit can give way to a swing frame, etc. Even after the conversion, the design must continue to be child-proof and the layout of the garden must be coherent.
Play it safe with plants and garden tools
If children are to play carefree in the garden and help with gardening for fun, various safety precautions should be taken:
· In a garden where children play, chemicals should be avoided as much as possible. Small children in particular like to put plants in their mouths or grab bottles of fertilizer or pesticides standing around.
· Some plants are also less harmless than they look. Before you choose plants for your garden, you should find out if they are really non-toxic.
· If the children help with the gardening, you should give them age-appropriate gardening tools with which they cannot injure themselves. Gardening tools for adults often have sharp tips and edges and only belong in larger children's hands under supervision.
Choosing recommended playground equipment for the garden
Playground equipment has a great attraction for children. However, playground equipment for a family garden should be chosen carefully:
· The material should be as durable as possible.
· The playground equipment should have a stable structure.
· The colors should be saliva-proof and child-proof.
· The playground equipment should be expandable so that the fun lasts for a long time.
For example, swings, climbing frames, sandpits and stilt houses have proven themselves for the playground. Wood is the material of choice because it is a renewable raw material and visually wooden playground equipment blends particularly harmoniously into a natural garden design. If you go up high, additional fall protection mats are recommended, which offer more safety in the event of a fall. When the children play safely and happily, the parents can relax wonderfully.
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FAQ
What promotes gardening in children?
When age-appropriate tasks are taken on in the garden, such as watering flowers, children learn to take responsibility and make decisions in a playful way while gardening. Where do we plant the flower bulbs? When do I water my flower bed today? Being able to bear responsibility just feels good.
In addition, their knowledge of nature is growing. What do plants need to grow? What happens if I don't water my flowers regularly? Do radishes grow underground like carrots or above ground like strawberries? Bit by bit, the children become little nature experts.
When the first radishes are harvested, it is a great sense of achievement for the children. Because it shows that they have taken good care of the garden. When gardening, however, children also learn to deal with failure, for example when a plant dries out because it has not been watered sufficiently. These are insights for life!
Why is gardening important for children?
Children in the city in particular get to see little of nature - except perhaps on excursions into the countryside or on vacation. That's why a garden is particularly valuable for children. Here they get to know the cycles of nature. You will experience first-hand how a seed becomes a fresh shoot and a beautiful flower or a useful plant grows from it.
One or the other question is also answered: Where do fruit and vegetables come from? Why is rain so important for plants? Just watching their parents gardening as a spectator quickly gets boring for children. Gardening for children, on the other hand, ensures that the little ones feel needed and soak up the knowledge like a sponge. This not only promotes joie de vivre, but also self-confidence.
What does a child need in the garden?
Children need one thing above all else in the garden: variety! That's why a child-friendly garden not only includes a variety of play opportunities for climbing and romping, but also the chance for child-friendly gardening.
Accordingly, on the one hand, there are interesting play areas with sandpits, climbing areas, hiding places, swings, slides, water points, etc. This encourages the children to go on new adventures and playfully trains their sense of balance, motor skills and dexterity at the same time.
On the other hand, a children's bed is also recommended, where the children can familiarize themselves with nature on their own and learn to take responsibility. One thing is certain: watering flowers and harvesting berries is always very popular with young children.
How do you make gardening for children age-appropriate?
Even very young children can be involved in gardening in a playful way. As soon as children can walk, they are interested in their environment, want to watch and get involved. However, caution is still required here, at this age people still like to put everything in their mouths. This is still okay with blueberries, but not with beetles or soil.
From the age of 2, children can be involved in gardening in a playful way. You can show them how to sow seeds, water flowers, or harvest fruit. Equipped with a small watering can, a toddler feels like a superhero.
From kindergarten age, you can slowly introduce the children to taking responsibility themselves. It is helpful to have your own children's bed, where the children can work as they please. For example, kindergarten children can dig a small planting hole themselves, plant flowers, water the bed and harvest the fruits or vegetables.
From preschool age, children can take on more and more tasks in gardening. Now they can also explain to the children, for example, why they should remove weeds from their beds - and how to distinguish weeds from their own plants. At this age, children can also take responsibility for watering themselves, for example with a children's bed or a container plant. Since children are impatient, fast-growing and robust plants are recommended, which can sometimes cope with too much or too little water.
The older the children get, the more they can be involved in normal gardening. Strong boys and girls carry away fallen branches, help weed in the strawberry patch or like to take over the cheerful watering with the garden hose in summer weather.
But what is there to do in the garden for older children? Unfortunately, in the teenage years, the desire for gardening is often somewhat lost. Sometimes, larger projects can still lure a teenager into the garden, such as creating a pond or growing special plants. Gardening together often results in better conversations than at the lunch table.
What do the children learn in the garden?
Gardening appeals to all the senses in children: the children see how the plants grow and the garden changes during the seasons. They feel the earth between their fingers and the grass under their feet. You can smell the scent of the flowers and the freshly mown grass. You can taste the slight spiciness of the radishes and the sweetness of the strawberries. They hear the rustling that the wind creates in the treetops and the buzzing of the bees. There is hardly any other place where children's senses are trained as much as in the garden. From a practical point of view, children also learn a lot about the seasons, the insects, the plants and the cycles of nature in the garden. By actively participating in the garden, they can understand many connections better than if they only learn them from books. Just give it a try!