Have you noticed how quickly young children learn all the gadgets that fall into their hands? A two-year-old baby will figure it out with a remote control or a phone, and by the age of three they can handle tablets. Just a doll or just a machine is an ancient age. Children like mobiles that can move around, talk, sing, or give out music. And if you bring such a child prodigy to the country house and put him in a regular sandbox, he will either pull you in to establish at least some kind of game, or he will leave after about 10 minutes in search of more interesting things. We chose the most creative ideas for the playground, which will help to occupy the child for at least half an hour, so that adults can safely drink coffee or work in the garden.
Games alone: what to do with one baby?
All the ideas that we will talk about below are designed for children from 2 years old. Up to this age, you can’t leave the baby alone even for 5 minutes, because a sense of danger has not yet been developed in it, and any pebble, step or decorative fence can cause injury.
The basic attributes of the playground (sandbox, playhouse, swing) were written in separate articles, but now we will focus on more unusual, but not too complicated elements. Let's start with ideas designed for the games of one child, because in modern families, unfortunately, this phenomenon occurs much more often than 30 years ago.
"Easel for painting": keep the walls of the house intact
The craving for drawing in children is almost instinctive. A poorly lying pen or felt-tip pen immediately appears in the hands of a young artist to decorate the house in those places where the parents did not even plan. Forbid this occupation to a 2-3-year-old tomboy - what to beat against a wall with peas. But you can muffle desire if you create a kind of easel on the playground. Better your Malevich comes off on the street than slyly draws on the walls.
To create an easel, you need a wooden stable frame (as with portable blackboards) and the material on which the child will draw. The easiest way is to make it out of a piece of tin, paint it in dark color and supply the baby with colored crayons. You can also use black self-adhesive film. She perfectly draws white chalk. But there is a small danger: kids love to nibble crayons, so such an easel is best done for children from 4 years old.
The second option is to install plexiglass in the frame, on which the child can draw with watercolor paints. True, tune in that you have to wash both the board and the artist. But, again, this easel is designed for children from 4 years old.
And for the smallest, we recommend nailing a huge canvas from fabric-raincoat fabric or dermatin on the wall of the house (always in dark colors!). Buy your baby the thickest brush and teach to dip in a basin of water, and then draw on a kind of poster. If you do not want to use the walls of the house, take two pieces of thick plywood, cover the outside with a cloth and connect the corners for furniture on one side to put an easel in the form of a house. The kid will be able to draw on both sides.
An old marker can also act as a device for drawing. Take out the core, fill the casing with water, and first write out the water pen somewhere on the old newspaper so that any paint remains. When she begins to draw only with water, give it to the child. Let it do.
Water Stand: Develops Hand Coordination
Every kid loves splashing in the water. But you can’t leave him alone in the pool or even in a basin of water. To keep your baby busy for a while without really looking after him, create a water stand. It needs a base, like a wooden wall, a net of rowanberry, etc., to which you will fix containers of all kinds - bottles from juice and shampoos, plastic cans, cups, etc. In the bottles, the bottom is cut and attached to the stand upside down , and in traffic jams make several holes. The child will fill the water from above and watch it flow out in the rain. At the same time, coordination of movements will develop, because to get a jet of water inside the bottle, you need accuracy and a certain concentration.
Site Design Ideas for Multiple Children
If there are two or more children of a similar age in a family, for example, when all grandchildren come to see their grandmother, then they must be occupied so that there is no rivalry and accidental injuries. For example, a slide or a swing for several kids is a very dangerous projectile. In the desire to sit there first, each child will push others, and the case may end in general crying. Therefore, embody such ideas of playgrounds in the country, which involve joint games.
Corner for boys: create a car town
Almost every little boy of a kindergarten age has radio-controlled cars today. And besides them - a bunch of robots, helicopters and other equipment that need to be used in the country. An interesting idea for a boy’s playground is a car town. He needs a flat, preferably elongated, platform divided into lanes (in order to arrange competitions, who will reach the finish faster). If there is no long pad, use the shape of a circle or oval.
The edges of the site can be closed with a decorative fence (very low so that children do not stumble when playing, but cars do not fly off the track). Near the track, make a flyover from well-sanded boards and a steep descent, on which young drivers can start their cars and watch them dive at a speed down.
Corner for girls: the idea of a secret room
If there are only girls in the family, you can realize the idea of a secret room for them on the playground, the design of which is quite simple. It is necessary to create in a secluded place, for example, under an old tree or under a balcony (if it is on the first floor) an enclosed space with the help of curtains. Girls love to whisper and play, hiding from everyone, but so as to see for themselves what is happening around.
Around the tree, the curtains are decorated as follows: they dig in four columns along the perimeter and pull on them a fishing line or wire. The fabric is hung on clothespins. Under the balcony it’s even easier: two nails are driven along the edge of the niche, a rope with hooks is pulled and tulle is placed on it. Inside, be sure to throw old blankets, pillows, so that there is where to sit, and put the box with your favorite toys.
Group fun for children of any gender
No matter how times have changed, but the game of hide and seek and Cossack robbers are still popular among children. These funs can change names, but the essence remains: someone is hiding, while someone is looking, or one runs away, and the second catches up. To organize such a collective game, you need the appropriate paraphernalia and decorations on the playground. To realize the idea you will need a black film, a wide adhesive tape and a lot of wooden stakes. From them it is easy to create a huge maze, inside which children can hide. The film is usually sold a meter and a half, and this height is enough so that the children do not see who is behind the adjacent wall.
Manufacturing technology:
- Mark a rectangular or square platform, the perimeter of which is calculated based on the number of children. For 2-3 children, 5x5 m is enough, if there are more of them, then the area is increased. The approximate location of the walls of the maze is in the photo above.
- On the outer wall of the labyrinth there are two exits, on the inner ones there are more.
- They fill the ground with river sand.
- They dig in pegs on which the film will be stretched. The distance between adjacent ones is no more than 2 meters so that the film does not sag.
- Pull the film on adjacent pegs so that its edge is wrapped around the support and pressed against the rest. Fasten with wide tape.
- You can decorate the film walls with different funny faces, cutting them out of a self-adhesive film. They are not afraid of rain, and the season will work properly.
If the films cannot be found, you can sew up the walls with old sheets, bedspreads or fabrics from the grandmother's chest, fixing them to the tree with a construction stapler.
We hope that these ideas will help you organize the rest of children in the country in an interesting and unusual way.