Remember that natural playground we started planning late last year? Inspired by the recent four part series on Ideas for adding natural elements to your outdoor play space over at Let the Children Play, I thought i'd share how our play space is progressing.
One of the most popular parts of the new play space has been the sand play wine barrel. We cut an old wine barrel into 1/3 and 2/3, using the 1/3 for the sand pit and the other 2/3 as a container for
loose parts. We added some shells for texture and a few pretty stones as treasure.
The sand pit really only fits one, but when there's more, they simply sit around the outside and lean in.
Our salvaged timber table and chairs are regularly used for tea parties, craft activities, and imaginative play.
I sometimes bring out an old umbrella. It's actually the very same umbrella I used to sit under when I wasn't much older than Little Eco.
We've used gravel in the play space. Due to the
lead contamination in our soil, we have to ensure that soil isn't exposed in any areas where children play (or chooks browse, or vegetables grow and so on). Given this play space is partly shaded and has high traffic, maintaining grass would have been hard. So we decided to use gravel instead.
Thankfully, we were able to source local gravel (Maitland Red) rather than buy something that was trucked half way across the country. That said, river gravel is not exactly a sustainable resource, with it's extraction potentially causing riverbed and bank erosion, loss of fish habitat, vegetation loss, and decreased water quality. Thankfully we have a policy in NSW that ensures (hopefully) that gravel extraction is only undertaken on a sustainable use basis.
We've planted a few plants within the gravel and added a few bits and pieces that inevitably end up being used in imaginative play, like banksia cones....
..a kangaroo skull....
...a very pre-loved Tonka truck and a few op-shop sourced ornaments.
And then we have the not-so-natural element of the play space - the trampoline. At least it's
Australian made.
Speaking of play spaces, the theme over at
Childhood 101 for July is 'House or Home.' I'll be sharing a few of our new indoor play spaces. If you have a wonderful family or kids space at your house (inside or out) that you would like to share, send photos and details to burnettmc [at] gmail [dot] com.
And don't forget to enter the
Biome Giveaway if you haven't already. Entries close at midnight on Monday (4th July).
